An economic analysis to start off your weekend

From NJ Spotlight:

ANALYSIS: NEW JERSEY’S ECONOMIC WOES GO FAR BEYOND CASINO CLOSINGS

While the United States is in the middle of a solid economic expansion that has restored all of the jobs lost during the Great Recession, New Jersey has regained just 55 percent of the private-sector jobs lost, and time may be running out for a “full metal jacket recovery,” a top Rutgers University economist warned yesterday.

In fact, the 122,300 jobs New Jersey has regained over the past 4 ½ years is actually more than the 77,500 jobs the state added during the anemic 2003-2007 recovery – a “lost decade” that demonstrates the underlying weakness of the state’s economy, James W. Hughes, dean of Rutgers Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, told an economic roundtable convened by Assembly Republican leaders.

There are actually 97,000 fewer New Jerseyans working today than there were at the beginning of 2001, and that’s just the beginning of the bad news:

New Jersey has been left out of the nation’s manufacturing rebound, lacks the energy resources that spurred a fracking boom in Pennsylvania, its slow population growth lowers consumer demand, and its business tax climate ranks near the bottom nationally.

New Jersey lacks the diversified R&D clusters that have lured the state’s high-end pharmaceutical jobs to equally high-cost, high-tax Massachusetts and California.

The quintessential suburban state, New Jersey is the poster child for “white elephant” suburban office parks that sit empty because today’s millennial workforce — the “digitali,” as Hughes dubbed them — wants to live and work in walkable 24/7 cities rather than the suburbs in which they grew up.

The threatened closure of three Atlantic City casinos by September would put 6,500 employees on the unemployment line and result in hundreds of layoffs in ancillary businesses,

Further, Hughes noted, “you could say we are living on borrowed time” because the state’s 61-month expansion since the official June 2009 end of the last recession is already longer than the average post-World War II economic expansion in New Jersey, which lasted an average of 58 months.

Hughes laughingly referred to himself as the “Doctor Kevorkian of the New Jersey economy,” while other business leaders call him “Doctor Doom,” noting that Gov. Chris Christie has permanently bestowed the “Doctor Kevorkian” moniker on David Rosen, the Office of Legislative Services budget analyst whose revenue forecasts so often differ from Christie’s rosy projections.

This entry was posted in Demographics, Economics, Employment, New Jersey Real Estate, Politics. Bookmark the permalink.

125 Responses to An economic analysis to start off your weekend

  1. grim says:

    Now you can start your day in hell

  2. grim says:

    Just saw the NY Post “Hipsters Surrender” front page, nearly pissed myself.

  3. Fast Eddie says:

    Corporate parks dead, no R&D, salaries flat; who is buying the 4/2 in the suburbs?

  4. anon (the good one) says:

    @BenedictEvans: I’m pretty sure no-one’s opinion on the world’s most contentious political issue has ever been changed by 140 characters.

  5. Toxic Crayons says:

    NJ’s cities are among the least desirable places to live too. In what city would a millennial hipster want to live in NJ? Maybe JC or Hoboken?…….maybe……… if you couldn’t afford that place in Manhattan or Brooklyn……..

    Would towns like Monclair or Red Bank fit the bill as a “walk-able community”? Even if you lived in a place like that you’d still couldn’t walk to work. At some point, especially if you worked in NJ, you’d have to drive.

    One backwards trend I’ve noticed in my own office is that younger people are living in Manhattan, then commuting to our office park in NJ. My company is trying…they currently lease space in an office park where the landlord provides shuttle service to and from the local train station. I don’t think too many people use it though. Plus I’m pretty sure that’s rare and our rent is astronomical….

  6. Jason says:

    (4) There, there anon, grab a box of tissues and get a hold of yourself.

  7. NJCoast says:

    My hipster kids and their peers are leaving Park Slope for the Hudson Valley. Cheaper land, cheaper taxes, small towns.

  8. 30 year realtor says:

    Had a required meeting with Wells Fargo Mortgage this week. Their renovation loan manager is meeting with all of their REO brokers. Word is that the property flow will be increasing substantially.

    It is going to be very interesting to see if they make any changes to their system. Currently brokers are capped at a maximum inventory level. Do they continue to bring on new wannabe REO agents or do they fatten up the inventory of their most competent agents? Do they streamline the repair program and find a way to reduce days in inventory?

    The much awaited influx of REO into the marketplace should be noticeable within the next 6 months and will continue to grow.

  9. Michael says:

    Telling you, this is only a short-term trend with this walkable city bs. People only want to live in the city when they are partying and have no family. As soon as they start their family, they head for the burbs. I know so many people like this. I’m 34, the only people i know that are still living in the city are people that didn’t start a family. Some are married, but they still haven’t started their families. The minute they start a family, they are out to the burbs. What’s so bad about the burbs?

    A 24 year old I met this week lives in Jersey City with his gf. He told me that he will be looking in places like wayne soon.

    Just my 2 cents.

    Toxic Crayons says:
    July 25, 2014 at 8:08 am
    NJ’s cities are among the least desirable places to live too. In what city would a millennial hipster want to live in NJ? Maybe JC or Hoboken?…….maybe……… if you couldn’t afford that place in Manhattan or Brooklyn……..

    Would towns like Monclair or Red Bank fit the bill as a “walk-able community”? Even if you lived in a place like that you’d still couldn’t walk to work. At some point, especially if you worked in NJ, you’d have to drive.

    One backwards trend I’ve noticed in my own office is that younger people are living in Manhattan, then commuting to our office park in NJ. My company is trying…they currently lease space in an office park where the landlord provides shuttle service to and from the local train station. I don’t think too many people use it though. Plus I’m pretty sure that’s rare and our rent is astronomical

  10. Toxic Crayons says:

    What about Commercial properties in NJ?

    Michael says:
    July 25, 2014 at 8:28 am
    Telling you, this is only a short-term trend with this walkable city bs. People only want to live in the city when they are partying and have no family. As soon as they start their family, they head for the burbs. I know so many people like this. I’m 34, the only people i know that are still living in the city are people that didn’t start a family. Some are married, but they still haven’t started their families. The minute they start a family, they are out to the burbs. What’s so bad about the burbs?

    A 24 year old I met this week lives in Jersey City with his gf. He told me that he will be looking in places like wayne soon.

    Just my 2 cents.

  11. grim says:

    My hipster kids and their peers are leaving Park Slope for the Hudson Valley. Cheaper land, cheaper taxes, small towns.

    Beacon, for sure.

  12. grim says:

    Hipsters wouldn’t move to Hoboken or JC, much more likely candidates would be Bloomfield or Bayonne.

