It sounds like your ward is right in the middle of things–both on the negative, lots-of-potential-problems end, as well as the good anxiously-engaged-in-working-for-solutions end. I am curious about the flood area you mentioned above, as I haven’t heard about that before.

YMMV. My experience at the ward council level–which includes the EQP–has been that the WC is quite aware of the specifics of different members of the ward. That said, I think you (in passing) raise a more valid point–that getting people to inform ward leadership that they are unemployed and/or in need of help can be problematic. In other words, I believe that my EQP knows the job-goals of most folks who have identified themselves as seeking a job quite well, but I highly doubt that he is aware of everyone who is actually seeking (or _should be_) a new job.

As a former ward/stake employment specialist, I can say that this is one of the most ineffective methods I’ve heard of.

I’d challenge the EQP to see if he can name the people in his quorum who are looking for work and the type of job they are seeking. Only then is the fishing expedition worthwhile…

Sorry. I really did catch the irony, but my first response didn’t reflect that very well. #17 is admittedly doom and gloom, but it’s also a) some facts to counter the meaningless pronouncements by the same ‘experts’ that didn’t even see the recession coming, and b) a public prediction that I can point back to if is truly and unfortunately realized.

What I love is that people, wards, and stakes are taking better care of their own. That’s so awesome.

Yeah, I think that’s one of the biggest things I’ve noticed in my ward–a shift from a mentality of reactive efforts to proactive efforts. The discussions of job openings, networking meetings, and other related activities have become a regular part of almost all meetings, rather than an ad hoc event.

I also appreciate what Molly said in (18.) about the way the recession has hit many people who least expect to have these kinds of problems–those with lots of education and work experience. This is particularly difficult for those in that position, because their previously higher (relatively speaking) salaries means that finding lower-paying, temporary jobs are extremely unlikely to meet fixed liabilities such as home mortgage payments that were only attainable because of that higher salary.

My ward has also seen a handful of success stories, as networking within the ward has led to a few job hires that have been huge blessings for those families.

The main difference I’ve seen in my ward is a weekly call in EQ to please tell the employment specialist about any job openings you’ve heard about.

Our Stake President recently counseled our ward’s welfare committee to remember that our purpose is to be proactive, not reactive. To this end, our ward has been working on putting together a disaster response plan, and encouraging members to assess their resources.

This is exactly why Scott’s post has relevance. Even though one can recognize that GDP is the only measure of an Economy’s performance, it is still a crappy measure. At it’s most basic definition, GDP is the sum of consumer spending, government “spending”, investment, and trade balance. The interdependency of these components makes fiscal stimulus so unpredictable. Also, the government component has broadened its scope to include activities that really do not have multiplicative effects, like most Keynesians hope.

This rebound that we are seeing is just a small staying of further plummeting of the economy. Have all the audacious hope for the change that you want, but until the government stops supporting policies that inhibit investment and capital growth, all recovery projects will only have nominal effects, not real ones.

#4,

Since Cash for Clunkers is over, haven’t we seen a huge drop, since everyone who could buy did buy and now those who couldn’t buy are even less likely to buy than before?

Actually Ford just reported a surprising profit in its last quarter which was not related to the summer’s Cash for Clunkers program. But Ford has been ahead of the game, compared to GM and Chrysler, and it was expected they would come out of this recession in a fairly good shape. GM and Chrysler deserved to fall as they did; they lacked the vision and organizational culture to change as they should have. (Remember, GM killed the electric car and went with the hummer, when they should have had the foresight to see that the electric car was the future, and NOT the hummer).