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Small impact. Over the past 6 months, the federal workforce has declined by 84,000. For the month of July alone, the number was negative 12k.
Delayed impact. Folks who took buyouts (provided they’re not retiring) will be added to unemployment rolls in the coming months.

Same with nonprofit and contract employees (like me) who’ve been laid off over the last 3-4 months. We won’t hit the unemployment rolls until August and onward, due to severance packages that’ll expire soon.
 
How much can you make busking across Europe today?

Have you thought about writing a book about your busking years?

Bland Simpson, now retired from directing UNC’s Creative Writing Program, still writing and performing, likely would love to see such a book.

He lives <1/4 mile down the road.
I’ve thought about writing something down… memoirs if you will. I’m lazy.
I kept a bit of a journal my first 10 months (that was a special year, being my first abroad) but I misplaced that somewhere along the way.

I’ve often thought about how I wish I could find that, and how that might inspire me to start a book.

“How much can you make busking across Europe today?”
That’s a good question. I was last on tour with a jazz band (quartet) in Germany for a month in 2017. Just for kicks and grins I took them out in the street in a couple of places (Stuttgart, Altenburg, Wernigerode and Rothenburg) to do some old school busking. We did ok,but we didn’t work it too much, as we had proper gigs in the evenings and didn’t want to blow ourselves out. We did it for fun, and so those guys could get a taste of street life. It was fun for me and brought back memories. Of course we were busking for Euros at that time.

I’ve been back to Europe several times (most recently 2013, 2016, 2017 and 2019) and each time I’d make note of the various buskers I’d see… speak with them, talk shop. I’m sure they’re doing ok, if they’re doing it right and working hard at it.

Busking (and getting well paid) is an art form in and of itself - aside from the actual art form of your craft. (Music, juggling, sidewalk art, magic, mimes, clowns, etc.) the performance itself is one thing, but actually getting a crowd around you and then getting them to reach into their pockets and put ducats in your hat/tip bucket/guitar case/etc. is an art form all its own.

Back in the 1980’s I was busking for the prevelant currency of the various countries. French Francs, English Pounds, Dutch Guilders, German Marks, Italian Lire… and the king of them all: The Swiss Franc.

Your overall monetary success depended on how good you were and how efficient you were with your busking technique (see above re: getting a crowd around you, getting their money out of their pockets). You needed to get that going, and get it done in 20-30 minute sets or what we called a “pitch”. If you’re working hard, you’ll set about 5 to 8 “pitches” per day or evening. It can be long, hard and tiring work. A lot of walking, traveling, hauling around your gear. (I played guitar and double bass). You can imagine traipsing through the cobblestone streets of old world Europe with a doghouse bass on your shoulder, loading in and out of vans, buses, trains, trams, subways, etc.

In 1989, on a sunny Saturday in Switzerland (Basel) I was working with a black dude from Boston, Larry. Just a duo (often we would play as a trio or quartet) but that day it was just a duo. Me on bass, Larry on acoustic guitar. We both sang. We were doing R&B, Jazz, Soul, Blues… some of everything. We worked hard. Played about 7 or 8 pitches throughout the day and night. Took a hotel for the evening, got separate rooms as we had made some good coin that day and treated ourselves.

I crashed out pretty hard. The next day I walked in to Larrys hotel room, but could barely get inside. Larry couldn’t sleep that night and instead stayed up and counted all of those coins - a gazillion of them. He had all the money laid out in stacks of 10 Swiss franc piles. Rows and rows all lined up like tin soldiers. The Swiss coins were in denominations: 10 and 20 centimes, 1/2 franc, 1 franc, 2 franc and 5 franc coins. The 5 franc coin was worth $3.50 at the time.

Larry counted it all out and we had made over 1800 Swiss that day. 900 each, which amounted to about $600 to $700 each. All in coins.

That was a good day, and typical for a good act that worked hard and knew how to busk properly. Most days weren’t that good, but you could make a living doing it.

The problem with some of the buskers is they don’t work it properly. They’re dirty, sitting down (as opposed to standing up to play), strumming a guitar playing and singing (badly) Bob Dylan songs. They don’t get an “edge” (that’s busker lingo for getting a crowd, an audience). They play all day for passersby getting the occasional coin tossed in their guitar case. They won’t starve, but they won’t make $700 in a day either.

I could write a book I suppose. But I’m too lazy
 
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Fed governor to resign early, handing Trump immediate opening on board​

Adriana Kugler’s successor could ultimately replace Powell as Federal Reserve chair next year.


“… Though governors are appointed to staggered 14-year terms, it’s common for them to leave early. Still, the timing of Kugler’s departure hands Trump the chance to install a new voice about six months before he otherwise might have been able to.

Powell’s tenure as chair expires in May, although he can remain on the Fed as a governor until early 2028. Trump’s selection for Kugler’s seat would be in position to step into the top job.”
 
Small impact. Over the past 6 months, the federal workforce has declined by 84,000. For the month of July alone, the number was negative 12k.

Small impact. Over the past 6 months, the federal workforce has declined by 84,000. For the month of July alone, the number was negative 12k.

I was wondering if it was a more targeted problem...........like a specific agency was hit hard by DODGE cuts which caused problems for that agency getting numbers up to the BLS. (and might have affected their accuracy)
 
FLASHBACK 2020:

Trump on coronavirus: ‘If we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any’​



——
Seems like he is recycling this plan for unemployment and other economic data …

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The first thing we do, let's kill all the statisticians.
 
I wonder if anybody has decent estimates on how many employees out there still work "off the books"
 
do you ever sleep nycfan?
I sleep deeply and then sometimes wake up for a while and then sleep deeply again. My husband has started to be an early to bed guy. Sometimes I read or watch a ballgame until 11:30 or midnight and then sleep through the night until about 7 or 7:30, others I go to sleep when he does (so about 9:30) but then often wake up for an hour to 90 minutes around 2:30-3 am, then go back to sleep until 7 or 7:30.
 
I sleep deeply and then sometimes wake up for a while and then sleep deeply again. My husband has started to be an early to bed guy. Sometimes I read or watch a ballgame until 11:30 or midnight and then sleep through the night until about 7 or 7:30, others I go to sleep when he does (so about 9:30) but then often wake up for an hour to 90 minutes around 2:30-3 am, then go back to sleep until 7 or 7:30.
you are an impressive machine
 


“… For a typical house to become affordable to a buyer, the 30-year mortgage rate would need to drop to an “unrealistic” 4.43%, according to a recent report by the real-estate platform Zillow….The last time the 30-year rate was at that level was in March 2022.

… The other option to make housing more affordable is for home prices to fall.

But that’s equally unrealistic, according to Zillow. “If rates and other factors held steady, home values would need to drop 18% for the typical home to be affordable for a median-income family,” the company said.

And falling home prices is not necessarily a positive trend.…”
 
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Seems like post-COVID required some major adjustments to how numbers were being reported more slowly and sort of normalized in 2023 with a bias to overstating results in initial estimates.
 
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