MetaFilter posts tagged with Economy and crisis

Wall Street's Near Death Experience

SeizeTheDay — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:21:32 -0800

How green was my valley

KokuRyu — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:51:06 -0800

How green was my valley: California's economic meltdown The fields of wheat, cotton and cantaloupe that sustained his family for three generations are gone. The land is a mess of fallow fields, cracked earth and swirling dust. (PDF - By some estimates, 12.8% of the United States' agricultural production (as measured by dollar value) comes from California, and the majority of that is in the Central Valley). However, his particular scene of devastation, Mr. Allen argues, has nothing to do with the credit crisis, the housing crash or the downturn that has California in a vice grip. It has to do with a seven-centimetre-long, semi-translucent, steel blue fish known as the Delta smelt. This is not a story about fish. Rather, it is a story about how efforts to save the fish through a court-ordered water shortage have pushed a region already brought to the brink by recession over the edge... "In the Central Valley regional area, we've got 40,000 unemployed people. General Motors had 30,000 and got a government bailout. We're getting nothing." See also: California v Texas

Hidey Hole

Joe Beese — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:59:45 -0800

It's scary out there. It can make you just want to hide.

Squeeze in, get online for a better life

flapjax at midnite — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:54:48 -0800

Newly jobless and homeless former members of the Japanese upper or upper-middle class are turning to a distinctly 21st century version of the flophouse, the net room: a tiny cubicle, rented by the day, with that all-important feature... an internet connection and a computer. See this video followup on Ito Hidefumi, who, ironically, has been able to move into somewhat nicer accommodations, thanks to his new job cleaning temporary dwellings for other jobless/homeless displaced workers in Tokyo. Here's some bite-size infobits on Japan's current economic/jobs malaise. Oh, and none of this is to be confused with this Net Room, which caters to foreigners, but may well decide to change their name if the "net room" phenomenon really takes off and becomes a household word...

How quickly the world owes him something he knew existed only ten seconds ago

Navelgazer — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:52:33 -0800

Louis C.K. gives us all a little dose of perspective.

The Beginning Of The End.

gman — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:21:44 -0800

Frontline: Inside The Meltdown. Synopsis here. There is an interactive timeline at the bottom of the first link.

Should we have the right to walk away from our governments?

stuffedspacedog — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:49:15 -0800

The Right to Walk Away Has panarchist thinking finally come of age in 2009? With world leaders of big governments failing to find any new solutions to old problems, should we have the right to walk away from those governments?

Dubai-bye

dances_with_sneetches — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:15:30 -0800

The real estate crisis has started to hit the fantasyland capital of real estate, Dubai. Projects are being abandoned and workers skipping town just the Dubai tower tops out at 818 meters. Pre-vi-ous-ly .

Religious takes on the global financial crisis

desjardins — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:04:30 -0800

The Dalai Lama blames the financial crisis on a decline in spirituality. Hindus blame it on greed. Saudi Grand Mufti, Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, blames the crisis on ignoring God's rules. Jewish scholars say we could have avoided a crisis by following Talmudic traditions. Pope Benedict sees the global financial system as "self-centred, short-sighted and lacking in concern for the destitute." Is it right to pray for the economy? (a Christian perspective). A Malaysian conference brings together Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Taoists, and Sikhs to discuss the crisis.

They laughed at Peter Schiff

thisisdrew — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:20:22 -0800

The laughed at him. Foretelling the doom and gloom of the mortgage crisis as a pundit in these 2006-2007 interviews, Peter Schiff held to a grim economic outlook. Recently in the Washington Post, Schiff writes: "Our leaders irrationally promoted home-buying, discouraged savings, and recklessly encouraged borrowing and lending, which together undermined our markets."

online services and tools

nickyskye — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:50:16 -0800

200+ Tools for Surviving the Economic Crisis l Free printable Basic Budgeting Worksheet l Building Your First Budget l How To Create a Budget l How to Make a Budget and Stick to It l Frugal Family Recipes. MetaFilter Wiki: Cooking On a Budget

Fannie and Freddie under conservatorship.

SeizeTheDay — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:56:53 -0800

Fannie and Freddie have now been placed under conservatorship. On the bright side, there is a precedent. On the downside, Britain is facing its worst economy in 60 years. And the US Presidential candidates are apparently avoiding this discussion like the plague. Ironically, the S&P500 is outperforming the MSCI, the FTSE, the Bovespa, the Nikkei, and other world indexes, suggesting that our misery is taking down the rest of the world. And, oh yeah, the dollar has gained on the Euro and Pound in record fashion over the last couple of months, to the chagrin of US exporters, meaning that any sort of export-driven GDP growth just went out the window. Fascinating times we live in.

Paying For The 1%

Avenger — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:48:33 -0800

Fiscal Pressures Lead Some States to Free Inmates Early, says the Washington Post. Across the United States, a financial crisis is brewing in our nation's correctional systems. California, which has the largest prison system in the nation, (housing 170,000 inmates with a capacity of only 100,000), plans to increase the budget for new prison construction by 7 to 14 billion dollars, on top of releasing 22,000 nonviolent prisoners on unsupervised parole. Other states, especially Michigan, face an even more dire situation... ...Michigan, which spends more money on prisons than higher education and where 1 in 3 state employees work for the prison system, is facing a prison-related economic crisis. 20 cents of every dollar in the state's general fund are being diverted to the prison system: "Even without further growth, we're choosing to keep putting 20 percent of the state's general fund into corrections, which means continuing cuts to higher education, revenue sharing and social programs that could prevent crime," said reform advocate Barbara Levine. "It's not the sort of investment that will make Michigan a desirable place to live and work." Yet despite these challenges, the chances of any large-scale release of non-violent offenders is slim to none. "Sen. Alan Cropsey of DeWitt, the state's most influential Republican voice on prison policies, continues to defend tough rules that have prevailed since the 1990s and added 16 prisons to Michigan's landscape. That unbending opposition from Cropsey, law enforcement professionals, victims' families and other lawmakers convinced Gov. Jennifer Granholm to back off her three-year campaign to ease harsh sentencing policies and save $92 million by releasing more than 5,000 inmates." "Cropsey, whose district includes several prison facilities, helped shape the policies that led to the prison buildup. He said he doesn't believe they should change, and his agreement likely would be required for major revisions." Instead, Michigan Republicans have proposed a plan that would, among other things, cut pay and overtime for prison guards, outsource many prison services and increase funding for faith-based programs.