  13. anon (the good one) says:

    @BBCBreaking: Death toll since start of operation in #Gaza now 797, Gaza Health Ministry says http://t.co/5sTHNNu4Wx

  14. painhrtz - whatever says:

    New Paltz is Hipsters in the hills. Know a few old hippy intellectuals who live there. Let them move to Albany and gentrify it. Hell, you can get a crack house for like 8 grand

  15. grim says:

    Hell, the new yoga joint on Van Houten is the hottest thing going in Clifton by the looks of the parking lot. Until of course, we open the doors of the distillery. Maybe Clifton is the next hipster hotspot? Is Rutt’s Hut the new Fette Sau?

  16. grim says:

    Mid 40s hipsters in 1950s vintage hawaiian shirts mowing their suburban lawns on refurbished 1950s Cub Cadet lawn tractors (humorously referred to as the new Vespa), all while drinking a cool can of Schaffer, you know, because Schlitz is too mainstream. I know someone who will be happy about this, the suburban registered sex offenders, now they’ll not stand out so much. Will the pork pie hat come back into style? Was it ever not?

  17. NJT says:

    #8 “The much awaited influx of REO into the marketplace should be noticeable within the next 6 months and will continue to grow.”

    I’m seeing it now in Warren County.

    Some good deals…IF you can do refurb. yourself.

  18. Toxic Crayons says:

    15 – Funny you mention Rutt’s Hut….I never even heard of that place until my BIL dragged us there. It was his favorite place to go after Devil’s games after drinking all game. He’d go there drunk and gobble up tons of their hastily prepared burgers an dogs.

    I actually liked it…..It was McDondald’s like food….plus deep fried hot dogs….and a liquor license all in a seedy atmosphere. Decor straight out of the early 70’s. My kind of place. A quick scan of the place and I saw a few tattooed, pink haired hipster types too.

  19. All Hype says:

    I think Hezbollah should kill all the hipsters. Why? They took the white trash element away from drinking Schaefer beer.

  20. Toxic Crayons says:

    Man, I know it’s early but I’m craving a ripper and a cold Pabst….

  21. joyce says:

    So why do you want to? even if the price comes down a meager 10% (or 20%)?

    Fast Eddie says:
    July 25, 2014 at 7:43 am
    Corporate parks dead, no R&D, salaries flat; who is buying the 4/2 in the suburbs?

  22. phoenix says:

    Michael,
    Only the dumb young ones are going to take the bait.
    Read this article, there is an employee there that is worried about his retirement.
    You look at his age, his prior salary, his current pension.
    Christie reassures him that he has nothing to worry about.
    His money is secure. He is retired, so no worries about job security.
    No security for younger, current workers.
    Even if Christie works his magic, strokes it for all it is worth, the taxes are not going to reverse enough to make things affordable with decreased salaries/non steady work/increased healthcare costs/no retirement bennies.
    IOW, youth supposed to go into debt supporting the old, paying back money that does not exist in reality, but is just an IOU from a pimple faced to a wrinkle faced.
    As a young person, I would work as hard as I could, pocket every dime and live in a cardboard box to avoid paying into a system like this.
    The old continue to exploit the young.

  23. Anon E. Moose says:

    Grim [16];

    Spouse like Jason Mraz — I dare not poke fun at the pork pie hat. https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=jason+mraz&tbm=isch&ei=bWHSU8TwILS_sQSjhILICQ

  24. phoenix says:

    23.
    Don’t forget Walter White and his Pork Pie Hat

  25. scottie says:

    #5 One backwards trend I’ve noticed in my own office is that younger people are living in Manhattan, then commuting to our office park in NJ.

    I’m seeing this trend as well. There are a couple of newbies that are reverse commuting to my office in Parsippany. They think they will be able to reverse commute in an hour and a half door to door from NYC. This is utilizing a combination of NJT from Penn to Secaucus to Delawanna and drive the rest of the way. It’s a little nuts if you ask me.

    The starting salary for them is MUCH higher than NYC. One had an offer at 34K in NYC and here she’s starting at 46K.

    The NYC salaries as of late are LOWBALL central. I get calls that are like 20K less with more responsibilities. Seriously?

  26. Fast Eddie says:

    joyce [21],

    I want to buy because I’m not a hipster or millennial and don’t need to be near the “suave” city center for “night” life. That’s all social marketing bullsh1t. It was hip when no one knew about it. Like everything else, the moment it becomes mainstream, it’s dead. I digress.

    My desire is to smell and look at same green with a little space. That’s all. It’s become a battle which I won’t explain yet again. It was never this difficult. The stuff for sale at 600K and 14K in taxes is horrid. The worthwhile stuff is spoken for and muppets like me never see it. The other stuff worth buying is locked up by the underwater muppets with no choice to make payments or foreclose.

  27. Juice Box says:

    Ahh Rutt’s Hut! I still can taste those rippers.

    When I used to ride we would meet up there in the summers on Wed night. All kinds of bikers would be there. Looking back now I must have been a bit crazy. We used to race up and down Macarter Highway doing 0-100 mph in about 6 seconds and we would weave in and out of traffic on that windey road. I drive an SUV now, it might be time for a speedboat or something else to get the adrenalin pumping.

  28. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    New all time high this morning on earnings beat, up another $10 since we last discussed on May 9th:

    LyondellBasell Industries NV (LYB:US), the world’s biggest maker of polypropylene plastic, posted second-quarter earnings that topped analysts’ estimates as margins widened on higher prices.

    Net income was $2.23 a share, compared with $1.61 a year earlier, London-based LyondellBasell said in a statement today. Income from continuing operations was $2.22, which exceeded the $1.92 average estimate (LYB:US) of 18 analysts compiled by Bloomberg. Sales were $12.1 billion, compared with $11.1 billion a year earlier, beating the $11.5 billion average estimate.

  29. Juice Box says:

    #1 reason why we moved out of Hoboken was our kids. Daycare in Hoboken runs over 2 grand a month per kid. (Yes there is cheaper if you want to put your kids in the basement of a church everyday). I paid it for a several years too and when our second child came along it was pretty much unconscionable to pay over 4k a month. I now tell everyone that the money we save pretty much pays our mortgage costs. It would be nice to have that money back, it could go towards buying me a really really cool go-fast boat.

  30. Comrade Nom Deplume, a.k.a. Captain Justice says:

    The only explanation for Mark Cuban’s wealth is blind, dumb, luck.

    http://www.cnbc.com/id/101860770

    This is particularly idiotic, not because he espouses a political position but because his “solution” is irrational and self-defeating.

    to wit: USCo decides to do an inversion deal to save beaucoup bucks on taxes. Cuban sells the stock and convinces others to as well. They pay cap gains taxes because this deal is clearly accretive and the stock went up. But suppose Cuban succeeds and the stock price is driven down, or USCo backs off due to reputational risk or a nastygram from the IRS. USCo still has foreign business and a pile of cash offshore so their price to book is now making it look more like a target than an acquirer. UKCo makes a bid for USCo in a stock transaction.

