2009 is going to be way worse than 2008. The economic crisis is only beginning.....

I am thirdsty!

Prediction #1: Pay freeze mania will sweep the Am Law 100.

Prediction #2: More outsourcing of legal services to India, etc.

Of course 2009 will be better. How could it be worse?

2008 = dissolutions, mass layoffs, shit bonuses, pay freezes....

it will be better - there is a lot of money in this economy - the economy will be resilient.

People let their assessment of the current moment too heavily influence their predictions for the future, that is whey when the economy is riding high on a bubble, people don't take precautions against a downturn, its also why when were are the bottom of an economic cycle people start talking about "depression" - the market will come roaring back by the end of 2009, if it doesn't - great - more time for me to put money in the market while everything is dirt cheap.

2009 = YEAR OF PAIN.

One quick question though. If I already got my pay rise (based on my 1 January pay) it's pretty much impossible to have my pay frozen... right? right?

7: That's correct. It would be illegal.

#6 Hit the nail right on the head! HOLLER.

Should be a little better, barring another surprise.

1. Housing prices are dropping. It's bad politically (the baby boomer generation are losing their retirement money), but economically it's good. It increases demand, and allows the younger generation to get in on owning a valuable asset. However housing prices won't drop too far since the gov is doing it's damndest to prop them up, and printing money like a fiend in order to socialize the cost.

2. We can expect a stronger export market, particularly with China; who's export market is starting to dry up since Americans aren't spending so much.

3. Conservatve lending policies lower the risk of default, over time these will help increase the number of transactions that take place as people become more confident.

4. Inefficient industries (circuit city etc) are going under, leading to a more efficient market for goods and services. That means higher quality products at a cheaper cost.

Don't get me wrong, it's still gonna suck, but at least now we have SOME CLUE, however minor, of what's going on. Long term, I don't know, but 2009 should be a tad better.

6.

6/10

I hope you're right.

10, You are WRONG, BITCH - 2009 is going to suck.

Everything else you said is true, but it takes years for these things to work themselves out. We are on the downslide until at least 2010.

12, it will only suck for you, as you spend the whole year eating a dick.

FYI, Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman matched Skadden's payouts, with an hours requirement.

12 will spend more than a year eating a dick, as it takes years for those things to work themselves out. 12 is going to deep throat until at least 2010.

What is the hours requirement at Kasowitz?

Lat is offering $500 to whoever correctly guesses when the recession will end:

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=38597624377

This is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The fact that so many people think 2009 will be worse will in fact make 2009 worse. Depressed consumer confidence will exacerbate our predicament.

All hail Kasowitz!

2009 prediction: A Vault or Am Law top 25 firm will go under before the year is through.

Just wait until gas is back up to 4 or 5 bucks a gallon. Then the average American consumer will really stop spending money. If they hadn't tricked OPEC into increasing production and getting the price to drop, then things would be much worse already...

Get to the chopper!!!!
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comment 2 is right. as long as the gov. keeps preventing prices from falling, bailing out inefficient industry and artificially lowering interest rates below market levels the economy will continue to deteriorate.

08 wasn't great...
09 will be fine.

Nailin' Palin.

*farts*

*shits*

aww yeah

Oh you poor pathetic ignorant fools. The prospect that the economy will ever get better is so naive! This is not a downturn. This is the end of your lives as you know it. 2009 we will see massive layoffs and dissolution of most law firms. When clients stop paying legal fees law firms will dissolve. 2009 will make you beg to go back to 2008. Bush has set the course and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Not even President elect Obama.

More liberal judges = more lawsuits = $$$.

2009 = people with money lose a lot more sitting on the sidelines

if the market can survive a 50 billion madoff without a blip, we've hit bottom

2009 will be a very tough year if you aren't in bankruptcy. The corporate bankruptcies will really get rolling, most of what we have seen is financial bankruptcy. The credit markets just haven't dethawed and with low end of year sales at heavily discounted prices retail firms are hurting. Worse, with the plummeting price of commodities and the interest rate already set for zero the economy is going to surge and fall wildly between inflation and deflation (Japan anyone) further depressing investor confidence, exacerbating corporate layoffs, decrease demand, supply and production.

All in all it will (next to 2008) be one of the worst years in living memory for lawyers.

will 2009 be a better or worse year for ATL? Probably worse, because now we have a full year of terrible editing and content.

The false confidence and bravado in the posts on this thread are sad. 23's delusion that the economy would recover just fine on its own without government intervention is pathetic. The Dow Jones has just finished a year with its largest decline since 1931, overseas markets are down even more, the credit markets are still frozen, bankruptcy filings are increasing rapidly, the private sector is completely clueless about what to do next, and you think the market will just turn around and go right back up. If you believe that 2009 is going to be a good year to be a highly paid service provider for corporations under intense economic pressure that are looking for any possible way to save costs, you have a vivid imagination. You had better hope that the incoming Obama administration is better prepared to deal with this than either the outgoing Bush administration or the private sector, whose feckless irresponsibility caused this mess.