Yeah. Haha I was talking about for seasonal retail. I've had a few architecture interviews since being home. But they all fell through as far as project funding. I'm starting to consider related fields for now. I'm not even applying to a bunch of Gherys, Hadids and Fosters. Just like...architecture firms in cities. Sucks.
Alright, so I'm in my third year in a 5-year program.
What are the chances the economy will level by May 2011?
Should I look into grad school now or later?
Should I look into joining the Peace Corps?
Having had the pleasure of looking for my first job in 96 when firms were still reluctant to hire let alone pay you a decent wage, I've positioned myself at firms that have a mix of project types they do. Most of these have been small (2-5 person firm) to medium size (30 person) firms. Working through three recessions since I graduated I can say that these downturns separate the wheat from the chafe. I put off grad school during those times because I was busy supporting myself. It wasn't until 2004/5 that I went back to grad school for my own personal reasons.
The advice I can say to those 20-somethings just getting out of school and getting that first real job and are now thinking they're looking at bread lines need to take a deep breath.
This is the time to learn how to market your skills and evaluate not only what types of work you want to explore but also how best to go after it.
Some have suggested looking at firms that focus on institutional, government, health care, higher ed, education. Definitely focusing on firms that do a diverse type of work can benefit you in the long run and the long term work tends to be more "recession proof" than commercial, retail, or residential.
The firm I'm working for now in DC does high-rise mixed use projects and also long term work for the GSA. That being said some projects have gone on hold and some keep moving forward. Yes there's that feeling of 'when will the next shoe drop' but at the same time I'm not feeling too nervous. I'm looking to move abroad for a year or two and acquire experience in other areas I haven't done yet like cultural and institutional projects. I'm also laying the groundwork to start my own firm to do projects that are more self-developed, community focused and lend themselves to the type of projects that benefit neighborhoods. Projects that are small to mid-scale projects that generate passive income for me and others. So I'm planning for the long term on a personal and professional level. If you don't look long term then you need to really get out now.
This profession is not the easiest profession to work in. It never has been. But if you love the craft, the challenges, creating and seeing something tangible get built, the highs and lows of it then you'll continue on and do what you have to do to continue doing it. Taking a year off to learn another trade or craft that you think might inform your skills as an architect or work out a deal w/ your current employer for part-time work that would allow you to pursue other areas of interest. You might get lucky in that they save money by cutting your hours back w/out losing your talents and you maintain a link to that employer while having the ability to pursue other self-generated interests that, hopefully, make income to fill the gap of part-time work.
My former coworker just called me. They laid off this morning. This has been the 4th round of layoffs and they have reduced 30% of their workforce in the design division. Eek.
i would think most severance packages right now are fairly thin - the whole reason firms are shedding people is because they're finances are being hit now, not necessarily 2 months from now. i'd think most packages are 2 weeks salary at best.
Aldis Nordfjord, a 53-year-old architect, also lost her job last month. So did all 44 of her co-workers — everyone in the company except its owners. Some 75 percent of Iceland’s private-sector architects have been fired in the past few weeks, she said.
here's an article in yesterday's atlanta business chronicle outlining how the economic woes are hitting local firms. i'd hate to be an employee at any of the firms mentioned. while some haven't made cuts yet, they all pretty much said they would be doing so if things don't pick up quickly (hint - they won't).
school is a good suggestion, i think. if you can afford. when i came out in '91, things were in the tank and plunging right back into grad school would definitely have been my best bet. since i couldn't afford it, i ended up working the retail jobs i mentioned above and as a drafter for a land surveyor. if only...
starting a year or so behind, after having weathered a downturn can slow your momentum a lot. i feel like my climb has been very slow because of it. i'm one of the generation that people talk about having left architecture but i have to say that staying in has NOT had the benefits you might expect given that archs my age are in shorter supply. we're just competing against younger, more technologically savvy kids that still have energy and idealism.
this sounds more bitter than it's meant to be. i love where i am and what i'm doing, but i will say that it was the result of a narrowed range of choices. grad school immediately after undergrad during the '91 recession MIGHT have had the effect of expanding my choices.
These are trying times and not getting better for the foreseeable future.
The dotcom bust landed, literally, as I graduated. As SW notes, this was enough to kill any lingering thoughts of staying the course, searching for jobs, etc.
Ultimately, it was the catalyst for me to start working for myself, eventually starting my own company.
