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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lucretius who wrote (82413)	3/19/2001 4:17:40 PM
From: sour1	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Dot-com hangover grips Bay Area Monday, 19 March 2001 11:23 (ET) Dot-com hangover grips Bay Area By ANWAR IQBAL, UPI Correspondent SAN FRANCISCO, March 19 (UPI) -- Pink slip parties, fleets of Mercedes cars with no buyers and techies eating at fast-food joints -- these are the signs of dot-com hangover in the Bay Area. Hundreds of thousands in the Bay Area invest in Nasdaq stocks or get options from high-tech employers. They all had a big party as the stocks soared but now is the time to feel the pain. The crash seems to have affected all, from a software engineer to a cab driver. "Business? It is bad," said Bob Lee, a San Francisco cabbie. His typical customer was "a man or a woman with a lap-top" who came to the city on the area rapid transit train and the hailed a cab in the city. "Now we watch silently as they walk past us, holding their lap-tops," said Lee. Cab drivers are not the only ones who are complaining. "A year ago, if you wanted to buy a Mercedes-Benz in the Bay Area, you had to take a number and get in line. Now I am refunding 25 to 30 deposits a week," says Gary Anderson of Autobahn Motors in Belmont, Calif. As Nasdaq lost more than $4.5 trillion of value in the past year, the disappearing dollar had a domino's effect on the Bay Area. The cab driver, the car dealer, the restaurant owner and the travel agents, all feel the pinch. Winter is when many techies from India and other parts of Asia liked to visit their relatives back home. "Not this year. Many fear that they may get the sack while they are away, so they want to stay close to work," said Nina Patel, an Indian travel agent in Fremont, Calif. No surprise. On March 15 the world's largest computer company, Compaq, said it was shedding 5,000 jobs, about 7 percent of its work force. It also said that its first-quarter earnings would fall short of analysts' projections. Few weeks ago the Internet giant Yahoo made a similar announcement after losing more than 80 percent of its stock market value. Another high-tech behemoth, Cisco, also cut jobs after similar losses. Smaller companies look even more vulnerable. To boost the sagging moral of the techies, a fellow dot-com company, SFGirl, has introduced pink-slip parties where the freshly unemployed high-tech wizards drink beer and hand out resumes to prospective employers. "My friends were getting laid off and we were all sitting around drinking on the day they lost their jobs, so we thought these parties would be a good idea." says Patti Beron, editor of the community site SFgirl.com. Starting as a monthly gathering in San Francisco, the Pink Slip party made its first foray into Silicon Valley on March 14 when 1,050 computer professionals lined up outside Paolo Alto's Blue Chalk Cafe for hours to meet possible employers. "It definitely is a big change. In the past the techies would ask for the moon and get it. No more," said Paula Hills, a recruiter who received hundreds of job applications at the party. One applicant had already attended four pink-slip parties and was still unemployed. "The tide is turning in the employer's favor. It used to take months, now it is taking weeks to recruit a computer professional," said Hills adding that the techies' "salaries could go down as well." The Silicon Valley party even attracted the international media to see the rare sight of dot-comers lining up for jobs. Those wearing red dots were the recently unemployed techies and those wearing green dots were looking for employees. Those still employed also feel the crunch. Expensive vacations are off their lists. So are expensive cars, dinners at posh restaurants and bidding for prized locations. Bay Area realtors say that homes are staying on the market longer. According to San Francisco Chronicle in March 2000 about 5,000 buyers were competing for 1,460 Santa Clara properties that were for sale. A year later, the ratio had flipped, with 1,400 buyers choosing from 2,470 homes. -- Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved.

To: Lucretius who wrote (82413)	3/19/2001 4:18:28 PM
From: patron_anejo_por_favor	Respond to of 436258

Hope he still has his "job" at the truck stop....<VBG>

To: Lucretius who wrote (82413)	3/19/2001 4:30:24 PM
From: yard_man	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

let us know how many taunts you get tomorrow ... I'm looking for a cut of 0.75 or 1.00 -- Greenspan doesn't care about inflation ... I think we got a little more pop coming here