It’s a pretty slow news day today, what with most people still taking time off for the new year. So I thought this would be a good time to throw a bunch of smaller stories together into one post.
First off, let’s hit a topic that has been on a lot of people’s minds lately: Microsoft layoffs. An excellent post today on TechFlash from top MS-watcher Todd Bishop sums up the situation well:
Speculation about possible layoffs at Microsoft has been swirling for weeks now in the Seattle tech community and online. We’ve been digging for information on this for a while, talking to people inside Microsoft and others familiar the company. But so far, at least, we haven’t been able to get any reliable information or direct confirmation.
That doesn’t necessarily mean layoffs aren’t coming. We’re continuing to dig, and we welcome any and all tips. But it’s worth noting that none of the online reports so far seem to be based on first-hand knowledge.
…
If the company reduces its workforce, Microsoft’s contractors and vendors could be among the most vulnerable. The company doesn’t report those workers as part of its employment numbers, so the cutbacks wouldn’t be as public. The Seattle Times’ Ben Romano reported this week that he’s “heard from a handful of contractors whose contracts at Microsoft were abruptly cut short.”
In the end, Microsoft may try to cut expenses through something more nuanced than a huge layoff.
Next up, we’ve got P-I columnist Bill Virgin (who we have been a long-time fan of here at Seattle Bubble) almost kindof calling for a bottom in housing in 2009:
With so much bad economic news about so many sectors crammed into the fourth quarter of 2008, it’s easy to forget that in housing, the bad news started way back in 2007. Plunging housing starts, rising defaults and foreclosures, falling prices on existing-home sales — those reports have become almost routine by now.
As with banks, we’re now looking for the “some point” at which those trends lose steam. Just the length of housing’s decline would suggest that the sector’s forest fire (yes, we’re switching metaphors from our earlier water theme) has consumed most of the available kindling.
I think Bill’s “forest fire” analogy is a pretty good one, because whenever the fire finally does go out, it will take many, many years to see any significant regrowth of the “forest.”
Also interesting was this short AP blurb about foreclosure assistance heading to Washington State:
Washington will receive $28 million in federal home foreclosure aid.
…
The money will help local jurisdictions buy foreclosed homes, fix them up and resell them to low- and moderate-income buyers. The funds also may be used in down-payment assistance programs.
That actually sounds like a reasonable use of the money. Rather than pouring my taxpayer dollars into futile attempts to keep people in homes they should have never bought in the first place, we can let the foreclosure process take its natural course and help facilitate a move toward actual affordable housing.
…and finally, so maybe people will stop posting this over and over again in the forums and the comments, I’m front-paging this amusing video some clever chap put together using the “Downfall” captioning meme. Enjoy.
(Todd Bishop, TechFlash, 01.02.2009)
(Bill Virgin, Seattle P-I, 12.31.2008)
(Associated Press, Seattle P-I, 12.30.2008)