I am feeling this like everyone, but thankful it is much more in my control than someone elses.
Point being, if there is a time to get creative and think about different, long term paths, this is it.
I'm in agreement with Steven above... graduated in '90. For years, my salary barely covered my student loan payments. I couldn't afford to work for free in a boutique. Lately, I've had to choose between my responsibilitites as senior architect, or spend the time to learn another new program that all the kids know. How'd it work out for me? The kids still have a job, but I'm out here hustling for another gig. With, yes, two weeks severance. And I still don't know that program.
To get serious, this recession will not end until there is a floor under housing prices. I was laid off from my job in the housing industry and have been watching this closely since the end of 2006, as my company was slowly and gradually downsizing over two years 70% of its staff to today. As for the floor, current projections are there will be a stabilization in spring of 2009. But no one knows for sure how permanent that floor will be. It might very well be temporary. There exists a 2nd wave of prime ARM loans (as opposed to the defaulting sub-prime ARM loans that began this mess) that are scheduled to reset in 2010. As I said, these are prime loans, meaning the borrower's credit wasn't originally considered at-risk at the time of the signing. What nobody knows yet is how many of those current borrowers are going to default on even their prime loans due to the effects of the recession we're already experiencing. Many will likely be upside-down, laid off themselves, etc. and unable to make their mortgage payments. I have no expectations of refinding employment in residential before this time and I'm not sure any other industry is safe in the mid-term, either. Sinking housing prices affect everybody. Will government artificially create a bottom? Possibly. But it would come at the expense of another funded source and would only delay the necessary and inevitable bottom, which is average home prices in traditional proportion with people's average income. In a world of traditionally tighter credit, nothing else will sustain an elevated average home price unless we all get raises. Like that's gonna happen!
In Philadelphia, PA, a large size office (not going to mension the name) layoff 20 architects in one day. One of the satellite offices of the firm that I work for had to be shut down due to the economy, who ever voted for W. Bush, in the second term, should die in a slowly and painful way. sorry I should be saying that.
Ya because Bush actualy tried to reign in sub-prime lending in 2003 NYT
go ask mush mouth barnie "face down ass up" franks all about it
''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.''
"At least one stArchitect Edinburgh office will close"
Who? I'm struggling to think of any Edinburgh Starchitects. MAKE perhaps...?
This thread is depressing. Come June, I will be finished by 6 years of education (counting year out). Couldn't have come at a worse time.
This time last year, I wanted to move to New York and work there. I didn't care that I would be paying huge amounts of rent, because as long as I could make enough to cover my bills, I would enjoy living there so much. Now, that seems incredibly unrealistic.
But the situation here in Scotland isn't great either. Friends of mine have been laid off, and others can't find any graduate jobs anywhere.
Anyone know what the water is like in Portland, Oregon? I can at least count on free rent with my sister for a month or two while I look for jobs there...
shit, i'll bite on your racist, homophobic, right wing ideological argument, clamfan.
now, either you're stupid or dumber than shit or an outright halfwit. to blame this economic crisis on subprime loans is not only wrong, the logic fails to recognize, what i think most economists would argue.
"There is a pat explanation that’s been put forward to explain the subprime crisis. The US Fed and other central banks
flooded the world with
liquidity and created an era of low interest rates. Greedy bankers sought to take advantage of low interest rates by selling housing loans to greedy consumers who could not afford these (subprime loans). Once interest rates started rising, defaults on these loans were bound to go up, housing prices fated to fall and institutions exposed to these loans bound to fail.
In other words, an asset bubble, financial inclusion and human greed combined to create the havoc visited on the financial system today. This is only a half-truth at best. You can have a housing bubble, a boom in subprime loans and lots of greed but it does not follow that there should be a financial crisis.
Banks’ losses on subprime loans cannot explain the crisis we have today. The US subprime market is estimated to be $1.3 trillion — or around 10% of all mortgage loans. How much have banks lost on subprime loans? According to the IMF’s Global Financial Stability Report, October 2008 (GFSR), just $50 billion!
It’s true that defaults on subprime loans have a snowballing effect as a fall in housing prices begins to impact on the economy at large. But even if we take this effect into account, the losses are not crippling. Losses on all loans, including commercial real estate, consumer loans, corporate loans, etc, have so far amounted to $425 billion with losses being shared by banks and other financial institutions. This is an order of losses that the financial system can withstand.