    The USCO BoD has to approve because the deal for them is identical to the cratered inversion–only difference is that shareholders will have UKCo stock instead of USCo stock but the business and result are virtually identical. Voila, USCo is now foreign, the stock swap isn’t taxable, and the pile of cash offshore will never return. Further, unlike current inversions, UKCo has a substantial presence in the UK so any pressure from 1600 Pennsylvania will be met by counterpressure from 10 Downing. And if the Levins get their way and try to hold that USCoSub is still domestic, or that UKCo is now domestic, well, that’s easy to remedy with a WARN Act notice and a bunch of shipping containers.

    Overall, a worse deal for the USG than if USCo were permitted to invert.

  31. Comrade Nom Deplume, a.k.a. Captain Justice says:

    [22] phoenix

    “The old continue to exploit the young.”

    Payback for electing the Empty Suit in Chief.

  32. Comrade Nom Deplume, a.k.a. Captain Justice says:

    [31] redux

    A concise and reasonably easy read on the inversion issue. This was written in 2009 but the issues haven’t changed.

    http://www.ofii.org/sites/default/files/docs/OFII_Ltr_to_Finance_Cmte_CorporateResidencyAmdt_101309.pdf

  33. painhrtz - whatever says:

    Toxic Piels an ice cold Piels, god help us if the pork pie hat comes back to suburbia. Grim all the real hipsters go to Hot Grill, ruts hut is too gauche

  34. Toxic Crayons says:

    That’s why I never sold the Harley. I knew I’d never get the chance to buy another one. Now that it’s paid off….I just buy the el-cheapo Ryder insurance policy once a year….that, gas and oil changes…..

    I don’t get to much ride it unless I mow the lawn quickly on a Sunday and have some extra time…..still puts me in a great mood…

    Juice Box says:
    July 25, 2014 at 10:13 am
    #1 reason why we moved out of Hoboken was our kids. Daycare in Hoboken runs over 2 grand a month per kid. (Yes there is cheaper if you want to put your kids in the basement of a church everyday). I paid it for a several years too and when our second child came along it was pretty much unconscionable to pay over 4k a month. I now tell everyone that the money we save pretty much pays our mortgage costs. It would be nice to have that money back, it could go towards buying me a really really cool go-fast boat.

  35. homeboken says:

    Juice (30) – Second that. DC in Hoboken costs more annually than I paid to go to college.

    The wife and I are right behind you on the Hoboken exit

  36. anon (the good one) says:

    @MotherJones: Republicans have gone completely, barking insane

  37. Bystander says:

    #9 Mike,
    I agree. This hipster non-sense has been talked about for 10 years and many of them must be hitting 35. Soon enough, the men will wake up to the fact that looking like a variant of Wooly Willy and being part time digital media consultant won’t be cool as 40 approaches. The women will learn that posting hairy-pitted, feminist art on Vimeo won’t be cool when your teets are hitting the floor. Just like hippies, lots will adopt idea when young only to realize the rest of world will not adopt to your “life principles”.

  38. Ragnar says:

    I just visited the Mother Jones website, and it explains a lot. Totally living in an alternate reality, and intent on projecting its reality distortion field across the universe. Sort of like a truther conspiracy website, except applied to every aspect of society. Describing it as insane is a cop out. But I notice that MotherJones routinely describes Republicans insane for years, so they should really write these headlines as “still insane as we’ve twittered 10,000 times before”.

  39. Juice Box says:

    re:# 24 – Pain “god help us if the pork pie hat comes back to suburbia”

    Kid in my son’s preschool wears one and he is 4 years old. He is also adopted and of African ancestry. Parents are ex-Brooklyn hipsters, they don’t look however look out of place. The hipster disease spread to Red Bank long ago it seems, just stop in Whole Foods. The only person who looks out of place in Red bank is that guy ChiFi. Nobody and I mean nobody wears black lipstick and smeared eyeliner anymore.

  40. Michael says:

    I’m a hot grill guy too. One all the way, one.

    painhrtz – whatever says:
    July 25, 2014 at 10:50 am
    Toxic Piels an ice cold Piels, god help us if the pork pie hat comes back to suburbia. Grim all the real hipsters go to Hot Grill, ruts hut is too gauche

  41. joyce says:

    Gary,
    I understand what you want, but why would you still want to sell/buy real estate here unless you had to? You keep repeating economic news saying that should lead to lower prices… what if other unforeseen things happen as well. Why do that to yourself?

  42. Juice Box says:

    re # 35 – Toxic I still have my rice burner but I no longer have my washboard abs and I don’t ride for other reasons like too many people texting and driving. I just don’t feel safe on the road anymore, and somehow the cutoff half tshirt and me lost touch, and I don’t think I will be finding it again soon. I could sell my burner and get a hog but I ain’t ready to do that either. I really want a go fast boat. I had one a decade ago with twin inboards. I kept it in the Hudson for a season. It was a summer to remember bike, boat, bars, babes and we even saw some action in the Hamptons and the Joisey shore. Summers like that only come along once or twice in a man’s life if he is luckly.

  43. Toxic Crayons says:

    Excellent article on Mother Jones today about the negative environmental impact of consuming almond milk for any of you self loathing hipsters….

    Great read…

  44. Michael says:

    I really hope nj, doesn’t abandon it’s suburban roots. It will be a total mistake. They will be trying to adopt to a trend that is already dead. Just stick to what we our strengths are. It’s a wealthy educated population, right next to the coast, and right next to one of the largest cities in the world. Now come up with a plan based on this. Knock down newark and create a research and development hub equivalent to silicon valley. Too bad we have a bunch of idiots dictating what direction this state is going.

  45. Toxic Crayons says:

    Actually, there’s something for everyone on Mother Jones. Great video on home made ak-47’s

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBXKYtD-AHs

  46. Juice Box says:

    Serious LOL for a FRIDAY.

    Read the “Today’s hipster beatings.”

    http://diehipster.wordpress.com/

  47. Fast Eddie says:

    joyce [42],

    You are absolutely right! I keep telling myself it’ll never happen while hoping it happens. More and more my subconscious has been telling me to put the emotional knee-jerk feelings to the side and stay rational. I never made financial risky moves so why would I now? I suppose it’s denial and the fact that I could’ve and should’ve did the move pre-bubble while I had a chance. My frustration gets the best of me as I still feel that a trade-up should be achievable at this stage of the game.

