The Economy

[Tom-D]

I know this is a touchy subject, but....

What indicators do you use to tell what it is doing..

stock market?
Gold prices?
What? do you believe will happen as the gas prices rise as predicted?

Who's fault isn't the subject.

I have an opportunity to buy a small company at about .05 cents on the dollar, it will only make sense if the economy improves.

 

[Jim Logajan]

I have an opportunity to buy a small company at about .05 cents on the dollar, it will only make sense if the economy improves.

Making a "microeconomic" decision based on "macroeconomic" conditions?
Hmmm.... not sure I'd rely much on the answer to that.

Just curious, but is this an aviation-related business?

Is it bigger than a breadbox?

When you say .05 cents on the dollar, does that mean $0.0005/$1 or you simply made a typo and meant $0.05/$1?

How was the valuation determined that yielded that .05 cents on the dollar? Was it based on that last time the company changed hands, or some other metric?

 

[Jim Logajan]

With regard to the economy, you originally asked only this:

What indicators do you use to tell what it is doing..

And you stated the motivation for the question:

I have an opportunity to buy a small company at about .05 cents on the dollar, it will only make sense if the economy improves.

With regard to the original question: for that last several years I've been doing a simple count of job openings advertised on LinkedIn within 100 miles of my zip code. It has basically doubled since its low point about 3 years ago. However, the growth could be due in part to the growing popularity of LinkedIn as a place to advertise jobs. Still, the ability to search only my geographical area gives me better insight into local economic conditions.

I notice that in general, the percentage of the U.S. population that is currently employed is greater than it was from the period 1948 to 1977. But it is smaller than it was from the period 1977 to 2010. Which period should be considered the "norm"? Why did it increase from 1982 to 1989? (The TV series "Family Ties" ran for that period also; clearly it should be brought back to improve the economy. Ronald Reagan was also president from 1981 to 1989; not sure there is any causal element there.)