Month: January 2012

In some of nation’s worst housing markets, distressed sales down, foreclosure sales down, and short sales up

The following table was compiled by housing economist Tom Lawler and published by Calculated Risk. These are positive trends. All of these markets have a high percentage of distressed sales (the numbers speak for themselves), but the percentage has fallen…

Some good news from Atlanta’s battered condo sector

We’ve been slowly turning a corner in housing for a while, and recent plunges in prices in the Atlanta area are almost certain to help clear some of the excess inventory. Most of the time when I write about housing,…

Dramatic video from plane crash into the Potomac 30 years ago today

Today is the 30th anniversary of a horrific and dramatic Air Florida crash into the Potomac. Here’s a 4-minute video that The Washington Post has put up today with lots of other coverage. Just 5 people survived. One of those would surely have died if a bystander had not leaped into the water to save her.

Delhaize closing dozens of stores in Europe and U.S., including 4 Food Lion supermarkets in metro Savannah

There’s a big international story here. From Bloomberg’s Delhaize to Cut 5,000 Jobs as Food Lion Owner Shuts Stores in U.S., Europe: Delhaize Group SA (DELB), the owner of Food Lion supermarkets, plans to cut about 5,000 positions and expects…

Newly released 2006 notes show how badly Greenspan, Bernanke, and the Fed missed the housing bubble

I think that Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve generally have done a pretty good job managing the fallout from the financial crisis in 2008. But — despite ample warnings from credible analysts for a period of years — Greenspan…

Pro-Gingrich PAC takes the gloves off in S.C., dubs Romney “King of Bain”

Ad now running in South Carolina:

How we die: CDC on the 15 leading causes of death in the U.S. in 2010

I hope this doesn’t seem overly morbid, but I saw several press reports about this today and thought I’d link directly to the Center for Disease Control’s Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2010. It’s a surprisingly readable document and it lists,…

Great live video of Anderson East singing “Flowers of the Broken Hearted”

Nashville-based Anderson East did a great show in Savannah at The Sentient Bean last summer, a gig that I included in my 13 top shows of the year by artists I wasn’t already listening to.

Here’s a great video from Music City Roots of a live solo performance of “Flowers of the Broken Hearted”:

Key policy proposals from Governor Deal’s State of the State address

You can read the entire State of the State address here. Governor Nathan Deal delivered it last evening (Tuesday) to the Georgia legislature. As I noted in a post yesterday about some of the Governor’s economic initiatives, I find the…

Restored version of 1977 animated “The Hobbit” being screened Wednesday in Savannah

Psychotronic Film Night at The Sentient Bean on Wed., Jan. 11 features a restored version of the 1977 TV film of The Hobbit. There’s lots more information about the 8 p.m. screening here.

Here’s a homemade trailer by a fan:


Click on the post to see another homemade trailer pairing images from the animated 1977 version with Peter Jackson’s film scheduled to be released in 2012.

The Goddamn Gallows – The Wormhole – 01/18/12

From The Goddamn Gallows official website bio: In 2007, they left everything behind and spent the next 4 years living out of whatever vehicle would get them to the next town. Building upon their original sound of “twanged-out, punk rock…

S.C. Coastal Conservation League director vows “long and expensive battle” against Savannah River dredging

Steve Eames, director of the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League’s Beaufort Office, has a provocative editorial up today at FITSNews. I appreciate Eames’ piece because he actually knows the facts involving the Corps of Engineers’ predicted environmental impacts, especially regarding…

Governor Deal’s press release on improving the business climate in Georgia

I’ll circle back around and make some comments about various specifics here soon. My initial impression is that this is a surprisingly modest agenda given a) the problems facing Georgia’s economy and b) the fact that governors rarely seem to…

Mitt Romney on health insurance portability and how much he likes firing people

Another awkward moment from the Romney campaign. First he seems to be giving a pretty good endorsement of the idea of health care exchanges under “Obamacare”, and then he riffs: “I like being able to fire people who provide services to me.”