It is well known that home ownership has declined in the United States from the peak of the housing bubble. According to Current Population Survey data, the national home ownership rate fell 2.9 percentage points from the peak of the bubble (4th quarter 2004) to the third quarter of 2011. read more »
Politics
Martin Luther King, Economic Equality And The 2012 Election
In the last years of his life Dr. Martin Luther King expanded his focus from political and civil rights to include economic justice. Noting that the majority of America’s poor were white King decried the already huge gaps between rich and poor, calling for “radical changes in the structure of our society,” including a massive urban jobs program. read more »
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Three Cheers for Urban Sprawl
“Hands off Our Land!” screams the Daily Telegraph, like some shotgun-toting red-faced farmer. The newspaper, on behalf of the reactionary toffs who form the least pleasant section of its readership, has launched a campaign directed against ‘urban sprawl’ (ie. the rest of us).
On a good day, the Telegraph serves up enlightened articles by progressive liberals like Janet Daley and Simon Heffer and Jeff Randal (I’m talking about real liberals here, not American Trotskyites). But then it disappears under the desk, drinks some devilish, bubbling potion and emerges looking like Mr Hyde, all wonky teeth and messy hair. “Hands off Our Land” is the Telegraph at its worst - a campaign to thwart the government’s all-too-modest suggestions to reform Britain’s vicious planning laws. read more »
The U.S. Needs to Look Inward to Solve Its Economy
Over the past months as the global economy heads for another recession, U.S. lawmakers have done their best to deflect blame by focusing on various external forces including the most popular straw-man of the day: China’s currency.
Almost every year for the last few years, Congress and the White House have pressed China to revalue its currency, the renminbi. And every time this happens, China responds that it will do what it always does: let it appreciate gradually, at about 5% per year as it has done for the last several years. read more »
Central Florida: On the Cusp of Recovery?
Central Florida is poised at the cusp of a major turnaround, and its response to this condition will either propel the region forward, or drag it backward. This cusp condition is brought about by a train and a road; neither of which have begun yet but both of which appear imminent. Sunrail uses existing 19th century railroad tracks as a commuter spine through Orlando’s disperse, multipolar city. The Wekiva Parkway completes a beltway around Orlando, placing it with Washington DC, Houston and other ringed cities. Before either gets built, the region deserves some analysis read more »
Suppressing the News: The Real Cost of the Wall Street Bailout
No one really knows what a politician will do once elected. George “No New Taxes” Bush (George I to us commoners) was neither the first nor will he be the last politician to lie to the public in order to get elected. It takes increasing amounts of money to get elected. Total spending by Presidential candidates in 1988 was $210.7 million; in 2000 it was $343.1 million and in 2008, presidential candidates spent $1.3 billion. read more »
Iowa: Not Just the Elderly Waiting to Die
Stephen Bloom, a journalism professor at the University of Iowa, created quite a stir in Iowa this week with a piece in The Atlantic describing his unique observations on rural Iowa as evidence that it doesn’t deserve its decidedly powerful hand in the vote for the president. After the article appeared last Friday both his colleagues and the massive student body of the state he so harshly criticizes are returning the favor. read more »
Let’s Level the Inter-generational Playing Field
With President Obama’s speech in Osawatomie, Kansas decrying the growing economic inequality and lack of upward mobility in America, the issue has finally arrived at the center of this year’s campaign debates. read more »
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The High-Speed Rail Program Under Congressional Scrutiny
A combative and clearly agitated Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood defended the Administration’s high-speed rail program at a December 6 oversight hearing of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to discuss congressional concerns with the program’s direction and focus. "We will not be dissuaded by the naysayers and the critics," LaHood said heatedly. read more »
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Durban, Reducing Emissions and the Dimensions of Sustainability
The Durban climate change conference has come to an end, with the nations of the world approving the "Durban Platform," (Note 1) an agreement to agree later on binding greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets by 2020. read more »