# Fiscal Meltdown Open Thread... - Site: Analog Industries - Author: Chris Randall - Date: 2008-10-07 - URL: https://analogindustries.com/2008/10/fiscal-meltdown-open-thread/ [![Slow Bump](https://analogindustries.com/images/ext/farm3.static.flickr.com/2124/2128709109_9ccbc3f399.jpg)](http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisrandall/2128709109/) As the U.S. economy comically tail-spins in to the ground (and in the process teaching you zany Europeans that why, yes, we do actually still have a fairly powerful effect on your way of life) it logically begs the question: how fucked are we? Perhaps with some irony, this entire event has restored some life to the U.S. dollar, thus setting the voracious American consumer free to roam the world again. With further irony, (and proof that if there is a god, Bill Hicks is sitting next to him whispering in his ear) that ain't gonna happen because the American consumer is currently bent over the kitchen table, getting a broomstick rammed in to its collective ass by its own government and bankers. Sorry, Europeans. We do things big here. Poorly thought-out metaphors aside, it is demonstrable fact that the music industry usually gets quite peppy in times of hardship, which bodes well for those of us in a position to take advantage of it. Music is the ultimate lubrication for both rebellion and escape, and if you have nothing to rebel against or escape from, you don't need any lube, plain and simple. But if your world is crashing around your shoulders, well, that's a different matter entirely. It is our job, as the creators of culture, to ease the collective passage through troubled days. (I'm happier with that metaphor. While a tiny bit disturbing, it does illustrate the point nicely.) So, my question is thus: do you find your prospects enhanced with the current turn of events? Or is your world crashing about your shoulders? We're here to help. Or take advantage of your misfortune. One or the other. ## Comments (10) **shamann** (2008-10-07): I'm only 34, yet in my lifetime I've seen four major North American economic downturns (five if you count the one I was born into in 1974). Given that it happens with such cyclical predictability, I find myself having trouble caring any more. If it wasn't for the news reminding me every two minutes that the sky is falling, I don't think I'd notice. I'm eager to find these enhanced prospects of which you speak, though, or perhaps even take advantage of someone's misfortune. **herodotus** (2008-10-07): A weak dollar means lots of business from overseas customers, and a great exchange rate on work done for overseas customers (e.g. the standard 250 pound fee that I get from one regular British customer has nearly doubled in value on my end). I love the internet **darklordjames** (2008-10-07): I machine aluminum and steel aerospace/medical parts in the Greater Seattle area, and even though Boeing's machinists are currently on strike, I am doing better today than I was yesterday. Of course, I intentionally live so that my cost-of-living is obnoxiously low, but I really have seen minimal local effect of our "economic downturn". Hell, in the last 4 years or so, my city has been absolutely booming in general. Sure, there is a half-built parking garage/retail building sitting in downtown that seems to have run out of money, but there is also a soon-to-be-finished ice center two blocks away. Now, I haven't tried to buy a home here, but that would be insane anyway. Why buy a house in Seattle when I could move to Portland or Vancouver, BC and get far more for far less? **Aahzekiel** (2008-10-07): Neither. Yet. Except... I've seen a shit-fucking-ton of McCain/Palin signs sprouting in my 'hood like malignant toadstools, just in the last two weeks... so I say that the major effect that I've seen has been to solidify people's fear of change and the unknown - even when it's the current way of doing things that got them exactly where they are. **AdamJay** (2008-10-07): Well, it isn't my primary occupation to record Jazz Musicians but thats mostly what i do while in the studio. They're always hurting, most are gigging musicians that are all part of 2 and 3 different quartets so its basically 15 musicians that all effectively play in an ensemble or two with all the others. Anyways, when rich dudes are paying them, the players, to play higher paying gigs then they're using that money at my studio on monday and tuesday to lay down more tracks. When rich dudes aren't paying them for such events then they're taking the middle of the road restaurant gigs which still give them enough to play around with, buy a new splash cymbal, record an extra few hours for a session, etc. Its once those middle of the road gigs go away that the guys i record have to take even worse gigs or no gigs at all, some take a second part time job cause they all have families to support. And once this happen, i stop getting sessions booked. Two weeks ago, my booked sessions looking ahead dropped 40%. so YEP, its effecting me. But as i have my house and car paid off, and other sources of income, i'm able to adjust and roll with these economic punches. I'm fortunate enough that i am financially able to use my studio to record musicians that i respect and don't have to take on lesser projects to pay the bills. But unfortunately those musicians that i respect, they're mostly all broke right now. On a side note, i did pick up a new client at one of her live shows last week, where people were most certainly drinking their woes away. **bongo_x** (2008-10-07): Well, it's not going to happen in a week. The really crappy part is still coming. The Great Depression didn't start the day after the market crash in '29, no matter how the cartoons portrayed it. Things went downhill over the next year or so. I've been predicting this for a few years, not because I'm a genius, but because our economy has become a pyramid scheme of shuffling papers and houses. We all know how those schemes work out. I also have read a lot of history over the last few years and it's amazing how we are paralleling 100 years ago. The problem is I'm not smart enough to know what to do about it. I've just been sitting around waiting for it. I'm not optimistic, in case you couldn't tell. On the other hand, GWB has turned me into a left wing nutjob, and I'm curious to see where the country will go when it all really falls apart. I see no reason why people would start buying music again, so I need to get into that licensing thing. Or get some work with the New WPA. It's gonna be awesome if I'm wrong. bb **synthetic** (2008-10-07): I really don't believe we're going to see a great depression. Even though that's what 60% (!) of Americans are polled to believe. But I also don't think I'm buying a house anytime soon, not that I was counting on that. **retrosynth** (2008-10-07): Well, I was able to pick up a bunch of nice gear for reasonable prices last week. So either everyone is hurting and selling obscenely cheap or the European folk aren't scooping it up anymore. For a while I couldn't afford a few particular large condensers I was after due to the currency exchange rate, but some went up for sale in the US for half the going euro rate. **mazacultura** (2008-10-07): I'm a Canadian freelance journalist but I'm still fairly certain this whole meltdown is going to fuck me in the ass in the end. I'm just starting to break in to the Vancouver market (the reference to housing being affordable here makes me lol). The market is tight to begin with. One of the magazines I had steady work with has disappeared. CBC never hires anyone and the corporate-owned rags in town (read: all of them) are going to be watching the bottom line more than ever: The first thing that gets cut back is the freelancer budget. As it stands, I had to go back on hands and knees to the organization I used to work for in the Canadian Arctic (Yellowknife, NWT). I'm back here temporarily as I type. As for music? That's what I do for fun. But right now, my bass has a cracked neck, my amps were sold off for the move, my laptop exploded last month and I need a new audio interface. A drum kit would be nice, too. If I ever get up and running again I'm going to be dropping some seriously angry shit. That's about all I can say. **ballpein** (2008-10-07): The terrorism angle is a bit washed up, and this year's Republicans lack the balls to arrange an assassination, so instead you have an economic catastrophe... There's nothing like fear to bring out the conservatism in the voting public. Luckily for Obama, Jeb's not running this year.