Archive for the 'Economy' Category
2010 Worst Year for Bank Failures Since 1992 (Savings and Loan Crisis)
December 29th, 2010Via: Washington Post: More banks failed in the United States this year than in any year since 1992, during the savings-and-loan crisis, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Amid high unemployment, a struggling economy and a still-devastated real estate market, the nation is closing out the year with 157 bank failures, up from 140 […]
80% OF ANTIBIOTICS SOLD IN U.S. USED FOR LIVESTOCK AND POULTRY
December 29th, 2010Via: Center for a Livable Future: Antibiotics, one of the world’s greatest medical discoveries, are slowly losing their effectiveness in fighting bacterial infections and the massive use of the drugs in food animals may be the biggest culprit. The growing threat of antibiotic resistance is largely due to the misuse and overuse of antibiotics in […]
U.S. Changes How it Measures Long-Term Unemployment
December 29th, 2010Via: USA Today: So many Americans have been jobless for so long that the government is changing how it records long-term unemployment. Citing what it calls “an unprecedented rise” in long-term unemployment, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), beginning Saturday, will raise from two years to five years the upper limit on how long […]
Number of Multifamily Households at Record as People Try to Avoid Becoming Homeless
December 29th, 2010Obviously, the economy is playing a big part in this, but I wonder how many households choose this route even though they aren’t broke? This is the default setting for billions of people. Update: Pew Research Center: The Return of the Multi-Generational Family Household: Another factor has been the big wave of immigration, dominated by […]
Baby Boomers’ Retirements in Jeopardy
December 28th, 2010What is this ‘Retirement’ you speak of? —Generation X Also, Pookie sent me this set of age distribution charts for the U.S. If we didn’t know anything else about political and economic doom, this alone should be enough to indicate that bad trouble is ahead. Look at those charts and then consider the unemployed, underemployed […]
More Than 25% of Kids and Teens in the U.S. Take Prescription Drugs on a Regular Basis
December 28th, 2010Via: Wall Street Journal: These days, the medicine cabinet is truly a family affair. More than a quarter of U.S. kids and teens are taking a medication on a chronic basis, according to Medco Health Solutions Inc., the biggest U.S. pharmacy-benefit manager with around 65 million members. Nearly 7% are on two or more such […]
Bailed-Out Banks Slip Toward Failure
December 27th, 2010Via: Wall Street Journal: Nearly 100 U.S. banks that got bailout funds from the federal government show signs they are in jeopardy of failing. The total, based on an analysis of third-quarter financial results by The Wall Street Journal, is up from 86 in the second quarter, reflecting eroding capital levels, a pileup of bad […]
China Matches U.S. Space Launches for First Time
December 27th, 2010Via: Wired: Outwardly, it looked like just another big space launch — and those happen about once a week, from spaceports all around the world. But Friday’s blast-off of a rocket, carrying a Chinese GPS-style navigation satellite, from the Xi Chang Satellite Launch Center was different. It set a record for successful Chinese launches in […]
Companies That Made And Maintained Blow Out Preventer Have Had Hands-On Access To It
December 24th, 2010Via: AP: A federal board allowed to monitor testing of a key piece of Gulf oil spill evidence — the blowout preventer — demanded Thursday that the analysis stop, saying representatives of the companies that made and maintained the 300-ton device have been getting preferential and sometimes hands-on access to it. The U.S. Chemical Safety […]
Trader Holds $3 Billion of Copper in London
December 23rd, 2010Via: Wall Street Journal: As commodity prices soar to new records, the ability of a few traders to hold huge swaths of the world’s stockpiles is coming under scrutiny. The latest example is in the copper market, where a single trader has reported it owns 80%-90% of the copper sitting in London Metal Exchange warehouses, […]
