By Emily Bazar, USA TODAY More Americans are having their power shut off as the weak economy makes it harder to pay bills. “We see record numbers of households becoming disconnected or in danger of disconnection,” says Mark Bixby, energy director of Rockford, Ill. Five years ago, his office distributed federal funds annually to about […]
Everything is writ large in the San Joaquin Valley: the farms, the sprawl, and the boom and bust cycles. For the past decade, it was population growth, and houses were the cash crop of the day. Now many of those new homes and developments sit empty, gathering dust and weeds. Slide show Ghost Suburbs Technorati […]
United States Private sector funded, with more than half from private sources. Private health insurance available through employer, government or private schemes. 15.3% of population (45.7 million people) do not have health insurance. Federal government is largest healthcare insurer – involved in two main schemes, Medicaid and Medicare, each covering about 13% of population. Medicaid […]
From Calculated Risk: The Federal Reserve reports that delinquency rates rose in Q2 in all categories. This graph shows the delinquency rates at the commercial banks for residential real estate, commercial real estate and consumer credit cards. Commercial real estate delinquencies (7.91%) are rising rapidly, and are at the highest rate since the early ’90s […]
By EVAN LEHMANN of ClimateWire Several states prone to natural disasters are measuring the odds on a mega-bet. Concerned observers say those calculations are based on “Lady Luck” and “rolling the dice.” Public insurance programs in some coastal states are flirting with the notion of saving millions of dollars every year by shrinking or canceling […]
New Delhi (AFP) Aug 16, 2009 – Crops are shrivelling as India faces the spectre of drought but economists say they are still upbeat about the country’s economic prospects. They are banking that a strong industrial performance will help offset the impact of the worst monsoon in years in Asia’s third largest economy. Analysts have […]
From Calculated Risk: The blue line is the number of workers unemployed for 27 weeks or more. The red line is the same data as a percent of the civilian workforce. According to the BLS, there are almost 5.0 million workers who have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks (and still want a job). […]
From Calculated Risk: From Matt Padilla at the O.C. Register: Foreclosure wave gathers momentum “To say there is a second wave implies the (current) wave has receded,” [Sam Khater, senior economist, First American CoreLogic] “I don’t see that the wave has receded.” This graph is from Matt based on data from American CoreLogic. Khater said […]
From Calculated Risk: An update: the graph shows the decline in real GDP (quarterly) from the previous peak since 1947. GDP is now 3.9% below the recent peak. In terms of declines in real GDP, the current recession is the worst since quarterly records have been kept (starting in 1947). Note: This includes the downward […]
Under GOP plan, government would pay to lease back most of the sites By Matthew Benson and JJ Hensley, The Arizona Republic Call it a sign of desperate times: Legislators are considering selling the House and Senate buildings where they’ve conducted state business for more than 50 years. Dozens of other state properties also may […]
