In my City Talk column today, I talk about cuts to education in Georgia over the last few years. I just want to follow up here with a post about total government employment in Georgia using Georgia Department of Labor…
Category: Economics
Calculated Risk on private investment, GDP and the business cycle
Wonkishness warning: Very high. Calculated Risk has a great post today: Private Investment and the Business Cycle The post shows that while private investment typically only accounts for about 15% of GDP, it plays an outsized role in economic recoveries.…
Merry Christmas, Part 2 (beer on Sunday, link to today’s column, Mannheim Steamroller)
Early here on Christmas morning, someone wound up on my blog after doing an internet search for the following phrase: “can u buy beer on christmas in savannah” The answer, amazingly, is yes. Liquor can’t be sold in the state…
Intellectual laziness: The payroll tax cut edition
From Charles Krauthammer’s The GOP’s payroll tax debacle in The Washington Post: A two-month extension is nothing more than a long tax weekend. What employer is going to alter his hiring decisions — whose effects last years — in anticipation…
WSJ: What a payroll tax increase would mean for workers
I think it’s clear that the politics of this issue are working in favor of President Obama and Democrats, but I’m a lot more interested in the impact that the 2% cut in payroll taxes had on the economy in…
Philly Fed state coincident indexes show growth in Georgia, most of nation
It’s been a pretty good fourth quarter for economic data, especially the recent drop in unemployment rates in the nation as a whole and in Georgia specifically. Now, there are lots of negative trends in that employment data, and there…
Savannah metro unemployment falls to 8.4% in November, but the devil is in the details
From the Georgia Dept. of Labor this morning: State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler announced today that the preliminary unemployment rate in metro Savannah decreased to 8.4 percent in November, down six-tenths of a percentage point from 9.0 percent in October.…
A curious editorial about Savannah, Jasper, and Charleston by the chair of the S.C. State Ports Authority
I wonder if newcomers to the ongoing battle over the proposed Savannah Harbor Expansion Project — the dredging of the Savannah River to 48 feet to accommodate larger ships that will be coming through the Panama Canal after its expansion…
National Association of Realtors revises 2007 to 2010 home sales downward by 14.3%
There’s likely going to be a lot of puffed up anger and indignation about today’s dramatic downward revision of existing home sales by the National Association of Realtors. (“Rebenchmarking” is the term being used by the NAR.) But those of…
Housing starts above recent lows, still far below pre-recession peak
A couple of days ago in my City Talk column and in a followup post here — Where is the Savannah housing market headed in 2012? — I talked about the importance of housing starts in the economy. Well we…
60 Minutes: Cleveland using widespread demolition to tackle abandoned houses
Cleveland hasn’t fared nearly as badly as some other metro areas in the housing bust, but the city limits have been losing population — over 500,000 people — over the last 60 years. And that’s obviously a key reason why…
Where is the Savannah housing market headed in 2012?
In my City Talk column today, I talk about the direction that the Savannah area housing market is headed: What we can expect from the local housing market in 2012. I’m not going to rehash all my predictions and all…
More can-kicking: Payroll tax cut and UI benefits extended for just two months
Just a quick post about Congress’ extension on Friday of the 2% payroll tax cut and some long-term unemployment benefits for two more months. We have a fragile economy still, and there are considerable dangers of a severe shock from…
New study shows Atlanta and Savannah metro areas tumbling on list of “Best-Performing Cities”
The Milken Institute publishes an annual list of Best-Performing Cities. Here’s the summary of the results in this year’s list: Leaders in this year’s index, which ranks U.S. metros based on their ability to create and sustain jobs, are cities…