The Real State of the US Economy (this is really sad)

[DainBramaged]

Ann Taylor closing 117 stores nationwide.

Eddie Bauer to close more stores after closing 27 stores in the first quarter.

Cache, a women’s retailer is closing 20 to 23 stores this year.

Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, Catherines closing 150 stores nationwide

Talbots, J. Jill closing stores. Talbots will close all 78 of its kids and men's stores plus another 22 underperforming stores. The 22 stores will be a mix of Talbots women's and J. Jill.

Gap Inc. closing 85 stores

Foot Locker to close 140 stores

Wickes Furniture is going out of business and closing all of its stores. The 37-year-old retailer that targets middle-income customers, filed for bankruptcy protection last month.

Levitz - the furniture retailer, announced it was going out of business and closing all 76 of its stores in December. The retailer dates back to 1910.

Zales, Piercing Pagoda plans to close 82 stores by July 31 followed by closing another 23 underperforming stores.

Disney Store owner has the right to close 98 stores.

Home Depot store closings 15 of them amid a slumping US economy and housing market. The move will affect 1,300 employees. It is the first time the world's largest home improvement store chain has ever closed a flagship store.

CompUSA (CLOSED).

Macy's - 9 stores closed

Movie Gallery – video rental company plans to close 400 of 3,500 Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video stores in addition to the 520 locations the video rental chain closed last fall as part of bankruptcy.

Pacific Sunwear - 153 Demo stores closing

Pep Boys - 33 stores of auto parts supplier closing

Sprint Nextel - 125 retail locations to close with 4,000 employees following 5,000 layoffs last year.

J. C. Penney, Lowe's and Office Depot are all scaling back

Ethan Allen Interiors: plans to close 12 of 300 stores to cut costs.

Wilsons the Leather Experts – closing 158 stores

Bombay Company: to close all 384 U.S.-based Bombay Company stores.

KB Toys closing 356 stores around the United States as part of its bankruptcy reorganization.

Dillard's Inc. will close another six stores this year


Little known is the fact that the Labor Department also publishes six different unemployment statistics from U1, U2 through to U6 being the most comprehensive. The reported "official unemployment" is the very narrowly defined U3 which stands at 5.5%. However, as Williams notes, U6 is the real measure and that officially shows 9.7% unemployed. His calculations put the figure at 13.7% actually unemployed and seeking work.



http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=ENG20080802&articleId=9728

[cliffordu]

1. Thanks for posting this. I have a real bad feeling about the next 20 years.

[DainBramaged]

2. I have a real bad feeling about the next 20 days

[Taverner]

3. This will work cyclically

[DainBramaged]

4. Yes, some contraction is necessary, but the number of people

affected by this is staggering.

[FreakinDJ]

17. Add in the Auto Industry, Airlines, Home Builders

"And We've only just begun"

[babylonsister]

5. Rec'd. And that's retail; restaurants are going under, too. nt

[carp]

6. Not to be a contrarian, but where is the list of the stores that opened or expanded? NT

[Demeter]

7. Dream On, Buddy

Halliburton Doesn't need bricks and mortar stores.

[DainBramaged]

8. That's over at Free Republic

<crickets>

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[babylonsister]

16. See post #14. It's a new chain to Houston AFAIK, so can't remember

the name, but I'll get back to you on that.

[Raster]

11. "not to be a contrarian"

:rofl:

[babylonsister]

14. Probably not a long list, but you're right. It has happened, and I've

seen it a few blocks away. A new grocery store is in the process of opening in a grocery store that closed about a year ago.

[Wednesdays]

18. Hey, if YOU ever come across such a list, please let us know.

I'm all ears.

[AdHocSolver]

10. This would not be happening if most goods sold in the U.S. were MANUFACTURED in the U.S.

It appears that all of the companies listed in the store closings are retail outlets. I have no doubt that most of their merchandise is made overseas.

If those companies could open stores in China, as Wal-Mart has done, they would have customers, and could afford to stay in business. However, by choosing to import their merchandise, rather than buy from manufacturers who actually hire Americans to do their work, they have no Americans with enough money to buy what they stock their stores with.

That the collapse of the economy was inevitable with the offshoring of so many jobs was obvious a long time ago. The advantage that one company obtains from ousourcing becomes a recipe for collapse when everybody outsources.

The mechanisms that brought about this economic collapse are the cartel agreements such as NAFTA, the WTO, the World Bank, the IMF, and many others. These agreements have to be rescinded or, at least, rewritten in order to provide a level playing field, so that those American companies that want to manufacture in the U.S. can do so competitively.

There is NO "free trade". We have NO "free markets". All of our manufacturing is contolled by corporate cartels through NAFTA, the WTO, and similar mechanisms.

By importing just about every good sold in this country, the U.S. has generated an enormous trade deficit and debt load. This is an important reason for the rapid inflation we are experiencing, as the value of the dollar drops precipitously in world markets.

The corporate geniuses will claim that devaluation of the dollar is "good" because now foreigners will want to buy more goods from us when the dollar is "cheaper". However, what could they possibly want to buy from us that they can't buy locally just as cheaply? (Oh, yes. I just remembered. Bush is going to sell the latest U.S. weaponry to our "friends" in Saudi Arabia. You know. the guys that masterminded "9/11".)

The corporate "geniuses" (thieves) who devised this scheme are now selling off American assets to foreigners to save their own ill-gotten gains.

[DainBramaged]

20. You took the words right off of my keyboard

[petgoat]

12. But look at the upside! All that empty retail space will be available for conversion

to homeless shelters!

[The Doctor.]

13. Any opening up?

I mean, looking at both sides of the ledger should be a bit less depressing.

[mckara]

15. Thanks for the Article

Very Interesting!

[windoe]

19. This country will need a national worker program to fix the infrastructure

from the ground up, which can be handled in a beneficial way, or a really abusive and fascist way. Recently I had the insight that our country collectively is being broken down in order to create a need to build back up. HOW we build back up will require our collective voices and solidarity in order to assure these national programs act in OUR best interests and not the corporations!! Watch out people.