However, the financial system has suffered additional losses of $945 billion on investment in securities. Of these, losses on subprime related securities amount to $500 billion. These securities are not entirely subprime-related. Subprime loans are often one underlying component in a package.
It is losses on subprime-related securities that have complicated matters. An important reason why losses on these have been so large is that the accounting treatment of securities is different from that of loans. Traded securities have to be valued at market prices. If market prices fall below the face value of securities, banks must promptly recognise the associated losses. Loans are not required to be ‘marked to market’. Banks make provisions against loans as per regulatory norms.
Financial institutions invested in securities that were highly rated, meaning the risk of default on the underlying loans was believed to be low. When the default rate on subprime loans turned out to be higher than expected, the institutions panicked and wanted to get rid of subprime related securities. In the market, when everybody wants to exit, prices tend to overshoot their correct levels. [/q]
WASHINGTON — As the economy worsens and Election Day approaches, a conservative campaign that blames the global financial crisis on a government push to make housing more affordable to lower-class Americans has taken off on talk radio and e-mail.
Commentators say that's what triggered the stock market meltdown and the freeze on credit. They've specifically targeted the mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which the federal government seized on Sept. 6, contending that lending to poor and minority Americans caused Fannie's and Freddie's financial problems.
Federal housing data reveal that the charges aren't true, and that the private sector, not the government or government-backed companies, was behind the soaring subprime lending at the core of the crisis.
Subprime lending offered high-cost loans to the weakest borrowers during the housing boom that lasted from 2001 to 2007. Subprime lending was at its height from 2004 to 2006.
Federal Reserve Board data show that:
* More than 84 percent of the subprime mortgages in 2006 were issued by private lending institutions.
* Private firms made nearly 83 percent of the subprime loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers that year.
* Only one of the top 25 subprime lenders in 2006 was directly subject to the housing law that's being lambasted by conservative critics.
The "turmoil in financial markets clearly was triggered by a dramatic weakening of underwriting standards for U.S. subprime mortgages, beginning in late 2004 and extending into 2007," the President's Working Group on Financial Markets reported Friday.
Yea, beta, as that article points out, the laying of this whole fucking mess on Fannie and Freddie is another right-wing talk radio and blog and email steaming pile of bullshit. But it will just keep being repeated and repeated and will be the revisionist history we will hear in four years.
And here's how it works, in a quote by Christopher Lasch, an American historian, moralist, and social critic:
The master propagandist, like the advertising expert, avoids emotional appeals and strives for a tone that is consistent with the prosaic quality of modern life....Partial truths serve as more effective instruments of deception than lies....By using accurate details to imply a misleading picture of the whole, the artful propagandist makes truth the principal form of falsehood".
Not only does that cover clamfan's "truth", but most of what we've been fed by the Bush gang-of-idiots.
Was just given notice on Thursday that my last day will be 4 weeks from now--just long enough for my project to be issued for construction... Then I'm out. Kinda weird.
This is in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Sounds like it's hitting the small-medium size firms hard. Some have dropped half their staff (e.g. from 40 to 20 people). Even the impending 2010 Olympics doesn't seem to be helping us weather the downturn.
It's hard to be optimistic. I just graduated in April (with a RAIC Student Medal no less), and it doesn't look promising, considering there are already so many people out there looking for work, most much more experienced than me... I mean, I was just getting started!
Vado, I can't think of one thing about any of this as being amusing. Do you really think this is funny? These are people's livelihoods we're talking about here.
It's a tough one and not for the faint of heart. I was told from the begining that if you are looking for job stability and security, this isn't the right profession.
I understand that and most of the people here understand that. But regardless, losing your job still sucks and it's bad enough when we see colleagues get the pink slip. There is nothing amusing about any of it no matter what we were told.
I'm sure you wouldn't walk up to an architect in person who had just been told that they're being laid off and comment "would you like fries with that?" It's goddamn rude in person and it's goddamn rude here.
Vado, try to copy and paste the WHOLE post next time:
"I feel like the reason I'm not sweating my job too much (besides for the fact that I don't like it) is that I'm one of the lowest paid people there doing things that either a PA or a PM do plus production.
I feel like in this profession, you have to put in 100% and then go the extra 10 miles. That's been my mantra and this is what has kept me out of trouble and this what has kept my anual reviews consistently in positive territory. And at the same time I know that I am just as expendable as all the people before me who got laid off.