  48. grim says:

    Gary is hip, I made him come out and drink a few beers with me at Loop Lounge.

  49. grim says:

    One Frenchie One

  50. Juice Box says:

    No Hipsters here tonight hopefully.

    http://www.stoneponyonline.com/schedule.html#0725

  51. grim says:

    I’d have more fun at the Offspring/Bad Religion/Pennywise triple header.

  52. painhrtz - whatever says:

    Jesus juice it is like the worst of 90’s pop rock and the Kid Rocks DJ. I think I would rather shove pencils in my ears.

    though I must admit both smashmouth and sugar ray did write some great pop tunes for a few years. I just loathe them both.

  53. painhrtz - whatever says:

    And grim verbilized what I was thinking better than I ever could.

  54. chicagofinance says:

    A little JJ story for a cool summer Friday…..

    Doctors treating a woman for severe weight loss and lethargy were shocked to discover she had a sex toy stuck inside her — and it had been in place for a decade.

    According to the Toronto Sun, citing a report in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, the Scottish woman took herself to the hospital complaining that she was tired, incontinent and losing weight.

    Upon examination, doctors were surprised to find a 5-inch sex toy protruding into her bladder from her vagina.

    The 38-year-old reported using the toy one drunken night with her partner 10 years ago, noting she couldn’t remember whether she had removed it.

    Medical staff said the woman suffered a so-called “vesicovaginal fistula,” an abnormal tract that allows urine to flow into the vagina. Urine had also backed up into her kidneys, causing an obstructive uropathy.

    Once surgeons removed the toy, doctors were able to repair the damage.

    The woman left hospital sex toy-free, and with a dubious new honor: She had held a sex toy inside her vagina for longer than anyone else, the medical journal reported.

  55. chicagofinance says:

    A little JJ story for a cool summer Friday…..

    Doctors treating a woman for severe weight loss and lethargy were shocked to discover she had a s3x toy stuck inside her — and it had been in place for a decade.

    According to the Toronto Sun, citing a report in the Journal of S3xual Medicine, the Scottish woman took herself to the hospital complaining that she was tired, incontinent and losing weight.

    Upon examination, doctors were surprised to find a 5-inch s3x toy protruding into her bladder from her vag!na.

    The 38-year-old reported using the toy one drunken night with her partner 10 years ago, noting she couldn’t remember whether she had removed it.

    Medical staff said the woman suffered a so-called “vesicovag!nal fistula,” an abnormal tract that allows urine to flow into the vag!na. Urine had also backed up into her kidneys, causing an obstructive uropathy.

    Once surgeons removed the toy, doctors were able to repair the damage.

    The woman left hospital s3x toy-free, and with a dubious new honor: She had held a s3x toy inside her vag!na for longer than anyone else, the medical journal reported.

  56. Juice Box says:

    Going to see those bands i still beats sitting home farting holes into the sofa.

  57. Ben says:

    The hipsters won’t invade Rutt’s Hutt until the Food Network features them. Funny thing is, they all come in from Brooklyn. White Mana in Hackensack was packed with idiots the second they got featured on food network three times in a year. Funny thing was, they didn’t understand the ordering system and just sat there getting pissed that everyone ignored them. I noticed the same thing happened in Philly with Paesano’s. It was a little dive sandwich shop, and once they are on Bobby Flay, a bunch of New Yorkers take the train in and permeate the place. Same deal, they just don’t understand that they aren’t in New York anymore when they go visit these places.

    Crap…now I’m craving Rutt’s Hutt. 2 rippers and french fries with gravy….friggin heaven. I always buy a pint of relish to go.

  58. All Hype says:

    From the diehipster website, LOL!!!!

    “Today, I saw Bryce and Caleb flailing their Ally McBeal arms and drowning in toxic fecal sludge after their canoe tipped over in the Gowanus Canal during their mid-week mid-work day paddling session. So I yelled “hold on guys, I’ll get help!” as I jumped in my car and drove away to L & B Pizzeria in real Brooklyn and enjoyed a couple of the best squares on earth. End of story.”

    I cannot stop laughing at the hipster beating stories!!!

  59. Juice Box says:

    Hype your welcome.

  60. Toxic Crayons says:

    Doctor Seemingly Defies Hospital’s Policy Barring Him From Carrying a Gun. Police Say That Decision ‘Saved Lives.’
    Jul. 24, 2014 8:57pm Jason Howerton

    DARBY, Pa. (AP) — A psychiatrist who was grazed by gunfire from a patient at a suburban Philadelphia hospital Thursday helped stop the gunman by apparently using his own weapon to shoot and wound him, but not before a caseworker was killed, authorities said.

    A patient opened fire after entering the doctor’s office at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital with the caseworker, District Attorney Jack Whelan said. Witnesses reported hearing yelling before the gunshots.

    A spokeswoman for Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital said the facility has a policy prohibiting anyone except on-duty law enforcement officers from carrying a weapon anywhere on its campus. It appears at the moment that the unnamed doctor decided to defy that policy in order to defend himself.

    Doctor Shoots Back at Shooter at Philadelphia Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital
    An officer walks near the scene of a shooting Thursday, July 24, 2014, at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby, Pa. A shooting at a suburban Philadelphia hospital campus has killed one worker and injured two other people. (AP Photo)
    But Yeadon Police Chief Donald Molineux said that “without a doubt, I believe the doctor saved lives.”

    “Without that firearm, this guy (the patient) could have went out in the hallway and just walked down the offices until he ran out of ammunition,” the chief said.

    It wasn’t clear if the incident has the hospital reconsidering its policy against trained staff carrying concealed firearms.

    Several hours after the shooting, investigators had only limited information about what happened inside the closed office but believe the psychiatrist, “from all accounts, would have acted in self-defense,” Whelan said.

    The doctor, who suffered a wound to his head, “faced a situation where his life was in jeopardy,” Whelan said. He was expected to be interviewed by detectives late Thursday.

    The dead caseworker was identified only as a 53-year-old Philadelphia woman. Police were working to notify relatives late Thursday.

    Two guns were recovered, Whelan said. Authorities said the motive for the shooting was unknown.

    The patient, who was critically injured, was identified as Richard Plotts, an Upper Darby resident in his mid-30s.

  61. All Hype says:

    Juice:

    You have made my day. Thanks for the laughs.

  62. NJCoast says:

    Must be the weekend for the 90’s at the shore. I’ll be taking care of Alanis Morissette at the Basie on Sunday.

  63. Toxic Crayons says:

    Texas National Guard to get arrest power at the border….

