The Richmond Federal Reserve bank’s President says that the economy has hit bottom and will start bouncing back later this year. Jeffery Lacker told state legislators that he was starting to see improved consumer spending and that existing home sales might just have a pulse after all. From the AP story: “If the emerging stability… Read more »
economy
Area sales still slipping
Local spending is still in the doldrums, down about 6.4% in the first quarter compared with the same time a year ago. But some sectors of the consumer economy are seeing a sales increase, and a few others are showing signs of improvement.
Sandston shops mourn Qimonda
Sandston, the small Henrico village near the airport, isn’t exactly a company town. But the thousands of employees at Qimonda helped support a handful of locally-owned shops and eateries. One of the first customers at Lizzy Peas Express was a Qimonda worker, according to manager Ollie Taylor (pictured above). “She went back and told other… Read more »
“Perfect Storm” watch
Memo to everyone, please stop using the expression “Perfect Storm.” It’s not only a cheap attempt at trying to make something sound more important, but it’s also misleading. It insinuates that a given event or consequence was a confluence of factors that nobody could have predicted. And more insidiously, it displaces blame from people who… Read more »
Fasten your safety belt for more bumps, economist says
Economist Chris Varvares looked into a crystal ball yesterday and saw a stormy few quarters in our future. Varvares, who is president of Macroeconomic Advisors, told business leaders at a lunch event held by the Richmond Association of Business Economics that we are in a recession that will continue for at least the next two… Read more »
The recession special
Local advertisers, it seems, don’t want to remind us of the lousy economy. But national advertisers are rolling out more and more ads that address the country’s current economic situation, sometimes opting for a humorous tack. A Denny’s ad asks “Who’s gonna bail you out?” to advertise a $4 breakfast special. Crate & Barrel magazine… Read more »
If it ain’t broke, don’t touch it!
In 16 years of working on cars, Ronnie Bowen has never seen it so slow. Or seen so many motorists opt for the bare minimum to keep their cars on the roads. “The economy is so bad, people are not even doing preventative repairs. They’re fixing what has to be fixed so they can still… Read more »
Iceland has it worse
As bad as things are starting to get here, Iceland has it worse. The small country’s government took over its major banks, and the currency has all but stopped trading internationally. In this fascinating post , a blogger from the Island nation says that, “It’s like we know the system is broken, we know it’s… Read more »
What’s happening to lending: a Q&A with the CEO of First Market Bank
Banks, like humans, fear the unknown. If they can’t assess the value of an asset, say a 10-acre piece of dirt in Henrico County, they don’t want to touch it with a 10-foot pole. And if they don’t trust each other, they won’t lend overnight, which is part of the grease that keeps the financial… Read more »
The bottom?
Is the failure of Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch the Bottom? Robert Bruner, the dean of the business school at UVA, says the odds are 50-50 in a story just posted on the NY Times website. “What we have seen in all previous crises is that the bottom is marked by the collapse or rescue… Read more »