It's a tough one and not for the faint of heart. I was told from the begining that if you are looking for job stability and security, this isn't the right profession."
That was my whole post to put into context. It's a million times more appropriate than telling people who just got laid off to basically fuck off and go workwork fast food as an alternative. It's so insufferably rude.
Damn Sarah! I'm sorry. :( Wow it sounded like you had plenty of work. I'm sorry. I guess the good side is, more time with Abe. But still I hope you find something soon.
i had a box of about 800 business cards when i left my last job. my boss and i were extremely chummy and frequently played practical jokes on each other. he left for a meeting early and i decided to hide my business cards all over his office. i placed one business card in each of his music cds, underneath his picture frames, in his folders, within the mounds of outstanding RFIs, etc. needless to say, i got him good. he will still randomly email me and say 'i found another one. this one was under my name plate. good one.'
Layoffs....layoffs......
Yeah. Haha I was talking about for seasonal retail. I've had a few architecture interviews since being home. But they all fell through as far as project funding. I'm starting to consider related fields for now. I'm not even applying to a bunch of Gherys, Hadids and Fosters. Just like...architecture firms in cities. Sucks.
Alright, so I'm in my third year in a 5-year program.
What are the chances the economy will level by May 2011?
Should I look into grad school now or later?
Should I look into joining the Peace Corps?
Having had the pleasure of looking for my first job in 96 when firms were still reluctant to hire let alone pay you a decent wage, I've positioned myself at firms that have a mix of project types they do. Most of these have been small (2-5 person firm) to medium size (30 person) firms. Working through three recessions since I graduated I can say that these downturns separate the wheat from the chafe. I put off grad school during those times because I was busy supporting myself. It wasn't until 2004/5 that I went back to grad school for my own personal reasons.
The advice I can say to those 20-somethings just getting out of school and getting that first real job and are now thinking they're looking at bread lines need to take a deep breath.
This is the time to learn how to market your skills and evaluate not only what types of work you want to explore but also how best to go after it.
Some have suggested looking at firms that focus on institutional, government, health care, higher ed, education. Definitely focusing on firms that do a diverse type of work can benefit you in the long run and the long term work tends to be more "recession proof" than commercial, retail, or residential.
The firm I'm working for now in DC does high-rise mixed use projects and also long term work for the GSA. That being said some projects have gone on hold and some keep moving forward. Yes there's that feeling of 'when will the next shoe drop' but at the same time I'm not feeling too nervous. I'm looking to move abroad for a year or two and acquire experience in other areas I haven't done yet like cultural and institutional projects. I'm also laying the groundwork to start my own firm to do projects that are more self-developed, community focused and lend themselves to the type of projects that benefit neighborhoods. Projects that are small to mid-scale projects that generate passive income for me and others. So I'm planning for the long term on a personal and professional level. If you don't look long term then you need to really get out now.
This profession is not the easiest profession to work in. It never has been. But if you love the craft, the challenges, creating and seeing something tangible get built, the highs and lows of it then you'll continue on and do what you have to do to continue doing it. Taking a year off to learn another trade or craft that you think might inform your skills as an architect or work out a deal w/ your current employer for part-time work that would allow you to pursue other areas of interest. You might get lucky in that they save money by cutting your hours back w/out losing your talents and you maintain a link to that employer while having the ability to pursue other self-generated interests that, hopefully, make income to fill the gap of part-time work.
My former coworker just called me. They laid off this morning. This has been the 4th round of layoffs and they have reduced 30% of their workforce in the design division. Eek.
KPF laid off 34 last month.
We've laid off 25% so far. Taking it month by month.
my advice to everyone; get your license as soon as possible. when you have your license, you own your life.
what are the typically severance packages people are getting? has anyone asked to move to a contract position within their firms or take a pay cut?
Some lucky individuals who were laid off in my firm were then rehired into different positions in the office a week later.
i would think most severance packages right now are fairly thin - the whole reason firms are shedding people is because they're finances are being hit now, not necessarily 2 months from now. i'd think most packages are 2 weeks salary at best.
I definitely agree that grad school is a bad idea at this time... no one should even THINK about applying...
I don't need the competition. I don't have a problem with you guys applying next year, though.
haha.
I heard 30% of SOM London are gone.
In other news....
