Count Down

[LovelyLadyLux]

End of November marks the US Thanksgiving and with it comes BLACK Friday and Cyber Monday - traditionally big time shopping days. I believe the term Black Friday came into effect as this was the shopping day that could turn accounting books showing red into black IF the sales were good enough.

Historically the day after Thanksgiving was the day people lined up to storm the doors of their favourite stores and scoop the bargains thus getting a jump on the holiday season. Now cyber Monday has also been incorporated into the sales.

I've heard, via the news media that this year sales have been terrific and have surpassed all previous years sales which have been pretty dismal since about 2008. All the pundits are using this info to proclaim a new dawn is rising, the economy is breathing again and all is right in the world.

On another note - and this is more trivia - each and every year the TV news shows people camping out outside closed store doors all night waiting to the first to get in the door for the Black Friday sales.

Would if you could get whatever is your hearts desire - would you camp outside a store all night long so as to be the first one through the door in the morning?

[Grandad]

It would have to be a real bargain to get me to camp out overnight LLL.

However I have noticed that far more chain stores and online stores had Black Friday week last week and some have advertised Cyber Monday for yesterday. We did get a few things on Amazon but their stock of popular items disappeared in seconds as each item became available. Apparently they did very well indeed.

[Christine]

I agree with Grandad , it would have to be very very special and a MUST have , also i would have to really really need this thing to camp out anywhere !!
Its good to see that actual store shopping is still thriving , with the onset of more and more shopping being done online and all the online bargains you can get its nnice to know that some, me included like to shop the old way...........you actually have to go there !

[LovelyLadyLux]

From what I saw on the TV News this Black Friday was really Black and all the stores did really really well. People were out and shopping and boosting the economy back up there.

[Christine]

Well good for them, it seems that in this year of austerity there has been record spending here as well according to the news the other night so" its begining to look a lot like christmas "

[Horus]

Although things are tighter than usual for most people, I often think that we are talked into these down turns by all the doom and gloom. If our so called Chancellor got off his Public Schoolboy arse and cut VAT (a UK tax that puts 20% on most purchases) instead of increasing it, then he may see some economical improvement as people started spending again.

[LovelyLadyLux]

I've never held a political post where I've been charged with raising revenue but it seems to me that one of the easiest ways is to get the public spending. Wouldn't it make more sense to have people spending than having them have to really think sit and decide about purchases. Rather than try and make a years living off of ONE purchase why not lower VAT and sell 4!!

I've noticed here that movement in the grocery stores seems to be brisk. One of the main grocery stores has put up a banner that they are going to be open now 24 hours/day. I've never known this to happen but then I haven't actually been around here for a decade either. If people are buying it adds to my own optimism that the economy is chugging along a tad better than it has been in recent past.

Course that being said the USA has Obama refusing to negotiate with the opposing party and is asking that Congress give him a blank cheque to be able to do whatever he wants with regard to the debt which is now something like 16 trillion dollars and fast rising. The 'fiscal cliff' is apparently approaching and the count down IS on with regard to it. The economy of Greece is one thing. I don't want to see what is going to happen if the US economy start to really go down.

[Horus]

Never mind LLL, there is some light at the end of the tunnel, both the USA and UK have found large gas deposits of oil shale and with the new ‘Fracking’ techniques we are about to be self sufficient in natural gas again for about the next 50 years. It is predicted that the US now has sufficient reserves to be a bigger exporter than Saudi Arabia and by 2035 will be the worlds largest producer, oh what joy to be free from the Middle east strangle hold on oil and gas. Some of the figures are astounding, it is reckoned that the US shale alone contains more oil than all the oil ever produced since the beginning of oil exploration at the start of the century!

[LovelyLadyLux]

When I moved to the USA in March 2000 I paid .88 PENNIES/gallon of gas for my car. Now a mere 13 yrs laters the cost of a gallon of gas is $4.65/gallon (when I left).

Canada has huge oil reserves and hopefully SOON us Canadians will be in the same bracket as Kuwaitis! I'll be GIVEN a proverbial fortune just Coz.......(not holding my breath though)

Fracking is interesting. I know only a little bit about it and how it is being done does interest me in that I wonder after them blend up the rocks, suck off all liquid - what is left? Holes?

[Horus]

Fracking just releases the gas trapped within the rocks so the above ground facilities are quite small about soccer pitch size. Oil is derived from 'cooking' the oil shale to release the oil, so a bigger and more messy option.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Fracking is definitely the word of the oil industry these days and if all predications come true none of us will need any middle eastern oil in future. Going to be devastating to those countries who only deal in oil with very little other diversification.

[Horus]

They will just sell to the Chinese instead, so they will need to start learning Mandarin

[LovelyLadyLux]

True true true. Right now Canada has a major pipeline going. Obama thumbed his nose at us, doesn't want our oil/gas/energy so I believe the pipeline is now heading west and we're going to be selling to the Chinese soon.

The TV news here is mixed on what is going to happen if the US doesn't reach agreement their budget and it seems pretty imperative that they need to get something in place as they're fast approaching, what is being termed, a fiscal cliff. Seems Obama wants 'total power' to spend money as he wants. Seems he is definitely a spender and has been the most expensive President having spent more $$ than all previous Presidents.......course, as per his Administration, this was all the fault of GW Bush.