anyone STILL not believing we are fucked?

[Ed Who?]

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080121/world_markets.html

jesus...why do i get a feeling if it keeps up...i may be back at my house working alone on bikes in the garage...pretty hard to keep upbeat..even thou our 2007 was up big again...doesnt mean i take this shit lightly...thank god i only owe 45% of my house value...it was almost 30% but the values were inflated then...still i feel good considering i have buddies with OVER 120% owed on value...fuck man...granted young kid and the city he lives in has DROPPED hard this last year in real estate..still..wtf does that poor kid do?

Man...wish you guys like DPW, Bluth, and such at Intel could make something work...haha..JK..

Actually it'd be nice if us AMERICANS would STOP supporting EVERY OTHER country and stop FIGHTING every other country and just fucking DO WORK in our own house! Man..NOTHING IS MADE HERE ANYMORE!!! All in favor of the short term gain/profit!

sad....

[Hypnotiq]

Yeah, the decline of the US $ is not good at all. Cutting the interest rate a half point won't help it. We need to stop the band-aid fixes to make people "feel better" about the economy.

The whole sub prime mortgage fiasco is going to end up biting us in the ass too. Foreign investors are gonna go apeshit over that 2% they're gonna lose.

[acy179]

If you've got it, now's the time to start investing into the big banks that are hurting. They will turn around. I work in the sector and have heard reports of Warren Buffmeister buying up all kinds of bank stocks.

Wish I had the money to do so right now!!

[Ed Who?]

thats what i was told too...too bad i dont got it though..i moved my shop into spanking new pimp palace RIGHT at the PEAK of the economy...ahhhh forecasting that would have been good...but im so in love with my new shop and location i dont care...less toys i guess for a while...

im TIRED of hearing this ".5% rate cut" or "$142b tax check" that aint gonna do SHIT! Its all SHORT FUCKING WASHINGTON DC POLITICAL BULLSHIT! Until we INVEST IN OUR COUNTRY and bring back the fucking troops overseas and start BUILDING factories again and PRODUCING shit...we are gonna keep getting our dicks kicked in dirt!!!!

just my $.02

[flyingbutterknife]

Honestly,I risk life and limb racing and just dont care about the shit I cant change. If the economy is bad,I'll race,if we invade Canada,I'll race,if our American dollar is the lowest its ever been,I'll get a second job,and race.......If our president bans racing,I'll go to war! Until then, live it up while your young enough too and have no regrets when your old.

[sanfret]

Do a bit of reading on what happened in the 30s. Then you can start freaking about carrying debt and the power of eight people to control the economic fate of literally the world. Back to racing now...

[Ed Who?]

funny but true story (so he says) is when my grandfather was little he and his brother would have to alternate who got to eat at every other meal back in 30's! Now...not so much..thats why he's my idol..came for NEGATIVE money to what he has now and yet still cringes over a new car costing over $20k...lol

[dpwracing]

A weak dollar isn't necessarily a bad thing, unless you're in the import business. In a macro-economic sense it will boost exports, something the US desperately needs to mitigate the trade deficit. Of course it makes buying motorcycles more expensive...

Fed cut 3/4 of a point today and still there is a major sell-off. Market is worried that the credit crunch will continue.

Cutting spending and pulling back would be exactly the WRONG thing for the government to do right now. The trick is how to stimulate the economy without increasing the money supply too much and causing inflation.

[Ed Who?]

dpw.. WE ARE in the import business! Brembo, Akrapovic, Leo Vince, Speigler, Afam, DID, RK, Dunlop, Pirelli, etc,etc are all overseas and the prices are going sky high this year folks! Add to that the crude oil prices and shipping companies are jacking it way up to bring it here even...double screwed imo.

i agree on your last lines. very true....but i wouldnt mind if i "found" a few hundred grand for the business....LOL..come on bush..give me it....jk

[dpwracing]

Guess you'll have to start selling Muzzy, Hindle and D&D! LOL!!

[Ed Who?]

might have too. the way loyalty is in this business lately and the weak dollar, im trying to see how i can fit the dyno in my home garage...sometimes i envy frank (my machinist) that works out of his home shop...no overhead...no employees...7hr days...no $125,000 in inventory of parts...no workers comp/taxes/employee health insurance. Shit..lets see all this HUGE gross and making less than ANY ONE of my racers (over 25 maybe) and yet the stress..hours...headaches..etc....why? Why not scale back to little KFG size shop and do 80% less work/bikes and yet make same money if not way more?

better yet..send all my work over to china like every other US company?

[Pat-13]

the stress..hours...headaches..etc....why? Why not scale back to little KFG size shop and do 80% less work/bikes and yet make same money if not way more?

better yet..send all my work over to china like every other US company?

"Why" you say, because you love all of us. That's "Why" and we love you. Now, are you feeling better? Good ....... then get back to work so we can all have fun this coming sunny season. It's only 7:20PM for God's sake.

Big Hugs and feel better my friend.

[Ed Who?]

well the list of those that keep me going is shrinking everyday...but luckily those few are so amazing it balances out that ever growing list of non loyal out to save $1 or whatever excuse they have.

Funny thing is our biz is up, 17% for 2007..i feel blessed at that...then today my Parts Unlimited rep came in and i ordered 3 more akra exhaust...he said "thank god" i was like what? he goes "you are the ONLY dealer of my 23 that was up in month of dec for sales and are up this month before its even over" i felt good..but just cause business is good doesnt always mean you feel great about it!

