The Bleak Look of RecessionFort Lauderdale, Florida, 2009

This cement wasteland was a bustling new and used car dealership near the heart of Fort Lauderdale. Cars whisk past on busy Sunrise Boulevard, heading toward the upscale Galleria Mall, just a few blocks away. Strip malls and businesses line this six-lane highway, some starving more quickly than others. These photos depict a panorama. Below, I am looking directly east, toward the Galleria Mall and ocean.


This view also faces east. The vast showrooms, guarded now by chain-link fencing, are a bleak memorial to American's economic distress.


The photo below faces north, directly in front of where I was standing at one-time entrance to the facility.



Facing west, the cement graveyard of the auto industry stretches many blocks in both directions.


This pile of rubble was a decorative island for plantings, on the fancy cobblestone drive into the auto dealership.


It hurts the heart to see the decay, the far-stretching emptiness of an economic boneyard such as this.

AIG Holds Pension Funds for Milliions of Public Service Employees in Many States

News of the AIG federal bail out only scratches the surface of what is going on. Millions of schoolteachers, firefighters, and other government employees have 403bs managed by AIG.

The Jacksonville Police and Fire Pension Fund inaugurated a lawsuit against AIG in May of lying. According to Reuters, the fund “accuses New York-based AIG of repeatedly but falsely assuring investors that its risk management and diversification insulated it from credit market turmoil in 2007. Credit market problems led AIG to suffer a $7.8 billion first-quarter loss.”

Google links suggest that the California Public Employees Pension Fund, the largest in the country, was considering suing AIG for similar reasons.

MSNBC reporters and online sources are assuring people that FDIC savings and checking accounts are safe. Retirement funds typically are stock funds that are not insured by the FDIC. This misdirection by newscasters is not helpful; it does not answer the questions that people are asking: Are my AIG retirement funds safe?

AIG representatives are not returning phone calls. My did not, and I see posts on the Internet that other clients are getting the same treatment.

I am trying to move my funds into a different fund. The representative warned me that it is going to take time. Tens of thousands of people are also rolling over their funds from AIG into other accounts.

With the economy in meltdown, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of us wind up, like those poor Enron employees, with nothing. My mother is reminiscing about the great depression. Her father had six children and was jobless. The landlady kept track of missed rent, and the owner of the deli down the street provided food on on credit. “What can people do when no one has money?” my mother asks.

The end of defined payment pension funds and the inauguration of IRAs, 401ks, and 403bs, is turning into a huge swindle of hard-working Americans. We worker ants have routinely been salting away a percentage of our paychecks, forgoing cars and vacations, to save money for our old age.

On the other hand, some people bought homes they could not afford based on the fast talk of mortgage loan officers who promised that everything would turn out right in the end. These loans were made out of the funds that we worker ants were plowing into our retirement funds.

Now, those who wanted to live beyond their means are asking the federal government to bail them out. I include in this category the person who was working an ordinary job and wanted a 2,000-square-foot home, with swimming pool, hot tub, and two-car garage, purchased at 105% credit with escalating interest payments. I also include in this category investment bankers and brokers who have have been living the high life in New York and other investment capitals, looking out on cityscapes from million-dollar lofts and driving Ferraris. At least part of this money is that of those of us who have slogged through jobs we didn’t really like.

We did what we were supposed to do. We fulfilled our obligations. We lived responsibly. Now the rules of the game are changing. We are being told that it's too bad things didn't work out like we were promised they would (at least, not for us); so sorry that you lived modestly and sacrificed.

Empty Mall Contradicts McCain's Assurance of Sound Economic Fundamentals

If John McCain really believes America's underlying economy is fundamentally sound, he is not living on the same planet as I am. I invite him to visit the strikingly empty Boynton Beach mall – a once bustling retail center centrally located in an area of average families and retirees.

Boynton Beach is by no means a tourist mecca on the order of Daytona, Fort Lauderdale, or the Keys islands. Sandwiched between the old wealth of Palm Beach and the nouveau riche of Boca Raton, Boynton Beach is an area of mostly newer and more affordable single family homes, over-55 duplex villas, condominium apartment and mobile home complexes.

Boynton Beach Mall has grown in size since the last time I was there, circa 2004 when I moved from Palm Beach to Broward county. It has a new Muvico multiplex, a grand Starbucks, and a TooJays Delicatessen – a favorite in these parts. I was shocked to find the mall all but empty on Wednesday at 1 p.m., as these photos show.

Is this sad? This is not an out-of-the-way, dilapidated strip mall. It is a major commercial retail center that serves a large, densely populated middle-class citizenry.

Another customer at Ritz Camera store said he’d gone to Delray Beach on Sunday where Atlantic Avenue’s many restaurants attract Sunday brunchers. “The roads were empty, and I had no trouble at all finding a parking place,” he said. Usually, one has to drive around to find a spot.

I grumbled that my 403(b)s have lost so much value that I may never be able to retire. “Don’t even go there,” he said. “I’ve lost so much that I will never gain it back in the remainder of my lifetime.” Of course, the economic Big Boys have been playing fast-and-loose with our retirement monies, investing in FreddieMac and SallieMae (according to NPS's Marketplace, even when it appeared these massive housing market lenders were in trouble). We were promised that we would be oh-so-much better off when we didn’t have to rely on fixed income retirement plans. Hahaha.

Earth to McCain: The economic fundamentals are not good for us who cannot afford $313,000 designer ensembles.

Footnote: I stopped by a local Salvation Army before going home. It was Wednesday Madness, with half-off on everything. The parking lot was full, and the store was mobbed. There were lines at the register, even though the store's air-conditioning was out. That is a big deal here in South Florida, when outdoor temperatures are in the high 80s and inside can top the 90s. But we cannot eat T-shirts.