Aldis Nordfjord, a 53-year-old architect, also lost her job last month. So did all 44 of her co-workers — everyone in the company except its owners. Some 75 percent of Iceland’s private-sector architects have been fired in the past few weeks, she said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/world/europe/09iceland.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
here's an article in yesterday's atlanta business chronicle outlining how the economic woes are hitting local firms. i'd hate to be an employee at any of the firms mentioned. while some haven't made cuts yet, they all pretty much said they would be doing so if things don't pick up quickly (hint - they won't).
http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2008/11/10/story9.html
school is a good suggestion, i think. if you can afford. when i came out in '91, things were in the tank and plunging right back into grad school would definitely have been my best bet. since i couldn't afford it, i ended up working the retail jobs i mentioned above and as a drafter for a land surveyor. if only...
starting a year or so behind, after having weathered a downturn can slow your momentum a lot. i feel like my climb has been very slow because of it. i'm one of the generation that people talk about having left architecture but i have to say that staying in has NOT had the benefits you might expect given that archs my age are in shorter supply. we're just competing against younger, more technologically savvy kids that still have energy and idealism.
this sounds more bitter than it's meant to be. i love where i am and what i'm doing, but i will say that it was the result of a narrowed range of choices. grad school immediately after undergrad during the '91 recession MIGHT have had the effect of expanding my choices.
These are trying times and not getting better for the foreseeable future.
The dotcom bust landed, literally, as I graduated. As SW notes, this was enough to kill any lingering thoughts of staying the course, searching for jobs, etc.
Ultimately, it was the catalyst for me to start working for myself, eventually starting my own company.
I am feeling this like everyone, but thankful it is much more in my control than someone elses.
Point being, if there is a time to get creative and think about different, long term paths, this is it.
I'm in agreement with Steven above... graduated in '90. For years, my salary barely covered my student loan payments. I couldn't afford to work for free in a boutique. Lately, I've had to choose between my responsibilitites as senior architect, or spend the time to learn another new program that all the kids know. How'd it work out for me? The kids still have a job, but I'm out here hustling for another gig. With, yes, two weeks severance. And I still don't know that program.
I was laid off back at the end of August. Now I'm doin' the drywall over at MACDonald's...
To get serious, this recession will not end until there is a floor under housing prices. I was laid off from my job in the housing industry and have been watching this closely since the end of 2006, as my company was slowly and gradually downsizing over two years 70% of its staff to today. As for the floor, current projections are there will be a stabilization in spring of 2009. But no one knows for sure how permanent that floor will be. It might very well be temporary. There exists a 2nd wave of prime ARM loans (as opposed to the defaulting sub-prime ARM loans that began this mess) that are scheduled to reset in 2010. As I said, these are prime loans, meaning the borrower's credit wasn't originally considered at-risk at the time of the signing. What nobody knows yet is how many of those current borrowers are going to default on even their prime loans due to the effects of the recession we're already experiencing. Many will likely be upside-down, laid off themselves, etc. and unable to make their mortgage payments. I have no expectations of refinding employment in residential before this time and I'm not sure any other industry is safe in the mid-term, either. Sinking housing prices affect everybody. Will government artificially create a bottom? Possibly. But it would come at the expense of another funded source and would only delay the necessary and inevitable bottom, which is average home prices in traditional proportion with people's average income. In a world of traditionally tighter credit, nothing else will sustain an elevated average home price unless we all get raises. Like that's gonna happen!
should I not continue architecture?
Im working on a BA of architecture.
good thing i have a high math background. Guess I am going engineering and then back for an M.ARCH
In Philadelphia, PA, a large size office (not going to mension the name) layoff 20 architects in one day. One of the satellite offices of the firm that I work for had to be shut down due to the economy, who ever voted for W. Bush, in the second term, should die in a slowly and painful way. sorry I should be saying that.
Ya because Bush actualy tried to reign in sub-prime lending in 2003
NYT
go ask mush mouth barnie "face down ass up" franks all about it
''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.''
look into home improvement jobs....get your hands dirty a bit and still learn a little.
good luck people......
"At least one stArchitect Edinburgh office will close"
Who? I'm struggling to think of any Edinburgh Starchitects. MAKE perhaps...?
This thread is depressing. Come June, I will be finished by 6 years of education (counting year out). Couldn't have come at a worse time.
This time last year, I wanted to move to New York and work there. I didn't care that I would be paying huge amounts of rent, because as long as I could make enough to cover my bills, I would enjoy living there so much. Now, that seems incredibly unrealistic.
