I’ve been highly critical — and will continue to be! — of the various efforts in Georgia to tackle the problem of illegal immigration in ways that are counterproductive. From the AJC’s Immigration policy likely at heart of Chester Brown…
Category: Economics
With HOPE scholarships facing long-term funding problems, Georgia Democrats once again propose means testing and other measures
Last spring I wrote about Georgia democrats’ hopes to change HOPE. Now democrats in the state legislature are filing a variety of bills that would guarantee larger scholarships for lower-income Georgians and seem to shore up HOPE’s very shaky long-term…
One of the biggest stories not being widely reported: Americans driving less
I’ve written on this subject before, and I plan to keep doing monthly updates when the U.S. Dept. of Transportation Federal Highway Administration releases data. From the info released today: Travel on all roads and streets changed by -0.9% (-2.1…
IMF director wants more aggressive European policies to stem debt crisis, raises fears of depression
The opening lines from the Bloomberg piece Lagarde Urges Larger European Rescue Fund, Recommends Eurobonds pretty much say it all: International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde urged European policy makers to increase their bailout fund and share fiscal risks,…
All 5 banks based in Henry County, Ga. closed since 2008
I already wrote about the Friday failure of The First State Bank in Henry County, Ga., and I’ve written a lot about the Georgia banking crisis generally. Some interesting info in this excellent reporting from the AJC: Henry has been…
Banks in Georgia and Florida the first to close in 2012
From the FDIC moments ago: The First State Bank, Stockbridge, Georgia, was closed today by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into…
Georgia and Savannah employment in December: Still bad, but labor market slowly healing (maybe)
The Georgia Department of Labor released much of the December data yesterday, but we’re still waiting on some of it. More on that in a moment. Statewide, the number of people filing for unemployment each month continues to fall on…
In worst year since data collection began in 1959, U.S. had 429 thousand single family home starts in 2011
The statistic from my headline can be found here at the U.S. Census. There were 1.7 million single unit starts in 2005 Single family home construction is at an all time low in 2011 going all the way back to…
For economic performance in 2011, Atlanta ranks 189 on list of 200 world metro areas
From the AJC’s Atlanta’s global economic standing: #189: Atlanta’s economy – primarily its employment and income gains over the last year – were so anemic that the city came in at No. 189 in the think tank’s list of top…
Georgia’s December revenues offer “mixed results”
The press release from the Governor’s office says that there were “mixed results” in the state’s December revenue numbers. It’s a refreshing bit of non-hyped analysis, but I’d say that the numbers are decent and are reflective of the slow…
Will a cloying video help sell John Smoltz’s 22-acre, $7.2 million estate in Milton?
The End of the Exurbs?
Philadelphia Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron takes an interesting look at suburban and exurban development — and the prospects for recovery in the wake of the housing bust.
More predictions for 2012 for local and state economy, including housing
I’ve already posted excerpts from and links to a number of credible predictions for the 2012 economy of the Savannah metro area on up to the national economy Today, two more. From Mary Carr Mayle’s Savannah’s outlook for 2012: More…
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…