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Canaries Dying in the Mine Shaft

By Larry Johnson on November 12, 2008 at 8:43 PM in Current Affairs

Here is an isolated anecdote about the economy. It is a very worrisome sign that things are getting worse than many expected. I live in Bethesda, Maryland, which is six miles from the White House. The DC metro area normally is considered recession proof. If we start hurting here, where the Government can literally print money, then you know the rest of the country is hosed.

My bookkeeper just came by to pick up some bills and told me a shocking story. Earlier today she was with another of her clients, a guy who owns a car wash. The man has a cash crisis and was trying to collect $7,000 from Chevy/GM car dealer that used his services to wash new cars before sending them out of the showroom. Someone from the Washington Sewer and Sanitary Service (WSSC) showed up to turn off his water because he had not paid his water bill.

Hopefully you appreciate that if you do not have running water you cannot wash cars. The desperate businessman pleaded for an additional day and headed for the Chevy dealer. Lo and behold, who does he meet, but the WSSC guy who is going to turn off the water at the dealership as well.

At least we are going to be conserving water. That’s the silver lining, right?

UPDATE–Here is another firsthand account from one of our community at NoQuarter. Since he writes under the name, Seattle Moss, I am assuming he lives in or near Seattle:

Larry,
My company is the Canary in the coal mine. Without my product companies are unable to produce,manufactuer or ship anything. We manufacturer industrial packaging supplies and right now the business has dropped like a stone. What once was a six week lead time for product has dropped to one week. Shortened work week and layoffs are coming.

I’m trying to be upbeat, but I deal with everyone that makes anything and right now it looks scary.