From Calculated Risk: The graph shows monthly vehicle sales (autos and trucks) as reported by the BEA at a Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR). This shows that sales have plunged to a 9.29 million annual rate in February; the lowest since Dec 1981. March 2009 sales will be down sharply from March 2008 too, but […]
Slideshow: Inside California’s Tent Cities By JESSE McKINLEY FRESNO, Calif. — As the operations manager of an outreach center for the homeless here, Paul Stack is used to seeing people down on their luck. What he had never seen before was people living in tents and lean-tos on the railroad lot across from the center. […]
From Calculated Risk: The graph shows New Home Sales vs. recessions for the last 45 years. New home sales have fallen off a cliff. Sales of new one-family houses in February 2009 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 337,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department […]
Flint Michigan typifies the plight of inner city urban decay. Inquiring minds are wondering what if anything can be done. MLive explores that issue in an article discussing what to do with abandoned neighborhoods in Flint. Look in any direction from Bianca Bates’ north Flint home, and you’ll see graffiti-covered siding, boarded-up windows and overgrown […]
This is highly refined doomer source material. The global economic crisis isn’t about money – it’s about power. How Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution By MATT TAIBBI It’s over — we’re officially, royally fucked. no empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock, which is what happened as of […]
From Calculated Risk: Here are the Kennedy-Greenspan estimates (NSA – not seasonally adjusted) of home equity extraction for Q4 2008, provided by Jim Kennedy based on the mortgage system presented in “Estimates of Home Mortgage Originations, Repayments, and Debt On One-to-Four-Family Residences,” Alan Greenspan and James Kennedy, Federal Reserve Board FEDS working paper no. 2005-41. […]
By Rina Chandran ALANG, India (Reuters) – A global economic slowdown has hit industries ranging from automakers to investment banks, but in one small town on India’s western coast, business is at record levels and workers can hardly keep up with demand. In Alang, home to the world’s largest ship breaking facility on the coast […]
By Kara Finnstrom and Chuck Conder LANCASTER, California (CNN) — The sound of pounding hooves thunders in the high desert air. A cloud of dust marks the trail of a herd of wild horses as they race across the arid plain. This is Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue, a shelter for wild mustangs and unwanted horses […]
I always enjoy blockquoting Dmitry Orlov, but this post is a real gem. In the unfolding global financial collapse, it is not just our accounts and balance sheets that come up short, but our language as well. What do you call a bunch of liar loans packaged into toxic assets and placed on the balance […]
From The Big Picture: The state of our global economy: foreclosures, evictions, bankruptcies, layoffs, abandoned projects, and the people and industries caught in the middle. It can be difficult to capture financial pressures in photographs, but here a few recent glimpses into some of the places and lives affected by what some are calling the […]
