The Economic Mess

Jobless claims continue to rise, which is no surprise here.

And, in the neighborhood where I live, apartment and house vacancies are up, and they are hard to rent out or sell. Across the street is an apartment complex, and the rent for a two-bedroom is now $625. I am paying this landlord $650 for a one-bedroom, and I am extremely pissed off at him as a result. He jacked the rent up $100 a month last summer, and he should never have done it. He lives on site in the basement apartment, yet he still lives like he has the old guesthouse he operated for 37 years until he sold it ten years ago (it was later demolished). Back then, he was getting $2,000 or more a week from over 20 tenants and over $100K a year. He had expenses, to be sure, but he would squander money on stupid things like his POS truck and a 27-foot sailboat he has NEVER had in the water (he bought it in 1987 using his CDs he had for years after he inherited money from his parents). Worse still, although he was self-employed, he NEVER paid into Social Security. He receives only the minimum from the years when he held jobs pre-1961. He STILL has the boat AND the truck and is paying ridiculous amounts of auto insurance for the latter ($1,800 a year for a 42-year-old truck he rarely drives anywhere). The fact is he shouldn't have either thing and should sell them. If the tenant next door moves or I do (which is a probability now since there are NO job prospects at all in northern Nevada), this landlord is going to be in dire, dire straits. I am so disgusted with him, words can't even describe it, not even obscenities.