That was then, this is now?
June 28th, 2008 by RickHawaii’s real estate market was softening, the U.S. economy was battling recession and the state had just seen its largest-ever mass layoff.
The failure to approve a multi-billion dollar mass transit system on Oahu dominated local headlines for weeks.
Sound familiar?
That was 1992. It was the beginning of the longest and deepest economic downturn in state history.
Some local policy makers will tell you that things are very different today. They pat themselves on the back and say that the economy has made a lot of structural changes and is better able to weather the financial storms that hit our shores.
I’m not entirely convinced by that.
The shutdown of Aloha Airlines — whose impact on the local zeitgeist was similar to that of the 1992 closure of Hamakua Sugar — is worrisome.
High fuel costs are affecting that moves from car sales, shipping costs, air fares and visitor arrivals.
The financial turmoil in the credit markets probably won’t have as big an impact here as the collapse of the 1990s Japanese investment bubble but it definitely will be felt by the local real estate sector. (Vulture investors — who made millions off of the 1990s recession — are beginning to lick their chops.)
I suspect we’re at one of those critical economic junctures where the policies we adopt now will have long lasting impact. It would be tragic if we allowed history to repeat itself.
Tags: Economy
June 28th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
I found your blog on MSN Search. Nice writing. I will check back to read more.
Eric Hundin
June 30th, 2008 at 9:56 am
I wonder how many people had to postpone their retirement because of this recession we’re in. An older, wiser accountant told me that as I get closer to retirement - maybe like when I’m 5 years from retiring - to take my IRA monies out of stocks and put them into safer conservative funds. Don’t get greedy. People who didn’t heed this advice might have lost too much in the past 9 months to retire now. Selling their stocks now would be the worse thing to do. They missed the boat and all they can do now is ride out the storm. Like the rest of us.
July 1st, 2008 at 6:58 am
Rodney:
You’re right on in your statement. The last stock market tumble during the .com bust caused many here to delay their retirement. I could have retired last year but it wasn’t the right time for me financially, it’s even worse now. The chance of growing old gracefully is looking bleak at the moment.
August 12th, 2008 at 2:13 am
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!