Generation Rent: Slamming Door Of Homeownership. Hide captionNeal Coleman and his wife, Rachel, are both in their mid-20s and attend graduate school at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind. They say renting makes more sense for them and their young daughter until their family is a bit more settled. Courtesy of Neal Coleman Kristi Taylor can pinpoint the precise moment she let go of the dream of homeownership.
It was a few months ago, as she and her husband and infant son were driving through a neighborhood of homes near their apartment in Athens, Ga. "As we were passing through, I realized that I don't really look at houses like I used to, when we would point out homes and say, 'That can be ours someday,' " says Taylor, who is 28. Taylor says she and her husband, Zach, 25, have lived in nine different places in the past five years, including stints back home with the parents — both his and hers — as they moved from place to place "chasing after jobs.
" The Taylors aren't alone. 'A Recipe For Frustration' iStockphoto.com Flexibility Vs. Seven Ways Wisconsin's Recall Vote May Matter To You : It's All Politics. Hide captionWisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker (right) celebrates his win over Democratic challenger Tom Barrett at Tuesday night's victory party in Waukesha, Wis. Morry Gash/AP Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker (right) celebrates his win over Democratic challenger Tom Barrett at Tuesday night's victory party in Waukesha, Wis.
For weeks now, we in the news business have been telling you how much the Scott Walker recall election in Wisconsin matters to the country as a whole. My colleague Ken Rudin, the Political Junkie with whom I share the weekly podcast version of It's All Politics, and I have both compared the Wisconsin recall effort to the Spanish Civil War that immediately preceded World War II. Both served as a kind of dress rehearsal for the larger conflagration to come. The media drumbeat has become so insistent, you might think we're straining to keep the attention of the 98.12 percent of Americans who do not live in Wisconsin (2010 Census figures). Struggling U.S. Economy Drags Down The World. Hide captionSlow economic growth in the U.S. is having an impact on many countries around the world.
Here, people walk past a board flashing the Nikkei index on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Japan last month. Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images The sputtering U.S. economy isn't just bad news for America, it's a drag on the global economic outlook as well. "What matters to the rest of the world is the amount of demand the United States is going to generate," says economist Eswar Prasad, a professor of trade policy at Cornell. "Weak job growth translates to weak domestic demand in the U.S., and that concerns all of the U.S.' Prasad is an expert on the economy in China, whose turbocharged economic growth has already slipped this year, in part because of declining demand for its exports in the United States and Europe. Signs Of Chinese Concern The comparatively low value of the renminbi, also known as the yuan, has been a point of contention between the U.S. and China for years.
Worries In Europe. 'Lousy' News: Just 69,000 Jobs Added In May; Jobless Rate At 8.2 Percent : The Two-Way. Horrid. Lousy. Awful. Those are just three of the words economists are using to describe the news that just 69,000 net jobs were added to public and private payrolls last month — and that the nation's jobless rate edged up to 8.2 percent from April's 8.1 percent. The news has raised fears that the hoped-for strengthening of the economy may not materialize. We posted on the news and followed with details from the report and reaction to it. The nation's unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent in May from 8.1 percent in April as just 69,000 jobs were added to public and private payrolls, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said this morning. Both numbers are disappointments. We'll be adding to this post as we gather more data from the report and reactions to it, so hit your "refresh" button to be sure you're seeing our latest updates.
Update at 11:20 a.m. Update at 11:10 a.m. Update at 9:54 a.m. Reuters rounds up reactions from some economists here. . — "Weak. " — "Pretty horrid. " — "Lousy. " — "Awful. " A Front-Row Seat At A Bank Run : Planet Money. Petros Giannakouris/ASSOCIATED PRESS A decade ago, investors thought Greece would flourish on the euro. Money poured in, and banks started lending it out. Thefilos Papacostakis, a bank teller at Alpha Bank in Thessaloniki, got to hand out a lot of that money. Last month, Thefilos says, his bosses called him in for a meeting. A few weeks ago, his customers started calling: "They say, 'Thefilos, tomorrow I'm going to need 50,000 euros, cash.' "I say, 'Maybe cashiers check.' " 'No, no. "And then, half an hour later, somebody else will say, 'Thefilos, I need 200,000 euros If Greece leaves the euro — which now seems like a distinct possibility — the money in Greek banks will be converted into drachmas, and will suddenly be worth a lot less.
The thing about bank runs is that they can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. But after a couple of weeks of counting out stacks of euros and sending customers' money to other countries, it doesn't feel like such a big deal. "It's like a doctor," he says. Europe's Crisis Threatens To Kill Global Economic Recovery, Experts Warn : The Two-Way. Unless leaders in Europe act quickly, the financial crisis there could drag down the global economy and kill what appears to be a "fragile, extremely uneven" recovery, the multi-national Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned today.
In a stark report calling for action aimed at boosting and shoring up Europe's economies, OECD Chief Economist Pier Carlo Padoan warns that "the crisis in the euro zone remains the single biggest downside risk facing the global outlook. " "Failure to act today could lead to a worsening of the European crisis and spillovers beyond the euro area," the report adds. The OECD calls on eurozone countries "to announce and commit to implement [economic and financial] reforms in a coordinated and parallel fashion, signalling enhanced coordination. " The OECD also warns that the scheduled expiration of the so-called Bush tax cuts at the end of this year, combined with the end of "emergency unemployment benefits ... Spain's Beloved Four-Day Weekends Are At Risk. Hide captionPeople relax at a beach in Barcelona, Spain, on a Monday last summer. Many Spanish workers are upset that some traditional four-day holiday weekends might be scaled back to just three days.
