Dying industries in America

[oman]

i don't know much about finance - would it be possible to short blockbuster and just sit on it until the company blows up?

 

[Dakota rube]

Originally Posted by rnoldh

I know little to nothing of trailer homes.

Are most them financed by a mortgage company?

Or are they owner financed? By the seller that is?

I doubt many new mobile homes are paid all cash.

For years and years there was really only one national company financing manufactured home sales. They owned the market and could really charge whateverthefuck rate they wanted. When thousands of those loans went bad and the collateral ended up being a pile of 2x2 lumber and sheet metal the company went into a death spiral and nearly collapsed.

As I said, I think they are getting back to some measure of health and trying to make a go of things again.

You'd be surprised at how expensive some of these manufactured homes are: I know several people who have spent 6 figures and that didn't include any land or a foundation!

 

[A.L.Z.]

Originally Posted by Pantisocrat

Nowadays, apparel manufacturing in America is not done by free Americans. Emphasize "free" and "American". Most of the workers are undocumented and you can see US made quality through shoddy stitching and uneven pattern matching. The classic example of what I'm talking about is AA (made in downtown LA), who also makes uniforms for US Army. I used to buy tons of US made outdoor equipments, from HID lights to knives and hiking bags, and I can tell you that made in USA means diddly squat these days. Then, you have prison labor, comprised of mostly immigrants and untrained natives, churning out "made in USA" denim trousers with pride and love.

I honestly don't have stats on this--but this is known to occur. Again, I don't know how widespread and what percentage...

But this is exactly what a colleague here said when I showed him the industry decline stats for the US in this thread....

My colleagues experience is with the construction materials manufacturing industry in New Jersey....I wont' go into details, but what he described is near identical to what you describe above...

Sad...it's about greed for quick and vast profits...

 

[TylerDurden]

In the last 6 months here:
Well locally here in the heart of the midwest, several manufactures have closed shop or moved to manufacture in china/mexico and laid off hundreds. Also several banks have laid off hundreds of postions and the insurance industry has laid off hundreds of postions. Several of the minimum wage retail stores have shutdown laying off their workforce too. About the only places that are hiring here are McDonalds for part-time and Wal-Mart for night stockers.

Theres a tent city that seems to be growing next to a downtown park here near the river.