Past-due consumer loan payments at 15-year high

[TexasDevilDog]

Consumers fell behind on car, credit-card and home-equity loans at the highest level in 15 years during the fourth quarter, Bloomberg News reported today.

According to an American Bankers Association survey, payments at least 30 days past due increased across all eight categories of loans tracked.

"The rise in consumer credit delinquencies is consistent with a rapidly slowing economy," ABA chief economist James Chessen said in the statement. "Stress in the housing market still dominates the story, but it's a broader tale."

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080403/BIZ/804030450

Other shoe dropping.

[mikeb]

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080403/BIZ/804030450

Other shoe dropping.

The other shoe dropped right on me today. My customer is a large financial institution (not a bank) that all of you would recognize, and they have been affected enough by the subprime mess that budgets are being slashed. I am a contractor and have another associate working there with me, and we just got cut. It is a shame because they have a shitload of work that needs done, and some pretty hard deadlines that it has to be done by.

Oh well, same as every other recession. We are the first ones out and the first ones back in. Been there and done that several times now.

[TexasDevilDog]

Oh well, same as every other recession. We are the first ones out and the first ones back in. Been there and done that several times now.

Sorry to hear that. Did you actively seek to become a contractor or did you happen in to that position? I am interested because I hate being treated the same as the other employees when I have a much broader and deeper skill set than most engineers I work with.

[mikeb]

Sorry to hear that. Did you actively seek to become a contractor or did you happen in to that position? I am interested because I hate being treated the same as the other employees when I have a much broader and deeper skill set than most engineers I work with.

It is a long story, but in the late 80's several of my friends and myself were working for what turned out to be a crook who ran a consulting company doing contract programming. We suddenly found ourselves out of work when his business went belly up. Fortunately we had seen the end coming and had formed our own company ahead of time. We approached the customers we had been working for for the failed company, took over the work from the crook, and hit the ground running. It has been a tough 20 years though; lots of hard work and things to worry about.

Now is probably not the time to begin contracting because as I said contractors are the first ones out the door when the economy takes a shit, soon followed by employees if it gets bad enough. Conversely, we are the first ones back in the door when things get better because companies are reluctant to hire until they ascertain whether the economic recovery is "real" or not, and if it is not then contractors can easily be thrown out.

[wesman]

Half of them are probably because people don't want to pay their bills because they know the damn government will run behind them and clean up after them.......sorry bastards.

--wes