If the recession is over, why are so many businesses closing? I just learned that my local Barnes & Noble in Calabasas is shutting down in a few weeks…and that one of my favorite BBQ joints, It's In The Sauce in Ventura, is up for sale. This is bad news for me… those are two of my favorite places to go.
Is that the B&N at the Commons? I was there ages ago, maybe around September 2000. My siser’s colleague gave her a gift certificate for Fins Creekside, where we had a lovely dinner.
I don’t think the recession is over, but one of the ways the Federal Government in Canada tries to make out that it is, is by fudging the unemployment numbers. They do it like this:
Suppose the work force is ten million persons. And suppose one million are unemployed. That means the unemployment rate is 10%. Then, let’s say another 500,000 persons get laid off. This should mean the unemployment rate is now 15%, which, of course, is horrendous. But the governemt still reports the rate as 10%. They do this by saying that 500,000 people have given up looking for work and therefore are no longer counted as part of the work force. So the recession is continuing to get worse, not better.
Toronto is a very tough place to find work. The actual rate of unemployment may be over 15%.
Barnes & Noble has been foundering for some time now, as has Borders.
You know why, of course. It starts with an “A” and rhymes with a river in South America.