Coral Gables Environment, Politics and Government
September 1, 2010 Leave a comment
Don’t get you hopes up with housing prices up slightly during the last year. If at all, housing will bump along the bottom for a long time.
The [Case-Shiller] index, which tracks repeat sales of existing homes and does not include condos, showed average home prices across the United States are back to the levels they were at in autumn 2003.
via South Florida home prices up 0.4 percent – Real Estate News – MiamiHerald.com.
August 30, 2010 Leave a comment
Coral Gables will be affected directly and indirectly by the failure of economic policy leadership in the Congress and the Administration. A small stimulus package is what is needed now for the US and the world economy.
The US recovery is stalling. As a matter of economics the balance of risks strongly favours further fiscal and monetary stimulus. Politics appears to rule out the first, and a divided Federal Reserve is hesitating over the second. America’s leaders are letting the country down.
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Unlike most other advanced economies, the US could undertake further fiscal stimulus at acceptably low risk. Global appetite for its debt is undiminished. The risk, such as it is, could be all but eliminated if Congress could commit itself to stimulus now, restraint later – an easy thing, you might suppose, but evidently beyond its grasp. The administration could and should be pushing for just such a package, but it is not.
via FT.com / Columnists / Clive Crook – It falls to the Fed to fuel recovery.
August 26, 2010 Leave a comment
It is worth knowing that the apparently important reports that the oil had disappeared, consumed by microbes, came from research funded by BP. Hardly gives us encouragement about the results, does it.
Earlier this week, major news outlets ran with headlines about how a new microbe has been found eating up BP’s oil, and how microbes have degraded the hydrocarbons so efficiently that the vast plumes of oil in the Gulf are now undetectable. No joke.
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MIT’s Science Tracker, in a post published yesterday, noted that the microbe study was conducted by U.C. Berkeley scientists through a grant with the Energy Biosciences Institute, and that the Energy Biosciences Institute is funded by none other than BP, through a $500 million, 10-year grant. (To the researchers’ credit, they also mentioned the funding in their press release — you just had to read about three-quarters of the way through.)
via Take It With a Grain of (Sea) Salt: Gulf Microbe Study Was Funded by BP – ProPublica.
August 25, 2010 Leave a comment
The thought of “politics as marketing and little substance” applies to all candidates and parties. This is a description of modern democracy as practiced across the US, where candidates are branded and government and special interests continue unabated by the process.
In the end, though, Scott’s campaign said he was winning because he successfully branded himself as the “jobs” candidate — the man whose campaign had the slogan “Let’s Get to Work.” They say that message will resonate in the general election just as it did Tuesday night in the primary.
via Rick Scott to face Alex Sink after shocking GOP establishment – Political Currents – MiamiHerald.com.
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