I sent KFG a resume' tonight.

[Hypnotiq]

Come on everyone, let's give Eric a group hug!

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{ERIC}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} }}}}}}}}

Feel better? http://www.eternaltides.com/emoticons/redflip.gif

[Syrythius]

Since I met you Eric way back when i was a young punk off the streets I have only bought from you :P. Only thing I don't buy there is the actual bike... I know the internet is hard to compete with at times, but if a person honestly figured in all the costs of the internet they would find it is actually more expensive.

What do you do if you have a problem, need to replace/return an item, in a hurry to get the part, want accurate information on quality/experience/etc. And my personal favorite...great customer service. Internet isn't going to give you all that. Cost is not just about $$ in my opinion.

There's a reason my wife calls you my crack dealer. Course it seems she is getting addicted to the crack as well...I don't know how many times she hounded me this past fall to take my sewing machine in to get fixed heheh.

I'll be posting up pics of your latest handywork tonite :)

:bounce016:

[roktbox]

Hey, Mav. I still have that number for the truck driving school if you need it. The market's gonna do it's thing and if you're in for the long haul it's just best to avert your gaze at time's like these and just shuffle along. While I grimace at my quarterly statements, the upside is dollar/cost averaging. At 39 (holy hell) I don't mind a few bear markets over the next 20 years. Each dollar invested "buys" more when a fund group / market is down. Just keep pluggin' away, max your company 401(k) if you can, save more than you spend, and don't expose yourself to unnecessary debt.

I heard today that 75% of the economy is consumer spending. It doesn't take Ben Bernanke and a team of Phd's to conclude that if Big Brother would just get it's f'ing hand out of my pockets I'd be a wee bit more inclined to spend a bit more freely in the local economy.

I fear that if Hank get's elected she'll have boths fists so deep in my dungarees I'll be more concerned about my nads than my Benjamins.

[Ed Who?]

roktbox you still up? I got that new PART if you want still? text me

[sanfret]

Sounds like everyone should go by EDR and leave Eric a bolt of gratitude... put them in a jar on the counter until it breaks the glass!! :)

[Ed Who?]

haha..no gratitude...its just me....its weird cause biz is up a little bit (which for 2007 is amazing for any shop) but i just kept reading late at night all the stock stuff, forecasts, etc, etc....and i let it get to me. Sure, i could downsize back but im not one to do that...i like pushing myself and wanting more...not less. THats the issue with US as well...too many settle or dont push themselves hard enough...its easier to just ship jobs/products overseas and then have our entire country 100% outsourced.

[EmDee]

I don't mean to be the devils advocate here, but this countries strength is not in its productivity, but in its creativity. As long as we innovate here, we'll be fine. Thanks to the labor unions, its nearly impossible to get anything manually produced here, and thus the reason for outsourcing.

We are feeling the outsourcing hit big time in our small business and are already looking at different angles and related business to get into that can't be outsourced.

Don't worry too much Eric, what you provide can't be outsourced. While you may feel the crunch as the disposable income continues to fall, the excellent service you provide will not go out of demand. Excellence is always in demand; you provide it, someone will want it and pay for it.

And in your posts, don't you mean 2008? You keep saying 2007 and that was last year bro! Pound a Red Bull and wake up or slap some sense into me! :D

[J-Row]

China has us by the balls - their currency has been "pegged" at a fixed ratio to the dollar for way too long - made sense way back when they were not a world force - gave stability to their economy, but now it's grossly undervalued (even more so with the weak-ass US dollar) and they have created a massive trade imbalance. If their currency floated on the markets like most, you can bet your ass their shit would be way more expensive. Trouble is, China is financing our Fuckhead Foreign Policy by buying up government bonds and there you have it. We buy their shit at Walmart at artificially low prices, they take the cash and lend it back to us so Washington can embark on their crusades. Don't worry, though, they have our special, ahem, I mean best, interests in mind.

[Buick_65]

I don't mean to be the devils advocate here, but this countries strength is not in its productivity, but in its creativity. As long as we innovate here, we'll be fine.

This is indeed the key my friends. As long as we own the intellectual property we will be able to recover from these little blips in the market radar.

Every change in the markets, good or bad, is an opportunity to make money. It's when the market hangs at 15k forever that it's tough to make money....

[sanfret]

Innovation comes from smart people, the average population has 3% smart people
US = 300M x 3% = 9M smart people
China = 1300M x 3% = 39M smart people

[johnny954]

Congrats on double digit growth for 2007 Eric that's huge. There will always be those that are out to save .50 cents on the internet, but you provide a true service. I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that I will be a loyal customer for as long as I ride. You and your teams knowledge is worth more to me than saving even a hundred bucks from an unknown source. Luxury consumer items will continue to grow. It's the lower middle class and below that is being hit the hardest because we have forgotten how to save. Instant gratification throws people that are already in jeopardy into financial ruin real quick. Many current home owners shouldn't even have homes because it's more than they can truly afford but the 80/20 adjustable loans or even the 80/10/10 has made "the american dream" possible for almost anyone. Short term economy boom that eventually had to end. Be smart everyone pay off debt and stash a little cash. If your not burried up to your eyeballs in debt then its time for upgrades for the bike but only from EDR.
Eric we appreciate you!!