Great news monkeys!

We’ve secured some private financing to move this magazine to a self-hosted URL. From now on, no new articles will be posted here.

All new content will be posted over at http://40hourmonkey.com

In addition to being a more power and more secure site, we will have room for some of our readers and sponsors to advertise allowing 40 Hour Monkey to actually pay for itself.

Thank you for all of the support. See you at the new property.

TGIF fellow 40-hour monkeys.

The weekend is here and for the next two days, you are your own monkey. Make the best of it.

I leave you with a comic one of our loyal readers left with us. Enjoy.

And be sure to check in with us Monday morning — as you sit down in your cramped cube — for a new Survey Monday.

While the average 40-hour monkey has seen his or her home value drop in the past 12 months, those of you in Phoenix Arizona may have more reason to cry uncontrollably.

August home price data was released and the great citizens of Phoenix Arizona have been hardest hit.

According to CNN.com:

The hardest hit of all 20 cities on a year-over-year basis was Phoenix, where prices plummeted 30.7% during the past 12 months.

What’s going on in Phoenix real estate?

“Now we’re paying the price,” said Joan Dodd, 36-year Phoenix real estate veteran.

Phoeniz home prices see largest drop.

“Prices rose unrealistically in 2006 here in Phoenix due to too many investors buying homes that had no plans on living in the homes.”

“Non-owner occupants,” as they are called, are investors that purchase real estate for the sake of renting the homes out waiting for time and rent to build their equity for them or they are looking to “flip” a property and grab bargains that need some renovation work in hopes of selling the property for much more after the work has been completed.

Dodd’s clients, like many scared home owners across America, are asking her to call the bottom of the market. Many real estate investors and average home owners would love to know how bad is bad and when this will turn around.

Impossible to know for sure, and Dodd agrees.

“The only time you know the bottom has occurred is after you see the market up-tick,” said Dodd.

“Possibly sometime in mid-2009.”

From bad to worse

Keep in mind, the numbers released today are August numbers. The data doesn’t include the recent credit meltdown.

I know huh?

The recent higher jobless reports, the lay-offs, the credit freeze, the huge decline in the value of your 401(k) balance. None of this ugliness has been reflected yet in the numbers because we just haven’t had enough time for numbers to be compiled and released yet.

It’s coming though. That should make your holiday season something to look forward to.

Has it hit your block?

It’s one thing to read about the data and it’s an entirely different thing to be a part of the data.

Has the bursting housing bubble hit you personally? Are you still in your home?

Maybe it hasn’t hit you personally yet, but statistics show it has hit someone in your family or down the street or a few cubicles over. Someone you know has been hit.

What’s the worst case you’ve seen so far?

If you are a complete waste of a labor monkey unless your day starts with a cup of coffee, you aren’t alone. We consume an estimated 500 billion cups of the stuff world-wide every year.

The trouble is, coffee is one of those labor-intensive commodities because the bright-red cherries that will later be roasted and slapped with a high-end label and price tag, are usually picked by hand — the hand of men, women and unfortunately children — in exchange for only a few dollars a day.

Starting you day with a cup-o-joe

Let’s play fair

To attenuate the destitution coffee farmers and coffee laborers face, the concept of “Fair Trade” coffee is born.

According to the non-profit advocate group TransFair USA:

Fair Trade Certification empowers farmers and farm workers to lift themselves out of poverty by investing in their farms and communities, protecting the environment, and developing the business skills necessary to compete in the global marketplace.

800-pound gorilla

Starbucks (SBUX) announced this morning it will double its purchase of Fair Trade Certified™ coffee starting in 2009, raising the retail giant to the sole position of largest purchaser of Fair Trade Certified™ coffee on the planet.

The 2009 goal, if achieved, will amount to 40-million pounds of beans.

$4 latte

If you are looking for more while you sip on your $4 latte while trying to wake up to the day and thank your lucky stars you are on the consumer-end of that expensive cup vs. in the field carrying a bag of beans that weighs as much as you do for a few dollars a day:

Try here, here and some more over here.

What a relief it is to finally realize where you stand in society.

No more pretending that we are something we are not.

We here at 40-hour monkey are not mistaken any longer and that’s ok. In fact, it’s a good thing.

We are monkeys in the labor force. Labor monkeys make the world go ’round.

Here we go.