But the situation here in Scotland isn't great either. Friends of mine have been laid off, and others can't find any graduate jobs anywhere.
Anyone know what the water is like in Portland, Oregon? I can at least count on free rent with my sister for a month or two while I look for jobs there...
Hey guys, there´s still plenty of jobs in the Middle East and CHina, if you wanna work there....just go for the usual recruiters....
shit, i'll bite on your racist, homophobic, right wing ideological argument, clamfan.
now, either you're stupid or dumber than shit or an outright halfwit. to blame this economic crisis on subprime loans is not only wrong, the logic fails to recognize, what i think most economists would argue.
"There is a pat explanation that’s been put forward to explain the subprime crisis. The US Fed and other central banks
flooded the world with
liquidity and created an era of low interest rates. Greedy bankers sought to take advantage of low interest rates by selling housing loans to greedy consumers who could not afford these (subprime loans). Once interest rates started rising, defaults on these loans were bound to go up, housing prices fated to fall and institutions exposed to these loans bound to fail.
In other words, an asset bubble, financial inclusion and human greed combined to create the havoc visited on the financial system today. This is only a half-truth at best. You can have a housing bubble, a boom in subprime loans and lots of greed but it does not follow that there should be a financial crisis.
Banks’ losses on subprime loans cannot explain the crisis we have today. The US subprime market is estimated to be $1.3 trillion — or around 10% of all mortgage loans. How much have banks lost on subprime loans? According to the IMF’s Global Financial Stability Report, October 2008 (GFSR), just $50 billion!
It’s true that defaults on subprime loans have a snowballing effect as a fall in housing prices begins to impact on the economy at large. But even if we take this effect into account, the losses are not crippling. Losses on all loans, including commercial real estate, consumer loans, corporate loans, etc, have so far amounted to $425 billion with losses being shared by banks and other financial institutions. This is an order of losses that the financial system can withstand.
However, the financial system has suffered additional losses of $945 billion on investment in securities. Of these, losses on subprime related securities amount to $500 billion. These securities are not entirely subprime-related. Subprime loans are often one underlying component in a package.
It is losses on subprime-related securities that have complicated matters. An important reason why losses on these have been so large is that the accounting treatment of securities is different from that of loans. Traded securities have to be valued at market prices. If market prices fall below the face value of securities, banks must promptly recognise the associated losses. Loans are not required to be ‘marked to market’. Banks make provisions against loans as per regulatory norms.
Financial institutions invested in securities that were highly rated, meaning the risk of default on the underlying loans was believed to be low. When the default rate on subprime loans turned out to be higher than expected, the institutions panicked and wanted to get rid of subprime related securities. In the market, when everybody wants to exit, prices tend to overshoot their correct levels. [/q]
For Those Able To Read
BWBR laid off a lucky 13 in Saint Paul.
WASHINGTON — As the economy worsens and Election Day approaches, a conservative campaign that blames the global financial crisis on a government push to make housing more affordable to lower-class Americans has taken off on talk radio and e-mail.
Commentators say that's what triggered the stock market meltdown and the freeze on credit. They've specifically targeted the mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which the federal government seized on Sept. 6, contending that lending to poor and minority Americans caused Fannie's and Freddie's financial problems.
Federal housing data reveal that the charges aren't true, and that the private sector, not the government or government-backed companies, was behind the soaring subprime lending at the core of the crisis.
Subprime lending offered high-cost loans to the weakest borrowers during the housing boom that lasted from 2001 to 2007. Subprime lending was at its height from 2004 to 2006.
Federal Reserve Board data show that:
* More than 84 percent of the subprime mortgages in 2006 were issued by private lending institutions.
* Private firms made nearly 83 percent of the subprime loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers that year.
* Only one of the top 25 subprime lenders in 2006 was directly subject to the housing law that's being lambasted by conservative critics.
The "turmoil in financial markets clearly was triggered by a dramatic weakening of underwriting standards for U.S. subprime mortgages, beginning in late 2004 and extending into 2007," the President's Working Group on Financial Markets reported Friday.
More For Those Inclined To Read
No ones attacking Beta for taking it in the ass. Calm down.
well i do, at least i have been for the last 8 years. perhaps on 01.20.09 the Dick/Bush will finally pull out.
