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Posted by: The Uncreator Dec 2 2008, 09:55 PM

Yeah, So today my boss gathered all of the employees and told us that since there is virtually no work left for us to do at the moment, We might have to take a few days off in the following weeks. Well for me I just got a phone call saying that I HAD to take wednesday and thursday off, so there is like $150-$175 I wont be seeing, Even worse. I got a $450 bill from my car insurance company, and a $230 bill for my last surgery for kidney stones, All that need to be paid, And I have about $300 in my bank......


Anyone else dealing with this kinda crap? Man it just sucks, I needed to complain to someone.

Posted by: Guitarman700 Dec 2 2008, 10:01 PM

Sigh. Yeah, we might lose our house if we cant make some money here. this is what happens when you put retards like Henry paulson in charge of the economy. Hang in there!

Posted by: Fran Dec 2 2008, 10:05 PM

Sad thing is that common people are the ones who have to pay for the sins of a few in Wall Street and other places like that around the globe... why don't they take the money from them in the first place?... Oh well...

Posted by: Bondy Dec 2 2008, 10:08 PM

Damm that's bad news guys, I'm starting to get into a bit of trouble myself My business is not doing to well ATM praying it will pick up soon fingers crossed.

Posted by: OrganisedConfusion Dec 2 2008, 10:13 PM

I'm not doing so bad currently fingers crossed. I have no savings though so if things do go bad I'm a bit screwed.

Posted by: Jose Mena Dec 2 2008, 10:17 PM

Man, I hear you, I hope this doesn't get worse

Posted by: Fsgdjv Dec 3 2008, 01:59 AM

I'm half Icelandic and had a lot of my money on an Icelandic bank.

Do I need to say anything more?

Posted by: FrankW Dec 3 2008, 02:10 AM

I'm very sorry to hear about your problems Uncreator and Guitarman700. I have been affected by the slow economy also. I lost my job of 22 years in May of 2006, and still haven't found steady work. I already lost my house and one of my cars. I'm trying to hang on to my Harley, but I may have to let that go too. The economy works in cycles, so it will get better. I just wish it would hurry the hell up! In the meantime, I find guitar playing to be therapeutic. Hang in there guys, it will get better someday.

Posted by: enforcer Dec 3 2008, 02:26 AM

Well it must be a catastrophe over there in USA, cos repercussions are felt far, as I live on the otherside of earth and our economy too toppled in Turkey. I think bad times are at the door. It is already hard to earn a living in Turkey, and as a professional working band member it is even harder. Maybe China is the safest spot to live in the world without the fear of economic crisis... On a second though scratch that, I would be happier anywhere else

hang in people, I hope it'll be allright someday

Posted by: Gerardo Siere Dec 3 2008, 10:13 AM

Sorry to hear that, here in Argentina that stuff happens like every 6 years, I was last year in Philadelphia and things were bad, I never thought that the situation would turn into what is today.

Posted by: OrganisedConfusion Dec 3 2008, 10:16 AM

I just found out that my pay day has been brought forward from December 30th to December 23rd. Woohoo. I get $3000 on the 23rd so I should be alright for Christmas. Good news at last

Posted by: Caelumamittendum Dec 3 2008, 10:16 AM

Am I the only one who does not feel affected by it in the whole wide world?

Posted by: Muris Varajic Dec 3 2008, 10:54 AM

Hard times coming...

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Dec 3 2008, 11:25 AM

This is why it is always good to keep some extra cash in the house if you need it mate. Not in a bank - in the house.

Posted by: enforcer Dec 3 2008, 12:52 PM

Now, I agree with Ivan and I take this to a second degree, I dont want to seem like a 500 years old minded wacko but if you'll keep your money at home and not invest it in economical mesures, I seriously suggest buying good old GOLD and keep it in a safe at home. Yeah not the best investiment for a short period but Gold is nearly always valuable...

Posted by: OrganisedConfusion Dec 3 2008, 01:06 PM

Or just always stay in the negative like me.

