Take a look at Mary Mayle’s Portside column today in the SMN: “S.C. takes off gloves on harbor deepening”. I noted in a couple of columns recently that Georgia politicians and other supporters of harbor deepening had clearly failed in…
Category: Economics
54% of Atlanta mortgages underwater, according to Zillow
Maybe it’s just a measure of tough times for the traditional daily newspaper, but I’ve lately been getting more quality economic information from the Atlanta Business Chronicle than from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. According to “54% of Atlanta mortgages under water”…
Deepening the Savannah River channel runs up against salinity issues and city politics
My freshman composition students at Armstrong are writing persuasive papers right now. As I always do for such assignments, I’m reminding them repeatedly that it’s impossible to craft truly effective arguments if writers ignore — or don’t understand –Â the best…
AP explores the national context of harbor deepening battle
 Locally based AP writer Russ Bynum has a great piece today regarding the issue of East Coast ports struggling to find the money and to figure out the logistics for the eventual arrival of larger ships after the Panama Canal…
Quick update to recent posts on the Georgia bank crisis
Yesterday I mentioned that two more banks in Georgia had been closed by the FDIC. Information in this post on Calculated Risk points to one more Georgia bank now known to be under FDIC scrutiny, as well as one in…
More Georgia bank failures — it’s getting a little embarrassing
I’ve previously written about the grim statistics regarding failed banks in Georgia. See Some background on the banking crisis in Georgia. We led the country (we’re number 1!) in failures from 2008 to 2010. As of 7 p.m. this evening,…
Some background on the banking crisis in Georgia
I have been getting a lot of questions about issues regarding the ongoing banking crisis — FDIC orders, bank closings, etc. First off, I should say that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is easy to find online and their site…
Another southeast Georgia bank under an FDIC consent order
Here we go again. We’ve already seen several Savannah area banks be closed by the FDIC. Now another is under a consent order, which is essentially a list of requirements in areas like management practices and the amount of capital…
Quick update on Georgia budget, Savannah River deepening
Some new developments of note over the last couple of days. Governor Nathan Deal’s comments in recent days, like those quoted in this piece in the Savannah Morning News, indicate that we will not see dramatic changes to the state…
Interesting developments regarding harbor deepening
In my column this past Sunday, I noted that the strong opposition to harbor deepening by some key South Carolinians suggested that supporters had not done enough to reach out to Georgia’s neighbors. Well, today there have been two interesting…
Proposed tax changes will hurt lower and middle class Georgians, help upper class
A relatively quick post this morning to point out the 1/22 release of “ALMOST THERE… Tax Council’s Recommendations Improve Finances, but Shift Taxes onto Vulnerable and Working Georgians” by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. The GBPI is one of…
Georgia Department of Labor updates unemployment numbers
I track a lot of economic data each month, some of which I write about in my column in the Savannah Morning News. Usually, though, I’m just checking so that I can keep track of broader trends and don’t make…
An ugly new wrinkle in Georgia’s banking crisis
An article in today’s AJC, Feds’ suit targets state senator, other officials of failed bank, almost reads like something from The Onion. As the state’s banking crisis has deepened — Georgia leads the nation in bank failures since the recession…
Georgia’s budget under Nathan Deal
The first half of my Sunday column was devoted to the Wright Square Antique Mall, a great new entry on the downtown retail scene, but the second half was on an issue of much broader impact: the Georgia state budget.…