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Mohawk Industries CEO says recovery years off
Chattanooga Times Free Press ^ | August 27th, 2011 | Ellis Smith

Posted on 08/28/2011 12:28:28 PM PDT by barmag25

CALHOUN, Ga. — A full economic recovery could be years away since consumer confidence slipped following the country’s debt debate, the head of the nation’s biggest floorcovering company said Friday.

Jeff Lorberbaum, chairman and CEO of Mohawk Industries, called on political leaders to create confidence and “get out of the way” of job creation.

“We need government to create confidence through consistency,” he said at the Gordon County Chamber of Commerce’s first State of Industry event. “When you get uncomfortable, what do you do? You spend less.”

That decline in spending has hit manufacturers like Mohawk especially hard, as consumers worried about their jobs have chosen to hold off on expensive home upgrades like new floors and carpet.

Since homebuilding started to fall in 2006 and lenders restricted the availability of credit, flooring manufacturers have gone through “the largest decline in the history of the flooring industry,” he said. Carpet sales are down nearly 40 percent from the peak levels five years ago, Lorberbaum said.

“Government policies were put in place to help people own homes, and we thought it was a good policy,” he said. “We had people with almost no income who were able to buy houses. It was ridiculous.”

Then, “Lo and behold, you have to pay the piper sooner or later,” he said of the meltdown in the subprime mortgage market.

The flooring industry hit rock bottom in 2010, forcing plant closures and mass layoffs throughout Georgia’s carpet belt.

Flooring’s recovery has been further stymied by the rising price of petroleum, which is both the basic building block for creating carpet as well as a major cost of transporting flooring to customers.

(Excerpt) Read more at timesfreepress.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; US: Georgia
KEYWORDS: bhoeconomy; carpet; manufacturing; recovery
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1 posted on 08/28/2011 12:28:29 PM PDT by barmag25
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To: barmag25

What all of the educated talking head morons do not seem to realize is that the well being of economy is ALL about energy prices.


2 posted on 08/28/2011 12:33:55 PM PDT by rsobin
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To: barmag25

He is entirely correct. The one flaw in his argument is that Calhoun and Dalton and the flooring manufacturers ther have relied on illegals for well over a decade. That whole area looks like Tijuana.


3 posted on 08/28/2011 12:34:07 PM PDT by doodad
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To: barmag25

I think this CEO should keep his mouth shut before he gets another call from the Obama regime...


4 posted on 08/28/2011 12:40:06 PM PDT by max americana (FUBO NATION 2012 FK BARAK)
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To: rsobin

The government boot is on the throat of the economy, energy as much as any other.


5 posted on 08/28/2011 12:41:18 PM PDT by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Happiness)
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To: barmag25

” consumer confidence slipped following the country’s debt debate”

That’s when a lot of people I know actually were alerted to the debt crisis. They all had a hard time grasping what just one trillion meant. So I told them that one trillion seconds equaled 32,000 years. Neil’s jaw almost hit the floor. He was too stunned to speak for several seconds,,, only to mutter;
“I had no idea!”


6 posted on 08/28/2011 12:45:36 PM PDT by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ( Ya can't pick up a turd by the clean end!)
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To: barmag25
It will start when that Worthless Communist and his stink are sent back to Chicago,The health of our country's economy is based in petroleum energy.
7 posted on 08/28/2011 12:45:36 PM PDT by Cheetahcat (Carnival commie side show, started November 4 2008 ,A date that will live in Infamy.)
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To: barmag25

Mr. Lorberbaum is only partially correct when he says “We need government to create confidence through consistency.” We could have a fully “consistent” government that is 25 times larger than we need and it would still crush capitalism and snuff out individual liberty. He should have said we need to put fedzilla back in its cage by cutting off most of its legs, arms and tails.

Sorry, Mr. Lorberbaum, not tough enough.


8 posted on 08/28/2011 12:48:09 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: barmag25

Mohawk Industries CEO says recovery years off.

9 posted on 08/28/2011 12:48:42 PM PDT by Daaave ("You Nexus, huh? I design your eyes.")
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To: Jet Jaguar; NorwegianViking; ExTexasRedhead; HollyB; FromLori; EricTheRed_VocalMinority; ...

The list, ping

Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list

http://www.nachumlist.com/


10 posted on 08/28/2011 12:50:55 PM PDT by Nachum (The complete Obama list at www.nachumlist.com)
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To: barmag25

bump.


11 posted on 08/28/2011 12:56:52 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand
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To: rsobin

A year and a half into a Palin presidency and this mess would be ancient history.


12 posted on 08/28/2011 1:15:26 PM PDT by Track9 (Make War!!)
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To: doodad

Indeed. I live in the area and it’s been absolutely taken over. Anglos need not apply, Spanish a requirement.


13 posted on 08/28/2011 1:25:23 PM PDT by Fire_on_High (Stupid should hurt.)
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To: rsobin

Wrong, demand, no demand no recovery, no demand no jobs, we have plenty of supply. And no, none of the old fixes from the past will work. A new product, a new form of energy, etc would work.


14 posted on 08/28/2011 2:29:14 PM PDT by org.whodat (What does the Republican party stand for////??? absolutely nothing.)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

Thanks barmag25.


15 posted on 08/28/2011 4:37:33 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's never a bad time to FReep this link -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: barmag25

perhaps mohawk should heed the lesson from Gibson Guitar. Who’s to say flooring companies don’t also possess exotic wood yet illegal in other countries. US Fish and Wildlife could want a word.
There’s a cold wind blowing.


16 posted on 08/28/2011 5:22:16 PM PDT by griswold3 (Character is Destiny)
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To: org.whodat

A new form of energy would be great. The old fix though, will work just fine. Fifty dollar oil will make everything significantly less expensive. Again that would be everything.Obama has been trying the new energy thing for three years now. Less expensive everything would be equivalent to a massive tax break.


17 posted on 08/28/2011 7:56:44 PM PDT by rsobin
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To: griswold3

>> perhaps mohawk should heed the lesson from Gibson Guitar.

Tyranny bump.


18 posted on 08/28/2011 7:59:42 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Your Hope has been Redistributed. Here's your damn Change!)
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To: rsobin
LOL all of which is marginal and all well on the way to be taken away by the price inflation of QE.

Remember all, all, modern day commercial energy is subsidized by the tax payer. And a technology breakthrough is not what Obummer has been doing.

19 posted on 08/29/2011 12:50:24 AM PDT by org.whodat (What does the Republican party stand for////??? absolutely nothing.)
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To: rsobin

“What all of the educated talking head morons do not seem to realize is that the well being of economy is ALL about energy prices.”

Bingo.


20 posted on 08/29/2011 4:45:35 AM PDT by roaddog727 (It's the Constitution, Stupid!)
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