Author: bill dawers

Irene followup: NYC orders mandatory evacuation of lowest lying areas

I worried in an earlier post that some people were not taking Hurricane Irene’s danger seriously enough. So it’s good to see New York City taking a necessary step with a storm of this size (a strong category 2 that…

Watching Irene

I’m fascinated by big storms and other major weather events. And I’m sure I’m not the only one that has been following the track and development of Hurricane Irene in pretty great detail. I was watching the Weather Channel last…

Key lines from Bernanke’s speech today at Jackson Hole

Ok, Jackson Hole was apparently not named after Andrew Jackson, who declared war on the Bank of the United States, but there’s still something ironically amusing to me about the Federal Reserve Chairman giving a speech about the tanking economy…

Ezra Klein: What Bernanke should say today (and won’t)

There’s a great sharp piece — funny too — from Ezra Klein today at the Washington Post. Klein did the best coverage of the debt ceiling debate that I followed, and he’s one of the few commentators out there who…

Sign of the times: Habitat for Humanity now 6th largest homebuilder in U.S.

From the AJC this evening: Habitat for Humanity International is now the nation’s 6th largest homebuilder, according to Builder magazine, as its sales of homes in the United States grew from 4,993 in 2005 to 6,032 in 2010, a 17…

Dex Romweber Duo – The Jinx – 09/01/11

Great to see Dex Romweber and his sister Sara returning to Savannah so soon after the great early gig in June as part of the Savannah Stopover monthly series. Here’s what I had to say then: Let’s get right to…

The Royal Tinfoil / Some Dark Holler – The Jinx – 08/26/11

These inexpensive live videos may not always have the greatest quality, but they sometimes say a lot about a band. I’m definitely down for the Charleston-based The Royal Tinfoil: And I’m even more intrigued by Some Dark Holler from Birmingham:…

I was wrong: no change in 2012 TSPLOST referendum date, failure seems likely statewide

I had been working under the assumption that Governor Deal would successfully persuade some reluctant Georgia lawmakers to move the date of next year’s referendums on regional transportation sales taxes (the so-called TSPLOST) from the summer primary to the November…

See a digital rendering of the 9/11 memorial and the entire World Trade Center site

I have not closely followed the controversies surrounding the 9/11 memorial and the fate of Ground Zero. Not to sound cold, but it’s clear that the urban space is important for many reasons and that all those who lost loved…

Household debt as a percentage of GDP ballooned until 2009

Amidst all the discussion of the ratio of national debt to GDP, there has been little discussion of the ratio of Americans’ household debt as a percentage of GDP. Using a graph generated at Economagic.com, here’s the total household debt…

Should a $50,000 salary be taxed an additional $1,000 in 2012?

I don’t think that tax cuts are the best way to stimulate more economic activity. Instead of including $288 billion in abandoned tax revenue, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA or “The Stimulus”) would have been more effective if…

Americans drove less in June; trucking down in July

I love good graphs and straightforward data. And that’s what Calculated Risk served up today with a post about the June decline in total vehicle miles driven in the U.S. and with a post about the decline in a key…

In shift, Savannah Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon no longer asking bands to play for free

In a post a few weeks ago, I complained that the Savannah Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon was offering no payment for bands chosen to play on the course. The wording left open the door for compensation, but specifically said that…

New data shows economy shrinking in Georgia, much of southeast U.S.

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve released the monthly index of economic activity for each state today, and the numbers aren’t very good for this point in a recovery. And the numbers are terrible for Georgia and some other states in the…