It's Morning in Manhattan

I agree. Life is good.

ugh, if I wanted sugar in my coffee I would have asked for it.

Thank you village idiot....we need more like you.
Buh humbug to east-cider.

I agree! Sometimes "it takes a village idiot"!! :-)

True,true, life is good we all have enough. However one mustn t over look New york is unique from the rest of the country as we are very diversified in our influx of people.We have a powerful local economy...for gosh sake we have the financial district, the diamond district, the garment district, many universities and tourism.We have it all. America has become virtually a service economy.We send all our manufacturing overseas. I think manufacturing is equated with strenth. I think we should takeback some manufacturing even if the govt subsidizes it. The housing industry is not enough. America is like one body and if one part is hurting eventually it affect the whole body. I think middle America has got to take back manufacturing. Automobiles,steel, clothing. I also believe this is why are dollar is so devalued. We only have service and housing going on over here...I.B.

"I think we should takeback some manufacturing even if the govt subsidizes it."

Ayn Rand is rolling over in her grave right now. IAB, have a look at industries that are, or have been highly subsidized in the past. What you gain in jobs / stability you lose in growth, innovation, and competition. What motivates a company to get better if they have handouts from the government? Haven't we seen over the past 20 years that central planning is a horrible idea with drastic consequences? Who do you think is going to take textile manufacturing jobs should you bring them back?

Great plan...subsidize the manufacturing economy and kick out all the migrant workers while you're at it. In just a few years, you'll be able to sit back and enjoy your $12 pint of strawberries while sporting your white gym socks that cost $20 for a 3-pack.

Well Mr Juice and Cider you can think whatever you want did you know the agricultural industry is often subsidized. Lets reinvent this to a thinktank to getting industry back. If you dont you might have to get gym socks for 20 bucks.You are probably upscale people. Imagine Joe Shmo is sitting somewhere in the midwest wishing he had his manufacturing job back. Really guys what about steel in Bethleham Penn. and Ford in Ohio.

Joe Shmo can blame the labor unions and their decades of bullying American industry for his unfortunate situation. I hear Honda is hiring in Ohio. And some old steel mills in Lehigh Valley, PA are being converted to condos and lifestyle centers. So all is okay.

IAB, a job is not a right, it is a privilege. If you want to see what happens when governments protect Joe Shmo’s job for life, have a look at France. Try to fire a group of lazy, unproductive, overpaid workers in Beville and see how far you get. Remember the riots in the streets of Paris because of the Contrat première embauche? That was because the French government has made employment a right rather than a privilege. Not sure if you have noticed, but France has not been a bastion of economic growth and prosperity.

Your quest is a noble one IAB, but subsidizing jobs does more harm than good in the long run. Free markets have their ups and downs, but in the long run we will be continue to be ok, because we let markets be markets.

Well, the US has been a bastion of economic growth and prosperity, albeit much of it falsely fueled by credit excesses. And it's only been such a bastion for a very small, and increasingly small, percentage of people. Real wage growth for a very large portion of our country has been nonexistent to negative. Go America.

Tomorrow's job reports will be interesting, hopefully not too interesting!!

Will, who knows when and by how much they'll be revised. Tomorrow's job reports will be interesting, but later job reports may be much more so. Our government hasn't been particularly transparent in it's reporting recently. War, what war? Trillions, what trillions? Why is the US in such a deep, dank hole? Because it's deeply in debt due to the war (and it will continue to be in the future, with health care costs, pensions, etc., to those who served). Without the war, the US could've made a few calls and produced a huge amount of cash to cover this problem. Well, just like the public, they've spent too much. One has to wonder what the Bush clan thinks of little george.

Couldn't agree more, aboutready. One of the things that amazes me about our financial life is the major girations in the stock market in response to data points that wind up getting revised 3-4 weeks later and are often way off.

east_cider, the steel mills I know in the Lehigh Valley were all torn down. By the early 90s 10 full miles of Bethlehem Steel were already torn down. The rest happened not too long after. Now they are bringing in a casino, no joke. Bethlehem does have some new condos, but not on the site of the mill. There has been such overbuilding out there it's shocking. Drive along I78 and notice all the empty condos on the hills. I can't imagine there is that much more population out there now than say 6 years ago.

We looked out there for a country place, with the idea we would rent in the city. What I saw this summer was overpriced still by a good 20%, but cheap compared to nyc. I was seeing houses for 450k. In the end I thought, what the heck will I do out here?!