Posted by: Gilmore Dec 3 2008, 01:21 PM

I live in Iceland, and fortunatly I don´t have any money in the bank, but I have a loan that is skyrocketing every day. The company I work for had to lay off 40 people last week and lower some salerys about 10%. Thousands are loosing their jobs these days. The worst think is that nobody takes resposibility, all the largest banks in the country went bankrupt in the same week. It´s very depressing living here now, and I´ve given up on it, and thinking of moving somewhere else, and 1/3 of the country is thinking the same. We the puplic are paying for the "mistakes" of corrupted and greedy bankmanagers, investers and polititians. Thousands are facing loosing their homes, hard working people trying to build up their life over ther years has lost everything and can´t do anything about it. It´s very sad, and it´s getting worse every day. I´m thankful to still have my job I´ve had for the last 11 years, and I´ve had decent salery, but now it wont buy me much. Yesterday I went to musicstore to look at mbox2Pro, usually it costs about 600-700$ but now the price has jumped up to 1000$ and next week it might get even higher the salesperson says. The currency is of course ruined here, and it´s out of the question to buy anything from the internet, you would have to pay 3 times more for everything, because of the weak or ruined currency we have here. People are usually peaceful here but now protests and even riots are happening almost every day. People are angry, very very angry.

It´s good to have the guitar and the music in all this horror.

Posted by: OrganisedConfusion Dec 3 2008, 01:26 PM

Prices are going down in the uk. Its ace for the time being. Everything is cheaper to buy. Fortunately i do not have a mortgage so im not impacted on too heavily. I would hate to be a house owner right now.

Posted by: fatb0t Dec 3 2008, 02:29 PM

Gilmore that's very interesting, in the US I've heard very little coverage of the issues in Iceland. I've only heard bits and pieces about it. I really didn't know things were that bad.

Yeah I live in the US, I work for a school so I'm not hurting too bad... but as a whole this country and the whole world seems to be in a really bad spot. In the US, the tax payers are pumping billions of dollars into the auto industry and the banks.
When in capitalism is it okay to give hand outs to privatized industries? HEY MY DAD OWNS A SMALL BUSINESS AND HE'S NEARLY BANKRUPT CAN I HAVE 6.5 BILLION DOLLARS TOO? I PROMISE TO PAY IT BACK. It's all such a farce and I know some fat cat is making a killing while everyone else suffers for his greed.

Posted by: Pedja Simovic Dec 3 2008, 04:51 PM

Some very sad news from you guys. I am sorry to hear what some of you are going trough. Especially people who might loose house and have to move to leave elsewhere. That is probably the hardest thing for anyone right now...

I worked in Boston for almost 3 years (2 for berklee and 3 for pagemusiclessoncenter). At that time I figured out its not worth staying and living there in a long run. No matter how much money you earn you have to pay huge amount on RENT (if its not rent its morgage for houses that are over priced at least 5 times from their value!!!) and I don't want to even get into health care and taxes... So I kinda sensed something was very wrong in USA in that financial department and that it was bound to collapse sooner or later. I left in April 2008 and after that elections happen as well as financial brake down. So glad I left in time and there was nothing I lost in the whole process.

My advice is to seek out your options , perhaps try to find good job abroad - the real estate is cheaper and if you have good salary it will be very easy to get house/apartment car and everything you need in less time than in USA - thats for sure.

Also, internet seems to be the future for every business nowdays so I recommend finding some work there as it has really good potential to make it.

Hope that helps and again I feel bad for people that lost their jobs and are hit by these financial crisis.

Posted by: Darfuria Dec 3 2008, 05:15 PM

One of the benefits of working for a massive company I suppose. If you start at the bottom, you amount to practically nothing, but you can mostly guarantee employment security.

Posted by: Duncan Dec 3 2008, 05:22 PM

I'd say it's the complete opposite.

Posted by: fatb0t Dec 3 2008, 05:39 PM

If you're on the bottom you're completely disposable...

Posted by: Velvet Roger Dec 3 2008, 05:45 PM

I would say it really depends on the specific type of business, but in general I would much rather like to work in relatively small businesses instead of those large companies. Years ago, it was definitely the case that you had employment security when you were working in those big multinational firms. However, regardless of the current credit crisis, this absolutely changed over the last years. Basically, the economy is currently in general more and more driven by 'niche-like' specialised companies instead of mega-mega companies.

As an example, I am working in a small firm (being a shareholder) of about 30 ppl in the pharmaceutical industry, and luckily we are not that largely affected as many other types of business at the moment (and the impact on the pharma industry will be less anyways, due to the different way many companies are financed etc.). However, if you look at the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world, they are currently dramatically suffering, resulting in massive unemployment rather soonish.

Of course financing a small company may certainly a potential bigger problem than comparing it with large companies, however remember that smaller companies definitely are more flexible in adapting their strategy, short-term targets etc than the bigger ones. The overhead costs for those big companies are extremely high (which you can't get rid of in a couple of months) in times of problems.