    HOUSTON — When Gov. Rick Perry of Texas announced plans to deploy 1,000 National Guard troops to help with the border crisis, it came with a power unexpected by some. By deploying them himself rather than through Washington, he has the power to order the troops to make arrests and apprehensions, something Guard troops in past border deployments have been prohibited from doing.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/25/us/national-guard-in-texas-could-get-arrest-power.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0

  64. Toxic Crayons says:

    NYPD cop pulls a gun on an unarmed suspect while arresting him.

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1478013315775368

  65. Toxic Crayons says:

    It’s Deblasio time baby.

  66. Fast Eddie says:

    Gary is hip, I made him come out and drink a few beers with me at Loop Lounge.

    But I still prefer Motorhead, leather and women bathed in a scent of dusted opium. TMI? :)

  67. grim says:

    Sorry, but in the suburbs you only get a a Lawnmower, sweat pants, and a greasy guy making you a taylor ham, egg, and cheese on a poppy seed bagel.

  68. phoenix says:

    32. Nom
    Would have happened anyway. Electing O’ man just turned the heat up a bit.

  69. Michael says:

    I was just thinking about how stupid these people must be. I’m convinced, majority of the population are not meant to be wealthy, they have not the logic to get there. The financial decisions they make are simply mind blowing.

    “One backwards trend I’ve noticed in my own office is that younger people are living in Manhattan, then commuting to our office park in NJ. My company is trying…they currently lease space in an office park where the landlord provides shuttle service to and from the local train station. I don’t think too many people use it though. Plus I’m pretty sure that’s rare and our rent is astronomical”

  70. Juice Box says:

    list ening to DotComplicated on Sirius channel 111

    it’s enough to make one I want to give up. FOMO and MOMO?

  71. Juice Box says:

    We have almost no dress code now at work do to hipsters and the need to attract workers. I have been wearing the same jeans last few days too.

  72. Anon E. Moose says:

    Re: [65];

    Another case of not paying the tax man his revenue on smokes? That’s the only thing that would get a man in the crosshairs of Hizzonor the Comrade.

  73. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    Same here. President (really a managing director since being acquired a couple years ago) wears a suit every day, but he’s the only one unless we have a big sales meeting or customers in house. Everybody else there is no dress code whatsoever except for maybe safety reasons in machining. I see bare feet, Crocs, Vibram glove shoes, any length, style, or pattern of shorts, etc. Guys my age and position are more of the strict business casual of yesteryear (jeans on Friday, khakis the rest of the week), but I don’t really pay attention to what day it is, whether I wear jeans or shorts or whether I shave or not for a couple days. We’re all kind of on autopilot expecting a 6-7% 401K salary match and a 2.5% raise each year. It’s so structured that even on our reviews no one is allowed to be rated above a 3 on a 1-5 scale and no one can receive a larger raise unless you take the money from someone else. Also since we now have split-squad benefits where people here since before April 2012 have MUCH better benefits nobody up and down the line wants to lose anybody who knows their stuff because they’ll be replaced with someone at a cheaper salary with an inferior benefits package which makes the new hire that much more likely to leave and attracts mid-pack recruits at best. If I lose a guy making $90K I’ll have to replace him with a guy who makes $75K and his benefits and vacation will be such crap that it’ll really be a $65K guy and if he’s good he’ll leave in 2 years. Better to let the higher pay, higher benefits guy just do whatever he wants as he’ll just complacently do his job well for a longer time on autopilot with no worries.

    We have almost no dress code now at work do to hipsters and the need to attract workers. I have been wearing the same jeans last few days too.

  74. Comrade Nom Deplume, Guardian of the Realm says:

    [61] toxic

    Upper Darby is a psych ward. The reason I got my carry permit is thAt I live too close to DelCo and Philly.

  75. Comrade Nom Deplume, Guardian of the Realm says:

    Toxic and Phoenix, you should ride out here. ChesCo has all these scenic single lanes. I would never ride in NJ but I’m getting a bike out here.

  76. Juice Box says:

    Chi Asbury is jumping tonight….

  77. Juice Box says:

    Asbury’s transformation is simply amazing. If you haven’t been go. Very walkable from the restaurants to the bars and clubs. Because of the concert tonight there were thousands of young people hanging out having a good time.

  78. Michael says:

    What happened to America? It looks like they stopped caring and turned their back on the country and people that helped create their success. They should hang them clearly on the basis of being a traitor. Or better yet, this is the worst kind of terroristic attack on America, and it’s bring done by American corporations. Sickening. This tax evasion movement is worst than any terroristic threat from some cave dwelling terrorists from Afghanistan. It’s wrong in every way possible. The founder of walgreens is prob rolling over in grave. Greed is a deadly sin.

    “”Walgreens’ attitude was so patriotically generous that no competitor could possibly better it,” declared a weekly publication from the War Department.”

    “”I think he’d be rolling in his grave if he knew what was going on today,” says Bill Jones, who runs the Northwest Territory Historic Center in Dixon and worked closely with the Walgreen family on building an exhibit at the museum honoring the founder.”

    “In a letter to Walgreens’ board of directors this week, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., warned that the company was in danger of sullying its reputation as a community-minded corporation. She also sought to remind the Walgreens board that roughly a quarter of its $2.5 billion in profits last year were directly connected to federal programs — such as Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.

    “Everywhere you look, the success of Walgreens is tied to the opportunities it has been afforded by this country,” she wrote. “To benefit from those resources and then to refuse to pay your fair share of taxes needed to fund them is inexcusable.”

    In a separate letter, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., took a shot at Walgreens’ folksy motto. “Is ‘the corner of happy and healthy’ somewhere in the Swiss Alps?” Durbin wrote. He added, “I believe you will find that your customers are deeply patriotic and will not support Walgreens’ decision to turn its back on the United States.”

    Burke, the Dixon mayor, says he hopes Walgreens will stay put. But if it pushes ahead with the inversion, Burke notes there are three other drugstores in his town.

    “I think Walgreens will see that a lot of Americans will take their business elsewhere,” Burke says. “At some point, how much profit is enough?””

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/07/26/walgreens-inversion-tax-taxes/13090921/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=206567

  79. grim says:

    The last thing we need is suggestions from politicians. What we need to do is to hang the politicians, on both sides.

  80. Michael says:

    81- “Yup, NJ has a lot going for it. NJ is in the middle of the Boston-DC Corridor, the most populous(20% of the US population) and wealthiest area of the country. That’s NJ’s great advantage, it’s also NJ’s biggest curse. Proximity to all that money and power attracts the worst of the worst. Petty grifters, thieves, liars, sociopaths, etc and most of them end up occupying public office from Trenton down to the one-square-mile Podunks.

