The worst-hit county in Florida is Collier — home of Naples — with a whopping 32% of homes empty.
It’s not always easy to feel sorry for sunny Florida. But it just got hit with another blow. The Census Bureau revealed that 18% — or 1.6 million — of the Sunshine State’s homes are sitting vacant. That’s a rise of more than 63% over the past 10 years.
The smartest 5 percent, made a big contribution to the strength of their economies.
It’s not just how free the market is. Some economists are looking at another factor that determines how much a country’s economy flourishes: how smart its people are. For a study published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, researchers analyzed test scores from 90 countries and found that the intelligence of the people, particularly the smartest 5 percent, made a big contribution to the strength of their economies.
Continue reading… “Wealthiest Countries Are Also the Smartest Countries: Study”
When an ageing playground was dismantled by workmen, people living nearby expected new swings, slides and climbing frames. What they ended up with was . . . a brick wall. The old play equipment in Audenshaw’s Shepley Wood Park was taken away two years ago. Town hall chiefs promised to replace it with brand-new facilities.
But when the plug was pulled on government funding last year, the council was forced to think again. Now it has now replaced the equipment – with a wall for kids to kick a ball against. Eileen Pritchard, whose house overlooks the park, said: “We can’t believe what we’re seeing…
Continue reading… “Children’s Playground Replaced With Brick Wall”
Media Piracy in Emerging Economies, an academic report on pricing and copyright infringement in poor countries, comes to the conclusion that high media prices (as measured against the average wage in poor countries) are responsible for piracy — that is, when you control for social attitudes towards copying, enforcement differences, and so on, the largest predictor of whether a country will have rampant copyright infringement is whether the media in that country is priced high relative to peoples’ earning power.
To make their point, the authors have released the report under a provocative “Consumer’s Dilemma license” that charges escalating rates depending on whether your IP address is in a rich or poor country.
Continue reading… “Poor Countries Have More Piracy Because Media Costs Too Much — Report”
A million bucks ain’t what it used to be. Heck, it’s not even enough to make (rich) people feel rich anymore:
Some 42 percent of the more than 1,000 millionaires surveyed by Fidelity said they did not feel wealthy.
Respondents had at least $1 million in investable assets, excluding any real estate or retirement accounts…
Continue reading… “Is A Million Bucks Enough to Make You Feel Rich?”
New jobs that are being created pay less and offer fewer work hours than the ones they have replaced.
When it comes to jobs, it’s not just quantity that matters–it’s also quality. It’s great news that the economy is finally producing jobs again–even if it’ll take another few years of this kind of growth to get us back to where we were before the Great Recession. But that also means it’s now time to ask what kind of jobs are being created. And on that front, things are a lot less encouraging.
Continue reading… “Economy Adds Jobs but the Kind of Jobs Created is Less Encouraging”
In February, world food prices reached the highest level on record. Soaring food prices are already a source of spreading hunger and political unrest, and it appears likely that they will climb further in the months ahead…
Continue reading… “Why World Food Prices Are Poised to Keep Climbing”
If you listen to the pundits on TV and radio (on both sides of the political spectrum), it seems like this country is going to hell in a handbasket with jets strapped to our backs. But are they actually right?
Fareed Zakaria of TIME magazine takes an in-depth look at whether America’s best days are behind it:
Despite the hyped talk of China’s rise, most Americans operate on the assumption that the U.S. is still No. 1.
But is it? Yes, the U.S. remains the world’s largest economy, and we have the largest military by far, the most dynamic technology companies and a highly entrepreneurial climate. But these are snapshots of where we are right now…
Study finds no one is immune to the possibility of experiencing underemployment.
While unemployment has been a frequent topic of discussion during the recession, underemployment and its effects have not, even though the number of underemployed workers has also increased. A study published online last week in the Journal of Management, “‘I Have a Job, But…’ A Review of Underemployment,” by University of Nevada, Reno Assistant Professor Frances M. McKee-Ryan and University of Alabama Assistant Professor Jaron Harvey brings attention to the topic and its potentially detrimental effects to individuals, organizations and society.
Continue reading… “Unemployment Rates Decline While Underemployment is on the Rise in the U.S.”
State of American women
The White House dropped a statistics-stuffed report compiling reams of federal data about the state of American women today.
A coal truck drives through an railroad tressel near downtown Welch, W.Va.
Nestled within America’s once-thriving coal country, 87-year-old Ed Shepard laments a prosperous era gone by, when shoppers lined the streets and government lent a helping hand. Now, here as in one-fourth of all U.S. counties, West Virginia’s graying residents are slowly dying off.
