Ernest wrote:
>
> I was just wondering if any of you have had to drastically cut back on your
> collecting this year.
You said it. The economy is not only far worse than
people generally admit, but if you pay close
attention to recent news, all signs point to
another sharp decline that's already underway.
You want a recovery? We had it, baby! That anemic
little blip was it. It's all downhill from here.
Despite assurances that "the economy is basically sound",
too many bad factors are coming together at the same time.
Many are preventable; some are inevitable.
Investor confidence is low, consumers are holding onto
their cash, unemployment continues to rise, and
foreign investors are pulling out of the US market in
droves, perceiving rightly or
wrongly that the US leadership is neglecting fiscal
policy (or worse, actively screwing things up),
and creating problems for global stability
due to reckless and/or unilateral foreign policy. Oil
prices
are headed upward, mostly due to defective foreign policy,
which is always harmful to the economy,
and the odds are good that a lot of European investors will
yank their holdings out of US markets and put them into
Europe
or Asia. There's no up-side. There's no turn-around, or
even
economic news that hints at one.
Of course, this kind of condition just exacerbates the
tendency
of people to hold tighter onto their income and cut
spending,
in a downward spiral. In the absence of inspiring
leadership
to reverse the trend, it's going to be a while before people
are
going to spend, let along re-enter the stock markets in
large
numbers needed to bring things back. Bleh.
That's my analysis, take it or leave it. :)
On the bright side, now that more and more
people are aware of the value of these old
systems, maybe a lot more will be spared from
the dumpster and will end up on e-bay. That
ought to increase the supply at least. Supply-side
economics says that means the price should drop. :)
-- Ross
> I collected 20+ Apple II clones in 2001. So far this
> year, I think that I've picked up maybe six. Collecting old computers is a
> luxury, of course and this year has been hard on my wallet. I've watched
> several choice systems go by on ebay, and I never used to let any of them go
> by -even the crappy ones.
>
> Things are getting better for me but I'll sure be damned glad when this
> lousy year is over. People talk about Black '87 but as far as I'm concerned,
> '02 has been my "black" year.
>
> Ernest
>
> http://12.228.5.66
Received on Thu Sep 26 2002 - 21:09:00 BST