    While Mr. MacInnes’ suggestions for correcting this state’s problems are mostly good, they don’t go far enough. New mass transit connecting both NYC and Philly are desperately needed. We need to stop the provincial BS of NYC v Jersey v Philly. Regional co-operation would benefit everyone.

    MacInnes also doesn’t hit on what is the main cause of most of NJ’s corruption, its crazy-quilt patchwork of 565 incorporated municipalities. More municipalities than California, a state that has 4.5 times the population and 20 times the land area. Twisted little Mayberries where the chief of police ‘earns’ more money than the governor. This toxic system was born out of the 19th century rail boom, and continues to plague this state. Nothing is going to improve until we cull most of NJ little Nowhere-villes. “

  81. chicagofinance says:

    Last year, Asbury was one of the only shore beach towns completely up and running after Sandy. They ended up getting about 25% extra business due to redirected visitors. A lot of people saw it and have returned this year.

    Also, they are planning to create a transit village around the train station. It helps that the municipal complex happens to be around the station as well.

    Juice Box says:
    July 26, 2014 at 1:30 am
    Asbury’s transformation is simply amazing. If you haven’t been go. Very walkable from the restaurants to the bars and clubs. Because of the concert tonight there were thousands of young people hanging out having a good time.

  82. chicagofinance says:

    Supposedly, this service is a big deal……it cuts almost 30 minutes off travel times…
    http://www.njtransit.com/sa/sa_servlet.srv?hdnPageAction=ServiceAdjustmentTo&AdjustmentId=11101

  83. chicagofinance says:

    Anyone interested in the construction plan for the GSP? It is about 50-60 PPT slides. They are updating Interchanges 109, 105 and the all the work down beyond AC. It is about one year old……I was interested in the 109 piece.

    I would post it here, but the guy who offered it up was nice about it, and it is a 16MB and I don’t want to needlessly tax his resources……

  84. joyce says:

    83
    The 500+ towns isn’t a good thing, however I don’t think it’s automatically bad. The problem is that there is no accountability / transparency which leads to insane compensation for public officials in a tiny town (and contracts awarded to friends, etc). By going to a county / regional model, I don’t see the accountability improving; in fact I see it going the opposite way.

  85. joyce says:

    State Farm demanding more govt forced income /govt enforced less risk in their business model:

    Wheelchair scooter operators must have auto insurance

    http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-07-23/state-farm-farm-bureau-claim-motorized-scooters-must-have-insurance-just-like-cars

    Market ticker commentary

    http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=229237

  86. joyce says:

    Meh, just make Medicare pay for it

  87. Michael says:

    I never thought about it from this angle. You are right, it will create giant kingdoms like fed govt, which will not be any different, more likely worst. You will pay more and have no voice about what happens in your community.

    joyce says:
    July 26, 2014 at 10:36 am
    83
    The 500+ towns isn’t a good thing, however I don’t think it’s automatically bad. The problem is that there is no accountability / transparency which leads to insane compensation for public officials in a tiny town (and contracts awarded to friends, etc). By going to a county / regional model, I don’t see the accountability improving; in fact I see it going the opposite way.

  88. Phoenix says:

    Looks like I just got hit by a haboob. I remember getting hit by a pair of boobs but I don’t recall the haboob/dusty boobs incident at all…..

    Video captures massive ‘haboob’ hitting Phoenix
    http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/0726/Video-captures-massive-haboob-hitting-Phoenix

  89. Phoenix says:

    90 Michael,
    It’s about segregation, most nice towns have a less desirable one nearby. Home buyers pay extra for certain zip codes, and if you mix them what would be the difference? This may work (eg Western Morris, Warren, etc) but good luck in Bergen and Essex.

  90. Phoenix says:

    89 Joyce,
    Did you choose that article because of the “doughnut shop” reference? :)

  91. anon (the good one) says:

    @BBCBreaking: Gaza death toll passes 1000, Palestinian medical sources say, after 19 days of Israeli offensive

  92. Phoenix says:

    Grim, why have robots for fast food joints when you can get this guy?

    His name was Daniel Schwartz. He learned to make a Whopper in less than 35 seconds and blended in well with his fellow employees, except for the fact that Schwartz had a guy with a video camera trailing him. “I cleaned about 15 toilets in the past two days,” he boasted at one point, as if he’d just completed a marathon.

    Oh, wait a minute, a guy who can learn to make a Whopper in less than 35 seconds does not come cheap….
    Time to raise the minimum wage to…. wait for it…….
    Schwartz was justifiably pumped. That June he’d been named Burger King’s (BKW) chief executive officer, with a $700,000 annual salary and a potential cash bonus of twice that.

    http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-07-24/burger-kings-ceo-daniel-schwartz-is-33-years-old#r=shared

  93. Libturd at the ice rink says:

    I agree with Joyce. Smaller is actually better. Compare Montclair’s finances with Glen Ridge and you’ll see how much more efficient a small town is. Of course, we buy our water and fire services from Montclair for 1/4th of what Montclair pays for it. The true problem with the larger towns is that economies of scale go into the toilet when you hire more mid managers than you need to supposedly handle the larger numbers. It doesn’t help when their benefits cost 3x of what is paid in the private sector as well.

  94. grim says:

    Glen Ridge is hardly a typical case study. Nor would I look at NJ’s large basket cases as examples of how large municipalities should be run. We need a complete rewrite, start from scratch, applying NJ’s small town politics to large municipalities will just change the nature of the problems. It won’t work unless you clean house too. Otherwise all we’ve done is make the honey pot bigger for the crooks.

    How do I define crook? Everyone currently in elected or appointed position.

  95. grim says:

    95 – 30 year old CEOs? Boomers must be shaking in their boots.

  96. joyce says:

    Grim,
    And 99% of those w/ gov contracts…. Always two sides to a bribe

  97. Ben says:

    the burger king CEO obviously has been watching too much undercover boss. Minimum wage employees don’t care if you spend a day doing their labor for a single day in your career. They care if you are willing to not treat them like garbage day in and day out.

  98. 1987 condo says:

    From my 26 years in nj it seems that smaller towns are run more efficiently than bigger. I think economies if scale lose out to bureaucracy, politics and that results in higher costs.

  99. anon (the good one) says:

    @ianbremmer:
    Net Worth, Avg US Household
    (Inflation adj)

    2003 – $88,000
    2013 – $56,000

  100. Libturd in bed (going to Westpoint in morning) says:

    Anon. You were banned from discussing income inequality. As to Ian’s deceiving statistic…”But much of the gain for many typical households came from the rising value of their homes.”

