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An excellent think piece on the current economic situation by former Secretary of the Treasury and President of Harvard University, Dr. Lawrence Summers.
Sobering, but not defeatist. There's no happy news there, however. I wonder where we'd be if we had this guy back running Treasury instead of Paulson, and if we had Paul Volcker back as the Fed chairman instead of Bernanke.
Two of the bulwarks of Boulder's economy are entrepreneurial start-ups and quasi-governmental science/research facilities and programs.
In today's (August 8. 2008) Boulder Daily Camera:
Crocs lays off 75 people
Company also reports lower profits, revenue (http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/aug/07/crocs-lays-least-50-sources-say/ - broken link)
and
NCAR shuts down climate impacts center
Well-known senior scientist loses job (http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/aug/07/Boulder-ncar-shuts-down-climate-impacts-center/ - broken link)
Quote:
NCAR has decided to close Glantz's program, known for its cutting edge social science research. NCAR officials blamed budget cuts, saying the program wasn't a high enough priority to qualify for shrinking resources.
Location: Moved to town. Miss 'my' woods and critters.
25,464 posts, read 13,588,629 times
Reputation: 31765
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sockeye
Check out Rep. Don Young's scathing oration to the "do nothing about domestic energy production/not open for discussion" congress. Note Nancy Pelosi staring vacuously at her desk.
"A private equity billionaire, a former federal government official and a Baltimore newsletter editor have made a documentary film that they hope can do what an endless parade of policy papers has not: Persuade Americans that debt has created a looming economic crisis that would make the Great Depression look like a market correction.
The movie, "I.O.U.S.A.," premiering Aug. 21, is an 87-minute alarm on what it calls the tsunami of debt bearing down on the United States' future, caused by the rising national debt, the trade imbalance and the pending costs of baby boomers cashing in on entitlements."
Charles, thanks for the link. That's one I'll be sure to see.
Meanwhile, I've been wondering lately why foreigners aren't buying up foreclosed homes in the USA. [ I'm aware that the Chrysler Building and other "prime" properties have been snapped up recently due to the weak dollar, etc. ]
Today there is news that a few billion dollars of REO properties have indeed been bought by one or more sovereign wealth funds, on the cheap, for as little as 31-cents on the dollar. Got this link off of Bloomberg site: LOST SOVEREIGNITY - New York Post
My parents generation sold it's scrap metal to Japan in the 1930's, then got it back at Pearl Harbor one Sunday morning. Now we pay huge prices for oil, and our nation is being bought out from under us, with our own money.
Charles, thanks for the link. That's one I'll be sure to see.
Meanwhile, I've been wondering lately why foreigners aren't buying up foreclosed homes in the USA. [ I'm aware that the Chrysler Building and other "prime" properties have been snapped up recently due to the weak dollar, etc. ]
Today there is news that a few billion dollars of REO properties have indeed been bought by one or more sovereign wealth funds, on the cheap, for as little as 31-cents on the dollar. Got this link off of Bloomberg site: LOST SOVEREIGNITY - New York Post
My parents generation sold it's scrap metal to Japan in the 1930's, then got it back at Pearl Harbor one Sunday morning. Now we pay huge prices for oil, and our nation is being bought out from under us, with our own money.
I'm not sure this is such a bad thing...for the US that is...though it looks like these are small numbers in the grand scheme of things. Houses left emply don't necessarily make good investments. If flipping these properties is the goal, well, there may well be a whole bunch more disappointed SWF investors to join the ranks of those who provided cash infusions to corrupt and failing US investment banks. If cash-flowing these houses and putting them up for rent is the goal...it'll keep rents depressed and help out renters at a time where nearly all of their other costs are skyrocketing. At any rate, it provides some demand for a gross oversupply of houses that our hideously overleveraged masses can no longer finance, and the properties can't exactly be packed up and moved to the mideast...
All it would take is some appropriate tax law to prompt those foreign owners to drop their interest in these properties...
I think that most of us are happy to see that it has dropped to $114, but we've all witnessed the hair trigger price increases of the past few months. Although I'm happy ( a very nervous happiness ) to see $114, I'm well aware that something could happen and send it up to $150 almost overnite. If I had an SUV, I'd still keep it parked in the garage.
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Oil drops to $114 per barrel!
