My work has just cut back even more so like this week I am working 3 days only and now it will be a 4 day week for me for a couple months at least

Erebuni sold off all it's old stock to Fidanza, I believe. If you want body kits you can buy them from Fidanza.

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I didn't vote for Obama but "his" road, bridge and power plant construction have me working 12-14 days. Monday work kicks off at 2 am......luckily I'm on vacation until Wednesday .

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http://www.cardomain.com/id/karkev

The wife and I havent been effected too awefully bad. She runs a photography buisiness locally, and her rates are better by $100s then most other photographers in town, so she's had work there. She's also one of 3 co-owners of a coffee shop here in town, so she hasnt had to worry about lay-offs.

I do worry about getting laid-off from my job, but it is unlikely (8 years employed, and half the crew has already been). Because of this, we havent been spending much on luxury's, like, for instance, my ka-t s13 or my '78 cressida. We've just been putting the money into savings or spending extra on bills.

Not having a car payment helps out alot too, we own everything we drive, which is nice . Great to have that extra $250-$500 in our pocket each month .

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'70 sl350, '86 spree, '88 cressida

daytime job is working for a mazda dealership..as a salesman
but it's been a while (3 months) since i sold a car..
this job is based on commision..
if i dont sale any...
i only get paid US$50 a month..
if i do sale one i get US$450 a month..
also this job is based on sales achievements in 3 months contract..
if i dont fullfill the demanded numbers..
i'm off the job...

so sidejob is a must for me..
been selling bike parts online too since 2006..
not bad..earns me extra around $150 a month..

luckily wife is workiing too..gets $300 a month
but she is 7 months pregnant now..
been telling her to stay at home n quit the job...
but she insist to keep working for another 2 months till her yearly bonus comes (another $300)

been hunting for olskool stuffs for the last 2 months..
n offer them here....

hopefully can sell them n bring good food to my family..

cheers,


youngki

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I LUV JNC

Despite the claims that the economy has begun recovery, looking at the currency exchange rates, it is getting worse.

The economic situation that made it possible to bring over all those Skylines for movies and rich fanboys was a 125 Yen per dollar exchange rate (and cheap fuel for boats). That rate is favorable, or allows some pretty good purchasing power for the dollar in Japan.

About the same time as the last presidential inauguration, the exchange rate took a nose dive to the sub-100 yen per dollar range. This morning it hit an all time low of 86 Yen per dollar! That's about a 30% drop in a few years time.

As bad as that is for us trying to track down used parts from overseas, think about the new car market and the often lamented lack of new economical sporty cars. With a 125 Yen per dollar exchange rate, Toyota could make car that cost 2,500,000 Yen, and sell it in the US for $20,000. At 86 Yen per dollar, that changes the 2,500,000 Yen car to a US price of $30,000.
That takes a lot of the mystery out of Toyota's foot dragging and on-again-off-again production plans for their affordable sporty car. Would anyone care to track the announcements by Toyota compared to the exchange rate? There's a really good chance that every time the exchange rate improves, the car is back on track, and every time it tanks, the car is canceled.

Time to invest in wheelbarrows. Demand in wheelbarrows will skyrocket when people switch from carrying their dollars in their wallets to something that will hold enough dollars to actually buy something.

It sure is a good time to buy.. I missed out on an 85 Celica Supra w 120,000 miles for $500, that only needed a taillight... and the owner had the extra taillight.

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1987 Nissan "Datsun" S12 200sx XE notch
1988 Acura Da3 Integra RS
1981 Toyota Te72 Corolla
1983 Toyota Ae72 Corolla

The economy hit my wife and me fairly hard. I do contract work with the Government. We work on a yearly contract basis. This has changed to a 3 month bridge contract. Next one is up on December 18th, just in time for Christmas. It's quite possible I could be out of work.

My wife lost her job back in 08, just in time for us to have our second child. She's back to work part-time, so things are looking up.

I hate to think of what my house is worth...

My Jeep that I’ve been trying to sell for 6 months keeps getting lower in price.

I talked with the guy that does the state inspection for my cars Wednesday. He has a Jeep on the lift that needs a motor. He bought it with a bad motor thinking he could turn a buck. He said with the Cash-for-Clunkers deal all the used motor prices have gone up. What used to be $800 is now $1500.

Overall Richmond hasn't been hit as hard as the rest of the country. But, I still drive by a lot of closed down stores. The Mc-Mansions that were 400k are now 180k, like they should have been from the start anyway.

Selling used parts is a joke. I usually rely on a few bucks every couple of weeks from sales of parts to supplement the income.

I’ve taken to my old trade of Motorcycle Mechanic and started doing work in the garage. I’ve got a Ducati 750 Monster on the lift right now for a ton of work.

I ramble…8)

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83' DR30

hard times for some and not so hard times for others ...
viewtopic.php?t=7459&highlight=

I am a contractor with a Japanese Aircraft maintenance firm. Our pay has gone up and frankly, with the cost of goods and services being devalued (deflation) the only constant are nagging taxes. We get a good deal of services and have a completely safe environment to live in. Our company extends services to both the Japanese Maritime Air Services, and the United States Navy. 35 years same company, same place.

For about 7 1/2 years up until the end of 2008, I had a well paying, stable, decent job close to home, which would have still been reasonably safe through the recession...
If not for that I quit!
Yes, everyone told me it was a stupid thing to do, especially at this time.
Even almost a year later now, I've still yet to find any proper full length of work for any period of time. (Got made redundant from one job I had this year)
Even though I'm still paying the price somewhat, I could not be happier about my decision. I worked for soooo long in a job that was utterly soul destroying, and quitting has been one of the most liberating feelings I've yet to have.
Yes, this has affected my car project, as I need some $$$ to finish it off.
But I dont have kids or a mortgage, or any sort of debts...
The fact that finishing my car off is the biggest of my financial woes speaks volumes about how lucky I am compared to some at the moment.

I've been wondering, with such an unfavorable exchange rate between the US dollar and everything else including pocket lint and little pieces of string, why people in foreign countries aren't going through the US like it's on big yard sale, and buying everything that isn't bolted to the floor.

We just had our news story about record high unemployment and the follow up news cycle about the chasm between Wall Street and Main Street (the stock market recovers with all their imaginary money while the people who are working for a living see their savings destroyed, wages cut, etc).

I've watched the tent cities pop up all over Japan for the last decade, the homeless rate is increasing and it's alarming.

I've had some friends disappear, inquired with other friends to track them down, and the only response is "Well, the economy in Japan is really bad...".

They just announced that the jobless rate had just matched the post-WWII record rate in Japan.

So that hope that we would be exporting lots of product to Japan due to the favorable exchange rate going that direction, is not panning out very well.

I joked about not sinking lower and many of the rest of the world sinking to the same level. But a lot of the rest of the world can't tread water as well as those of us have had so much practice. And treading water in a sea full of corpses is getting a little old.

Well quit my job because it was a huge sham of a company (family owned and raped) but when they hired the salesman back that had been arrested at the store and then eventually convicted of child pornography (the other charges ended up dropped but they were along the same lines, child molestation, ect.) I just couldn't morally take it anymore. Now I sit and wait for ohcanada's work to hire me but thats taking awhile due to the economy as well

To answer part of the question you pose (Yard Sale/ U.S) they already have. China & Japan have “bought” dollars, (at our request) limiting their own liquidity.