Manu Fernandez/AP One of the perks of living in Europe is the generous vacation schedule. But the austerity moves across the continent could be changing that, at least in some places. And Spain is shuffling its calendar to shorten extended weekends — something the prime minister says it can no longer afford.
A Holiday For Bullfighting The paso doble anthem blasts from the iron gates of Madrid's ornate bullring. Sangria flows at bars in the bullring's shadow. Even people hit hard by Spain's recession, like Clara de Jorge, who's 23 and unemployed, find ways to celebrate. "I didn't have money to go away, but I still try to enjoy it," she says. But these long weekends are about to get shorter. De Jorge says that's not enough time to visit her family in Valencia.
Getting On The World's Schedule. 'Dire Consequences' If Greece Exits Euro. Hide captionPeople walk past the Bank of Greece headquarters in Athens. Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images People walk past the Bank of Greece headquarters in Athens. Euros are being drained out of Greek banks at a rate of up to $1 billion a day this week. In the wake of the country's election turmoil, depositors are nervous about the heightened possibility of a Greek exit from the euro.
If that were to happen, euros left in Greek banks could be worth much less than euros outside the country. Former International Monetary Fund chief economist Simon Johnson believes that with the Greeks unable to form a government because of victories by anti-austerity parties, there's an 80 to 90 percent chance that the country will exit the euro. Johnson thinks that very well could happen before the next election, to be held in June.
"Greece is absolutely on an accelerated time scale now," he says. If A Euro Was No Longer A Euro Too Much At Stake. On Jobs, Bad News Is Bad. The Good News Is Bad, Too. Hide captionPeople wait in a line at a job fair on April 10, 2012, in Gresham, Ore. Employment grew by 115,000 last month, but the unemployment rate dip was likely due to people leaving the workforce rather than people getting hired, analysts say. Rick Bowmer/AP People wait in a line at a job fair on April 10, 2012, in Gresham, Ore. Employment grew by 115,000 last month, but the unemployment rate dip was likely due to people leaving the workforce rather than people getting hired, analysts say. For the second month in a row, weak job growth numbers unsettled nerves in the White House and on Wall Street.
It's obvious why the number of jobs added to the economy in April was disappointing. Again, economists suggested the warm winter weather might have boosted job growth during the winter months, which left fewer jobs to be added in the spring. However, at first glance there appeared to be a silver lining in April's numbers: The unemployment rate inched down again to 8.1 percent. Amid Europe's Debt Crisis, A Sharp Rise In Suicides. Hide captionMourners gather at the spot in front of the Greek parliament in Athens where 77-year-old retired pharmacist Dimitris Christoulas shot and killed himself on April 4. Christoulas left a note saying he did not want to end up scrounging for food in garbage bins. Simela Pantzartzi/EPA/Landov Mourners gather at the spot in front of the Greek parliament in Athens where 77-year-old retired pharmacist Dimitris Christoulas shot and killed himself on April 4.
Christoulas left a note saying he did not want to end up scrounging for food in garbage bins. The eurozone crisis has been under way for three years and has led to sharp welfare cutbacks and a credit crunch throughout the continent. But one of the most serious effects of the financial crisis has been an alarming spike in suicides in debt-burdened Greece, Ireland and Italy. Last Wednesday, about a 1,000 people gathered in central Rome for a candle-lit vigil to honor Italy's economic victims. But he was undone by the credit crunch. Million-Dollar Mansion Has A Bargain Basement Price. Hide captionStone Hedge, a 10,000-square-foot Detroit mansion built in 1915 is listed at less than $450,000. Jessica J. Trevino/Detroit Free Press Stone Hedge, a 10,000-square-foot Detroit mansion built in 1915 is listed at less than $450,000. Even before the financial crisis, Detroit was known for its undervalued real estate.
Now, a bad situation is even worse. Michael Bradley and his sister Annette Foreman have spent the last several months cleaning their mother's home. The four-story house, known as Stone Hedge, was originally built for Walter O. Stone Hedge is large, about 10,000 square feet. Beds: 11 Baths: 7 House Size: 9,638 Sq. Lot Size: 1.44 Acres Year Built: 1915 Bradley and Foreman's parents were active antique collectors, too.
The late Joseph and Gloria Bradley bought the house 1976 for about $65,000. A comparable house in Silicon Valley is selling for $15 million. Sometimes in Detroit, housing prices don't seem to make much sense at all. American Air plans to cut 1,200 non-union jobs. Marc Faber, "The Ego of Mr. Bernanke has been Badly Inflated" 2012 - the year the US Dollar will collapse, US Dollar slippery slope to economic collapse. Beyond Currency Wars, the Coming Global Gold Standard w/John Butler. US economic collapse-On the Edge with Max Keiser-02-10-2012. Rick Rule: Mismatch of Silver Futures and Physical Availability is a Consequence of Stupidity. Will China's economy collapse?-On the Edge with Max Keiser-04-06-2012.