    Some would argue that a lot of households couldn’t afford their average households. That supposed wealth wasn’t theirs in the first place. But that tweet sure looks scary taken out of context, Dolt!

    So shut the “F” up.

  101. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    You are such a moron. Ok, let’s start out more positively. As long as the cost of energy, taxes, food, and transportation get cheaper and cheaper every year, people will continue to move further and further out to newer and newer suburbs just like they have since World War II ended. Got any clue what happens when that economic dynamic reverses…Einstein?

    Michael says:
    July 25, 2014 at 8:28 am
    Telling you, this is only a short-term trend with this walkable city bs. People only want to live in the city when they are partying and have no family. As soon as they start their family, they head for the burbs.

  102. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    [101] ’87 condo – That may well be true but your conclusion can still be way off base. Without doing any research I’m pretty sure that I could prove that beige cars are rarely involved in fatal accidents. If we paint all cars beige, is the desired result likely to improve? Actually it might, but that’s a different story. I’m not sure that smaller towns actually outperform dollar per pound other communities but they appear to run better due to homogeneity. A small community like Glen Rock, NJ may appear to be an epitome of efficiency, lifestyle, and education but it’s not because they are small, it’s because they are homogenous. I’m sure you could find some South Jersey towns that are just as “efficient”, but at a lower affluence and educational level.

    From my 26 years in nj it seems that smaller towns are run more efficiently than bigger. I think economies if scale lose out to bureaucracy, politics and that results in higher costs.

  103. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    ^^^Come to think of it, maybe I made your point, not mine.

  104. Toxic Crayons says:

    EMILY MILLER: Federal judge rules DC ban on gun carry rights unconstitutional

    By Emily Miller
    Published July 27, 2014
    FoxNews.com
    1.8K

    Reuters
    A federal judge in the District of Columbia on Saturday overturned the city’s total ban on residents being allowing to carry firearms outside their home in a landmark decision for gun-rights activists.

    Judge Frederick Scullin Jr. wrote in his ruling in Palmer v. District of Columbia that the right to bear arms extends outside the home, therefore gun-control laws in the nation’s capital are “unconstitutional.”

  105. Michael says:

    Dallas Mavericks owner and President Obama agree on at least one issue: Corporate tax inversions pose a financial threat to the nation.

    In a series of Friday tweets, billionaire investor Mark Cuban said he’d take personal shareholder retaliation against any company that shifts its headquarters address overseas to save taxes.

    “If I own stock in your company and you move offshore for tax reasons I’m selling your stock,” Cuban tweeted. “There are enough investment choices out there.”

    Lest that threat fail to cause corporate America to tremble, Cuban urged his many Twitter followers to join him.

    “When companies move off shore to save on taxes, you and I make up the shortfall elsewhere sell those stocks and they won’t move,” he tweeted.

    “Are you willing to call your broker or fund and tell them to sell companies that increase your tax bill by moving overseas?” Cuban asked in a subsequent tweet.

    He later amplified his advice in a CNBC interview.

    “Evaluate (the) big picture,” said Cuban. “By not selling your stock, does that encourage other companies to do the same thing, which means even larger tax shortfalls, which it costs us even more over the long-term, which means your net-worth is going to go down?”

    Cuban added his voice to the growing public debate over corporate inversions one day after Obama said companies that pursue the tax-saving tactic are unfairly “gaming the system.”

    Obama used a CNBC interview to acknowledge that corporate inversions are “technically legal.”

    “But I think most people would say: ‘If you’re doing business here, if you’re basically still an American country, but you’re simply changing your mailing address to avoid paying taxes, then you’re really not doing right by the country and by the American people,’” said Obama.

    http://americasmarkets.usatoday.com/2014/07/25/mark-cubans-no-fan-of-tax-inversions/

  106. Michael says:

    Where did I state that we would create new suburbs? I simply meant that the current suburbs will not end, they will be embraced. You think everyone wants to live in a city? Population is peaking. It’s going to go down for the u.s. and the world this century. So why would they need to keep expanding? This whole walkable movement bs is just a trend that reflected the bad economy. That’s all. Same thing with renting, it has only increased because of the economy. When the economy improves, the rent trend will get smashed by the rush of people looking to buy a home.

    Mpg are rising every year. This should allow people to continue commuting even if energy prices rise every year. But hey keep banking on the idea that everyone wants to live in a walkable city. Keep thinking that our economy can function on a setting in which everyone walks to work or wherever they want to go. That just might happen. I’ll take my bet that the suburbs will become the “in thing”, as compared to walkable city communities trend, in 10 years.

    Btw, my tenants, whom have been renting since 1994 have just told me that they will be leaving due to purchasing a home. I was charging them cheap rent too, since they have been there so long and were great people. Had not raised their rent in 7 years, and have updated their apartment two years ago. So cheap rent and they still want to own their own home. If you don’t think these people represent what I have been saying about the real estate market, you guys are hopeless. By 2020, things will look a lot different.

    The Original NJ ExPat says:
    July 26, 2014 at 10:05 pm
    You are such a moron. Ok, let’s start out more positively. As long as the cost of energy, taxes, food, and transportation get cheaper and cheaper every year, people will continue to move further and further out to newer and newer suburbs just like they have since World War II ended. Got any clue what happens when that economic dynamic reverses…Einstein?

    Michael says:
    July 25, 2014 at 8:28 am
    Telling you, this is only a short-term trend with this walkable city bs. People only want to live in the city when they are partying and have no family. As soon as they start their family, they head for the burbs.

  107. Michael says:

    109- by 2024, everyone will have forgot about the bubble of 2004, doomed to create the same bubble mentality over and over again. The cycle never ends.

  108. Michael says:

    110- this is where the saying buy low, sell high, comes from. The cycle never ends. It may seem like it is over at times, but trust me, it’s not. We are in the same old cycle and right now are the cheaper prices. We are in the down part of the cycle, it’s obvious right now. So it’s obvious that an upward cycle will come. You guys laugh at me, but you don’t get it. Fast Eddie thinks we are going to have a permanent down cycle or at the least, a double down cycle. That just might happen. That’s like thinking during the good times, that you can expect prices to keep rising. That after having 7 years of good gains, that you will go through another upward cycle. Doesn’t make sense, but he will never see it that way.

  109. Michael says:

    Does monetary policy cause bubbles?

    As an initial matter, it’s important to appreciate that monetary policy itself doesn’t cause bubbles. This may sound strange if you’ve read much about the financial crisis, given that the Fed is often blamed for both inflating and popping the housing bubble. But this narrative is flawed.

