Archive for the 'Collapse' Category
Corporate Welfare at the Expense of Everything Else
August 3rd, 2009Via: Solari: What we are watching price out through the political process is life vs. death. More specifically, the financial value of the life and death of various groups and ages of people vs. the life and death of large banks and corporations. In a market economy, if a person’s skills become outdated, the theory […]
A Scene from a Los Angeles Freeway On Ramp
August 3rd, 2009I like it, but the artist botches the job by using “socialism” as the tagline. When I think of socialism, I think of the Scandinavian countries. While I don’t find those models socialism desirable, by a lot of measures, those countries are pretty good places to live. The U.S., on the other hand, suffers under […]
Detroit: Feral Houses
August 2nd, 2009Must see. Via: Sweet Juniper: I’ve seen “feral” used to describe dogs, cats, even goats. But I have wondered if it couldn’t also be used to describe certain houses in Detroit. Abandoned houses are really no big deal here. Some estimate that there are as many as 10,000 abandoned structures at any given time, and […]
CALIFORNIA’S MORTGAGE DEFAULT RATE SOARS TO 9.5%
July 31st, 2009Via: Los Angeles Times: About 1 in 10 Californians with a home loan is now in default, and there’s growing evidence that the mortgage meltdown is spreading to commercial real estate. The home mortgage delinquency rate — the percentage of borrowers who have missed several payments and are in the first stage of foreclosure — […]
Recession Worse Than Prior Estimates, Revisions Show
July 31st, 2009Can we get some green shoots in here? What’s that? Tim and Ben said to charge em? Oh ok! Via: Bloomberg: The first 12 months of the U.S. recession saw the economy shrink more than twice as much as previously estimated, reflecting even bigger declines in consumer spending and housing, revised figures showed. The world’s […]
Florida: 32 Story Luxury Condo Complex with Only One Unit Occupied
July 30th, 2009Surreal. Via: News Press: Victor Vangelakos lives in a luxury condominium tower on the Caloosahatchee River. He never has to worry about the neighbors making too much noise. There are no neighbors. Vangelakos, 45, his wife Cathy and their three children are the only residents in the 32-story Oasis I condo on the east edge […]
The Real Unemployment Rate Hits a 68-Year High
July 28th, 2009Via: Dollars and Sense: The comprehensive U-6 unemployment rate adjusts the official rate by adding marginally attached workers and workers forced to work part time for economic reasons to the officially unemployed. To find the U-6 rate the BLS takes that higher unemployment count and divides it by the official civilian labor force plus the […]
British Economic Collapse Rivals Great Depression
July 27th, 2009Via: Telegraph: Economic output shrank by 5.6pc in the 12 months to the middle of the year, according to official figures which shattered hopes that the recovery has already begun. The Office for National Statistics said that Britain’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 0.8pc in the second quarter, following the unprecedented 2.4pc fall in […]
U.S. Firm Looking to Purchase New Zealand’s Most Strategic Asset
July 24th, 2009I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I don’t know who’s behind the wheel of this thing, but it’s not Kiwis. There is some kind of insidious, international banking octopus thing happening here. New Zealand politicians are selling their own country out to a global criminal elite that is going to eat this […]
Detroit: The Post-Apocalyptic Future of American Cities?
July 23rd, 2009Update: Is This Story Bullshit? A couple of readers from Detroit have written in and are saying that this story is bullshit and that they they haven’t seen any barbedwired burbclaves. —End Update— Burbclaves. Via: Al Martin: Here’s a glimpse of a Turn Key Approach to Urban Wasteland Management ™. Last week I had a […]
