Ahira's Hangar

I read that the two Houses are trying to hit some compromise between an $819 billion and $827 billion stimulus package. That's a pretty insane amount of money - but then it's an insane crisis the U.S. (and everyone else) is in. Experts here are forecasting that Canada's economy will really get hit in 2009, after resisting much of the craziness going on elsewhere last year. I'll have to wait and see what that means for the average person (like me). I also heard ominous predictions that Britain's economy will suffer the worst in '09; they're saying Britain could be the next Iceland.

Third week in a row where over 600,000 people were laid off in the US alone. Over five million people are now pulling unemployment benefits, as things look increasingly shaky for one of the world's biggest banks in Citi. Something unheard of - tent cities springing up for the unemployed in the city parks in Tokyo in Japan according to CNN the other day.

Last week when my husband and I drove to downtown Detroit for the hockey game - it was between 1700 and 1730 (we wanted to get there early to eat dinner before the game) near downtown in one of America's largest cities on a major interstate freeway on a weeknight - and there was no traffic jam. There was a bit of a slow down where three freeways came together, and that was it.

And that really spooked us. Good God, that freeway should have been bumper to bumper and moving at a very slow rate of speed.

Shows you how many tens of thousands of people are out of work in one city alone.

This article goes a long way in explaining the insanity and greed that has led to so many world wide financial problems.

"Iceland's not a country, it's a hedge fund." Funny and very scary at the same time. But it was basically one investor/multi-billionaire who destroyed the economy, right? At the Watch I joked that Magnus Scherving (the guy who produces the NicJr show Lazy Town and stars as the gymnast/hero Sporticus) may now be the most solvent person in Iceland and Syl mentioned Björk. Iceland's a really weird country-I watch a black comedy made their a few years back, it was really good, but weir-erd, I'll see if I can find the title.

Edit: found it-The Sea

Sign of the times: our local newspaper, the Ann Arbor News, will be closing up shop in July. It had been in business for over a hundred years. The two big Detroit dailies, the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press had already cut their deliveries from 7 days a week to a few days a week, and both might go under as well.

Like most people, I get most of my news from the internet these days - but on Sundays, there is nothing like sitting down and reading and holding and enjoying a real newspaper in your hands after breakfast to relax.

An experience my grandchildren (if I have any) will probably never get to experience.

The Washington Post has recently slimmed down its Sunday paper. They did away with Sunday Source (which I thought was a ridiculous concept from the get-go ) a few months back. Then a few weeks ago, they moved a bunch of other stuff around, rolled a couple of classified sections together, and did away with the separate Book World section. Now it takes me only a couple of hours to read the Sunday paper. Which I guess is a good thing, in a way. But I miss the old marathon. Yesterday, when I finished the paper, I was going, "That's it?"

The Rocky Mountain News went belly-up a couple of weeks ago, after something like 150 years of daily editions. And the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is now going to be online-only.

There's been a fair amount of hand-wringing in journalism circles over this. Some blame the newspapers themselves for sticking by a 19th-century technology, saying they should have transitioned to a subscription-based web format years ago, because now people are used to getting their news for free online.

I saw a story in my J-school alumni mag saying that even students in so-called print journalism today should expect to have to shoot video for their paper's website. That's not very far afield from the "one-man band" setups that small-market TV stations have used since the dawn of the vacuum tube. Everything old is new again.

I keep thinking that with my broadcasting background, I'm now perfectly positioned to get a job in newspapering.

It's a bit startling to hear about such notable newspapers in financial trouble. But I'm wondering if the global recession is the cause, or if it's just a sign of the furthering decline of the newspaper as a popular carrier of news in today's culture. Like you said, aliantha, maybe it's a case of newspapers being out of step with technology and paying the price.

I admit, I was never a regular newspaper reader myself, except for Saturday's Winnipeg Free Press - and that was really only for the funnies and the giant-sized crossword puzzle. And all that was back in the 80's. However, thinking about it has made me suddenly quite nostalgic. I ought to do get back into the weekend crossword habit before newspapers disappear altogether...

I receive the vast majority of my news from television. Sure, today I can Google the news online in a pinch, but there's something to be said for having a personable news anchor to listen to.

It is the little things that bring the Great Recession home. Here in Michigan we have had around a 15% jobless rate for well over a year now.

Last night I had to run my younger son into Saline (a primary suburb of Ann Arbor) to go to the chiropractor and the grocery store.

We were there in what should have been rush hour, and in past years Michigan Avenue (US12) is bumper to bumper traffic and pretty much impossible to make left hand turns.

Last night, just a little trickle of cars.

So many people still out of work...

It's coming back, slowly, judging by the number of Watchers who are getting hired again. But Michigan has such a long way to go. I feel for you guys, Duchess.