    The argument goes like this: Following the bursting of the Internet bubble and 9/11, the central bank dropped short-term interest rates to the lowest level since 1958. This drove borrowing costs down and made it easier and more affordable for people to get mortgages and buy homes. Too many people proceeded to do so and a housing bubble ensued.

    But the problem with this chain of events is that it excludes a number of critical pieces. Most importantly, it wasn’t low interest rates that caused so much havoc; it was the proliferation of subprime mortgages.

    At the time, much of the financial industry was operating under two fallacies. First, lenders believed that new derivatives and asset-backed securities had eradicated the risk of default. And second, while it seems absurd in hindsight, many of the best and brightest minds on Wall Street had concluded that housing prices would never stop going up — or, at the very least, that they wouldn’t decline simultaneously across the country.

    The result was that these assumptions removed much of the incentive for lenders to monitor credit standards. If there’s no fear of default, why not lend to anyone and everyone regardless of their income, assets, or credit score? And it was this behavior, and notably not the Fed’s manipulation of interest rates, which fueled the housing bubble and laid the groundwork for the financial crisis.

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2014/07/27/is-the-fed-fueling-a-giant-stock-market-bubble/13172261/

  110. qui est la fabrique de montre guess montres montre guess homme suisse montre guess a toujours insisté sur la montre de luxe, lignes carrés dans la table pour rejoindre le réseau vous permet d’acheter des montres, profiter des activités de temps de voyage de voile. bien que le type de nos jours très populaire de dispositif, que ce soit les occasions montre guess formelles ou les jours fériés tenue décontractée, c’est montre guess encore un mystère

  111. Ben says:

    As an initial matter, it’s important to appreciate that monetary policy itself doesn’t cause bubbles. This may sound strange if you’ve read much about the financial crisis, given that the Fed is often blamed for both inflating and popping the housing bubble. But this narrative is flawed.

    Human beings are so simple minded, it prevents them from every actually understanding a complex problem. The housing bubble didn’t have just one cause. It was a number of factors that caused it.

    1. The federal gov. eliminating capital gains on sold homes
    2. Monetary policy and low interest rates
    3. Fannie/Freddie being able to tilt any liquidity into housing
    4. Community Reinvestment Act
    5. Securitization & Wall St.
    6. HGTV and cheerleaders
    7. Ninja loans and rubber stamping of mortgages

    There was some 18 year old kid who bought 7 houses in 2006. He didn’t have a job. But in an environment of insane credit, federal guarantees, and cheerleaders, it became possible. Of course, he lost all of them in foreclosure.

    There was another CNN article profiling an average middle class family of four calling them future tycoons. They managed to snatch up 17 properties in 2006. Of course, they lost them all in foreclosure as well.

  112. nlzrxovvkke says:

    wryjDU ohnbeickaebz, [url=http://skklqllljrxz.com/]skklqllljrxz[/url], [link=http://mfhfggfmulfg.com/]mfhfggfmulfg[/link], http://mvyyrcubucnw.com/

  113. Libturd in bed (going to Westpoint in morning) says:

    Back from West Point. Glen Ridge needs to install those impermeable collapsible gates on the Southern border.

  114. Michael says:

    Yea…wage inflation coming!!! But I’m an idiot.

    Wage growth is accelerating in several key industries, foreshadowing stronger gains across the economy, experts say.

    Pay hikes have picked up in sectors such as leisure and hospitality, business services, construction and retail, Labor Department figures show.

    “There is evidence that a cyclical upturn in wage growth is underway,” says economist Paul Dales of Capital Economics.

    Despite monthly job growth that has surged well over 200,000 this year, average annual wage gains remain stuck at 2% — barely enough to keep pace with inflation. Employers’ failure to provide bigger raises has crimped consumer spending, which makes up 70% of the economy.

    But there are mounting signs that pay hikes are poised to gain momentum in the second half of the year, Dales and other economists say. Wages in leisure and hospitality were up 2.7% in June from a year ago, vs. a 0.6% annual increase in June 2013.

    Hotels have benefited from a surge in both business and vacation travelers, pushing occupancy rates to pre-recession levels, says Randy Pullen, CEO of WageWatch, a consulting firm. He cited intensifying competition for front desk agents and housekeepers.

    “The opportunity for advancement and earning well above minimum wage is ripe in our industry,” says Katherine Lugar, CEO of the American Hotel and Lodging Association.

    Other sectors lifting pay:

    • Salaries for professional and business services — a category that includes architects, engineers and accountants — were up 2.4% in June from a year ago, vs. a 1.6% annual rise in June 2013.

    • Annual construction industry raises averaged 2.2% in June, vs. 1.6% a year ago. Thousands of construction workers left the industry after the mid-2000s real estate crash, leaving a shortage in many areas as housing picks up.

    • In retail, annual raises averaged 2.2% last month, up from 1.8% a year ago. As in other industries boosting pay, retail unemployment has fallen sharply the past year — to 5.9% from 7.3% for the sector.

    Wage growth often lags a decline in unemployment by a year, so bigger gains lie ahead, Dales says.

    Another positive omen: Annual raises for the top 20% of sectors with the highest pay averaged 3% in May, nearly double the year-ago rate, says Wells Fargo economist Jay Bryson. “We believe it’s going to spread,” he says.

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/07/27/wage-growth-increasing/13160831/

  115. anon (the good one) says:

    @mcuban:
    Mark Cuban on Tax Inversions: If You Move Overseas, I’m Selling Your Stock http://t.co/TrOpj4SnSY

  116. Juggalo4eva says:

    pain (14)-

    Hell, in Troy, you can buy a whole city block for 10K.

  117. Juggalo4eva says:

    Spent weekend in Boston. Lot fewer hipsters up there, but a righteous amount of straight-up Irish white trash.

    Made me feel good.

  118. Juggalo4eva says:

    Nothing like a redheaded Irish gal carrying 40 lbs of excess spoiled cottage cheese, all poured into a Celtics T-shirt and pair of yoga pants. That’s my idea of a Boston IED: one wrong move, and you’re sorry that thing blew up in your face.

  119. Comrade Nom Deplume, a.k.a. Captain Justice says:

    [120] clot

    “Spent weekend in Boston. Lot fewer hipsters up there, but a righteous amount of straight-up Irish white trash.”

    Methinks you were in the wrong neighborhood

  120. Comrade Nom Deplume, a.k.a. Captain Justice says:

    [118] anon

    “Mark Cuban on Tax Inversions: If You Move Overseas, I’m Selling Your Stock”

    The alien concept inherent in that statement is called capitalism. You can google it.

  121. Comrade Nom Deplume, a.k.a. Captain Justice says:

    [121] clot

    And knowing you, you made the wrong move.

Comments are closed.