Yea, beta, as that article points out, the laying of this whole fucking mess on Fannie and Freddie is another right-wing talk radio and blog and email steaming pile of bullshit. But it will just keep being repeated and repeated and will be the revisionist history we will hear in four years.
And here's how it works, in a quote by Christopher Lasch, an American historian, moralist, and social critic:
The master propagandist, like the advertising expert, avoids emotional appeals and strives for a tone that is consistent with the prosaic quality of modern life....Partial truths serve as more effective instruments of deception than lies....By using accurate details to imply a misleading picture of the whole, the artful propagandist makes truth the principal form of falsehood".
Not only does that cover clamfan's "truth", but most of what we've been fed by the Bush gang-of-idiots.
Emilio, that a beautiful quote, but it covers just about 99% of anything you hear from any leader or news source.
ok, then, let's just say the outgoing bunch excelled at it (and that's the only thing they excelled at), and leave it at that.
Was just given notice on Thursday that my last day will be 4 weeks from now--just long enough for my project to be issued for construction... Then I'm out. Kinda weird.
This is in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Sounds like it's hitting the small-medium size firms hard. Some have dropped half their staff (e.g. from 40 to 20 people). Even the impending 2010 Olympics doesn't seem to be helping us weather the downturn.
It's hard to be optimistic. I just graduated in April (with a RAIC Student Medal no less), and it doesn't look promising, considering there are already so many people out there looking for work, most much more experienced than me... I mean, I was just getting started!
do you want fries with that?
Vado, I can't think of one thing about any of this as being amusing. Do you really think this is funny? These are people's livelihoods we're talking about here.
It's a tough one and not for the faint of heart. I was told from the begining that if you are looking for job stability and security, this isn't the right profession.
lively hood is obviously overrated, devalue.
lol
I understand that and most of the people here understand that. But regardless, losing your job still sucks and it's bad enough when we see colleagues get the pink slip. There is nothing amusing about any of it no matter what we were told.
I'm sure you wouldn't walk up to an architect in person who had just been told that they're being laid off and comment "would you like fries with that?" It's goddamn rude in person and it's goddamn rude here.
my last post is a cut and paste of an earlier post of yours. words of wisdom/advice which is no more/less rude than what i've posted.
got laid off a week ago.
my biggest concern...
...what do i do with all my old business cards? i've got like 400 of them!
Vado, try to copy and paste the WHOLE post next time:
"I feel like the reason I'm not sweating my job too much (besides for the fact that I don't like it) is that I'm one of the lowest paid people there doing things that either a PA or a PM do plus production.
I feel like in this profession, you have to put in 100% and then go the extra 10 miles. That's been my mantra and this is what has kept me out of trouble and this what has kept my anual reviews consistently in positive territory. And at the same time I know that I am just as expendable as all the people before me who got laid off.
It's a tough one and not for the faint of heart. I was told from the begining that if you are looking for job stability and security, this isn't the right profession."
That was my whole post to put into context. It's a million times more appropriate than telling people who just got laid off to basically fuck off and go workwork fast food as an alternative. It's so insufferably rude.
send me your business cards! I'm thinking about an installation...
2907 1/2 MLK Jr. Way
Berkeley, CA 94703
i never told anyone to fuck off. not even my reviewers.
Well, you can add me to the list.
mea culpa. my comment was out of line.
Damn Sarah! I'm sorry. :( Wow it sounded like you had plenty of work. I'm sorry. I guess the good side is, more time with Abe. But still I hope you find something soon.
i am going to try this, so please try it and let me know if works or should we try something else?
Archinect Unemployment
perhaps, if this works, we can map the trends or identify weak areas or possible areas for growth?? eh?
dread - sorry to hear about the layoff.
re: business cards
i had a box of about 800 business cards when i left my last job. my boss and i were extremely chummy and frequently played practical jokes on each other. he left for a meeting early and i decided to hide my business cards all over his office. i placed one business card in each of his music cds, underneath his picture frames, in his folders, within the mounds of outstanding RFIs, etc. needless to say, i got him good. he will still randomly email me and say 'i found another one. this one was under my name plate. good one.'
hmm. i bailed one office right after they had 800 business cards made for everyone (i thought that was entirely optimistic)
anyway, i used like 5.
and left the other 795 for d-bag to deal with.
I just got laid off this morning.
Fuck.
I can clean houses for $10 an hour. I also do jokes.
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