Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson was one of the major proponents of the homebuyer tax credit, a spectacularly failed policy whose only clear beneficiary was the banking system. I discussed the failures of the tax credit here. Now Isakson is selling…
Category: Economics
Average Savannah gas prices at $3.25 per gallon — and falling
Gas prices are finally following to the level I expected weeks ago. According to GasBuddy.com, Savannah area prices for unleaded have fallen to about $3.25 per gallon. I’d expect them to fall further, and we’ll soon be seeing some stations…
Sign of the times: Atlanta Falcons’ owner sells mansion for 60% less than original price
From the AJC: Falcons owner Arthur Blank has sold a three-level Buckhead mansion for millions of dollars less than he once hoped to get for the property. The home in the 3600 block of Tuxedo Road sold for about $3.9…
Harbor deepening back into the headlines with S.C.’s denial of key permit
A piece by Mary Landers in today’s Savannah Morning News: S.C. denies deepening permit The second paragraph: “In a notice filed in the late afternoon and posted on its website, the state’s Department of Health and Environmental Control denied the…
We’re #1! Atlanta leads all U.S. metro areas in job losses over the last year
I’ve been writing a lot lately about employment and about the poor almost nonexistent response to joblessness since the recession began in 2007. Take a look at the AJC’s piece, Atlanta top metro area — for job losses. From the…
Residential investment, GDP, and economic recoveries
For those of you who come to this blog looking for something other than economic news, hang in there! There has been a lot of interesting and very important news generated by the economy in recent days — and there…
Nouriel Roubini: U.S. and Europe “sinking in a recession”
If you don’t know who Nouriel Roubini is, he’s the economist who always seems to view issues through a dark lens. And he also always seems to be right. I’m exaggerating, of course, but not by much. His concerns and…
Case-Shiller shows prices slightly higher in July, but flat with seasonal adjustment
The title of the press release says almost everything you really need to know about the Case-Shiller home price data released today for July (actually a three-month composite of May, June, and July): Home Prices Continue to Show Seasonal Strength…
Job losses — a regional context for local and statewide problems
Just a quick post to pull a few issues together. In my City Talk column today — Where did all the jobs go? — I write in some detail about the sectors of the local economy that have accounted for…
The increasingly suburban face of poverty
Poverty rates are still higher in major cities (20.9%) than in suburbs (11.4%), according to a Brookings analysis of American Community Survey Census data, but the trends are both interesting and disturbing. America’s suburbs became home to 3.4 million people…
AJC: Voters in Atlanta suburbs “warm to mass transit”
I’ve been following a number of related transportation issues: the congestion of suburbs (especially Atlanta), the toll on our economy if energy prices and spending continue to rise, and the general feelings about transit. The AJC has a fascinating piece…
Can Savannah city leadership walk and chew gum at the same time?
I don’t really mean the title of this post to sound so snarky. I’m just asking the logical question in response to alderman Van Johnson’s words at the end of an excellent article today in the SMN As repairs mount,…
Savannah area gas prices near $3.36 per gallon average, likely to fall further
I’ve started doing periodic updates regarding gas prices. Spikes in gas prices have clear negative impacts on economic conditions. Declining prices don’t necessarily spur economic growth, but they certainly are welcome news for cash-strapped consumers. According to GasBuddy.com, the average…
Four years after recession began, Americans still driving less
The number of vehicle miles driven is one bit of data from the 2007 to 2009 recession and subsequent slow recovery that has been especially interesting to me. As Calculated Risk notes, we’ve now gone a record 44 months with…