A fine point, but valid.

I believe you should change the attribution to Bernanke. He was not the head of the Federal Reserve in 2002. Just sayin’….

Well, moving to OC from LA (working in Beverly Hills previously) increased my salary 30% even though I went from a Director to a Manager. I’d say OC pays better. No, I don’t work in Financial Services.

Of course, living costs went up 40% too…

There is some suffering going on in OC and there will be more to come. They do suffer kind of pretty though.

I’m more worried about all of the social unrest all of this apparent wealth disparity will create. When people can no longer provide healthcare or basic necessities in close proximity to a place like Orange County, how desperate will they become, and at what point do they have political aspirations?

There are surely many people who struggle. Remember, Mr. Schicklgruber wrote a well-known book titled “My Struggle”. There were lots of scapegoats back then; at least as many as now.

Yeah, Chuck, just like that sparkling line in the far offing the guys at the beach in Aceh saw one Boxing Day morning. But they had to wait only about 20 minutes.

You’re generation’s own F. Scott Fitzgerald was likely drinking coffee off to the side taking mental notes on that same car and driver. This decade’s gonna produce some really rockin’ books.

Perhaps that is the way that it is happening in your neck of the woods, but as far as I can tell (and in the circles I run in), the recession has been a mirage, something off in the distance that you neither feel or exists for you in any reality. It is only something you see that someone else experiences. Most here in Orange County see this is ephemeral.

I, personally, have been saving my whole life, since I was a child, a trait ingrained into me by being part of a family with 7 kids in rural midwest. I seem to much of the locals as quaint as a buggy whip. Personally, I don’t see this ever becoming an american fashion. Lest you think I’m wrong, just turn on any non-financial news media channel. Papparazi, glamour, big cars, mansions, etc. The other day at our club, I saw a brand new Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé just being dropped off by some botoxed blondie. Real estate here is also alive and well. It just shifted from the bottom feeders of the get-rich-quick schemers back to the listing whales. A shitload of money is being made here in shuffling a house from one “investor” to another “investor”. Virtually none of the houses here are being bought by owner-occupieds.

It is the classic, rich get richer story… or so they think. These grasshoppers have never had a winter, and the ants toiling under them are breaking. Many, many of our contemporaries (mid 30′s) have or are leaving California altogether. The jobs environment sucks for everyone except for the occasional lottery winner with a meal ticket from Daddy, and the local business environment is infected with no-nothings with deep pockets and the ability to burn through years of losses.

Point of example: a friend of my wife’s has bled her husband of nearly $500K trying to get a “baby boutique” up and running for 3 years straight… you know with ruffled doily-lined cribs selling for $5,000 and bejeweled pacifiers for $50. And, there’s plenty more where that comes from… he sees it as a way to “keep the wife busy” and away from the pool boy in between botox, lipo, and breast jobs. How should free enterprise work in that kind of an environment when so many are so willing to make bad financial decisions for little benefit.

Oh, well, just venting… but yes, if this new frugality ever catches on, it will be death to the entire Baby Boomer cohort.

Chuck Ponzi

A few years ago it seemed that everyone I knew had grand plans for nice vacations and fixing up the house. Now it seems that downsizing and simplifying are the trends.

The current economic situation has been labeled “a crisis of confidence” in government circles and there is a constant stream of happy talk to try and re-instill confidence.

Even if you managed to convince Baby Boomers that the economy has turned, everyone is looking at their personal situation and deciding to keep things simple.

Specific actions create specific results.