Anyways, sorry for this business-wise talking, can't just help it as I am in the middle of it all day

Posted by: Nemanja Filipovic Dec 4 2008, 10:10 AM

Yep,economy sucks at the moment.They say they are going 'freez paychecks"here.Meaning,prices will go up,but our national value will be weaker in relation to Euro.

Posted by: fatb0t Dec 4 2008, 02:07 PM

Well I think I figured out a solution for our economic troubles. We will form on a pacific island The GMC Republic, form our own currency of picks of varying density, and all work in guitar shops. hahahah

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Dec 5 2008, 01:34 PM

Well, mortgage rates are down, and I am about to refinance - looks like I stand to save perhaps $500 a month, with a break even time of 2-3 months on the fees, so its not all bad, even in the USA. Oh, and Gas is down from $4.50 a gallon to $1.77, and experts are predicting it will drop to $1 by the beginning of the year.

So, look on the bright side!

Posted by: fatb0t Dec 5 2008, 01:49 PM

Yeah, I must say living in the USA - My credit card bill has be halved because of the severe drop in gas prices...

Posted by: kaznie_NL Dec 5 2008, 02:44 PM

You shouldn't buy al those expensive guitars

Posted by: Fsgdjv Dec 5 2008, 11:03 PM

Somehow, I think a good guitar will always be worth soemthing, but you can never be sure about money.

Posted by: rockztar Dec 5 2008, 11:04 PM

that really suck, we are lucking denmark there isn´t so much economi crisis

Posted by: Canis Dec 5 2008, 11:35 PM

Food: $20. Gas: $2. The feeling you get when you sit down with your guitar: Priceless!


I doubt we'll see much of the economy problems here in Norway, since mortage is going down together with most other prices...
Of course, bad luck regarding blewn tires, health problems for my parents which cost a good amount of money and christmas coming up... I can't say I'm rich at the moment

Not much compared to the other ones in here who have bills to pay and might loose their houses, though.. Best of luck to you!

Posted by: inertia Dec 6 2008, 12:31 AM

What has happened with your country IS sad, you guys actually had a pretty decent economy, it sucks that a few greedy suits have that much power and the rest of the public has to pay for it...

Posted by: FrankW Dec 6 2008, 12:37 AM

That's all true, but none of that matters if I'm not working as a result of the bad economy. I couldn't buy a house with 0% financing if I'm broke and out of work...which I am. The cost of things isn't so much the problem as is the inability to afford them at all...glad about your refinance situation, though.

Posted by: lcsdds Dec 6 2008, 12:41 AM

The economy is brutal right now and I am afraid it is only going to get much much worse!! I don't think any industry or job is safe. The bankers of the world have destroyed everything.

Posted by: MickeM Dec 6 2008, 01:08 AM

We're learning new lessons all the time. Crash after crash, if it isn't the stock market now it's cheap house loans. They got one thing in common though, when greed blows sense away one had better watch out and be carful. A bubble will always burst.

Posted by: JCJXXL Dec 6 2008, 03:29 AM

Sorry to hear of everyone's misfortunes. It's tough. I know several people in similar situations. I feel very lucky and blessed. I live in the USA and live in one of the states least affected by the current problems with our economy. Our gas as of today is $1.47. The lowest I've seen so far is $1.43 a few weeks ago. I'm self employed (with a handful of employees) and lucky for us our business is one that other businesses need in order to stay in business. That's alot of use of the word "business" eh? LOL. Anyway, I wish each and everyone of you well. Things will get better. They usually do. It's really just a question of how long we are forced to hang in there and if some of us can hang in that long.

Posted by: bladzerok Dec 6 2008, 04:27 AM

it would be pretty awesome.
i would never have any problems running out of pick and/or spare change, since both would be the same


but seriously, i am really sorry to hear that so many people are having those kind of problems.its pretty frustrating

Posted by: kahall Dec 6 2008, 06:09 AM

Way to go Andrew. I refuse to participate in the media driven recession as well. Sure, I lost some money but I will get it back. It's easy to earn money here. BTW, Gas here is $1.55 per gal and it was at $1.49 for a few days last week.

Posted by: tommyboy Dec 6 2008, 03:48 PM

Now, if this isn't a depressing thread. I own a small custom home building business. The housing market here in the US is just horrible right now. The banks just aren't loaning people money right now.

I'm hoping I can make it with remodel jobs etc. to stay afloat but the phone has just stopped ringing. That's the bad thing. When the phones not ringing that means people aren't spending money on housing. Hopefully, things will right themselves soon!

Good luck to all,
tommyboy