American homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages actually are only running a “paper loss.”
According to real estate site Zillow, nearly 16 million homeowners – not quite a third of people with mortgages – owe more on their home loans than their properties are worth.
Continue reading… “31.4% of homeowners in the U.S. are underwater on mortgages”
Vallejo, CA became the largest city in America to declare bankruptcy in 2008.
The working-class port city of Vallejo, California became the largest city in America to declare bankruptcy in 2008. Crime and prostitution surged as the police force was thinned by 40 percent. Firehouses were shuttered, and funding for libraries and senior centers was slashed. Foreclosures multiplied and home prices plummeted.
Continue reading… “Recently bankrupt Vallejo, California is now a model for other U.S. cities”
86 million Americans were not counted in the labor force because they didn’t keep up a regular job search.
In the United States there are many more jobless people than you might think there are.
The unemployment rate is falling, but that doesn’t include the millions of nonworking adults who aren’t even looking for a job anymore. And hiring isn’t strong enough to keep up with population growth.
Teens with jobs is a rarity in the U.S.
Two major accomplishments will be celebrated by Nick Gentry this month. He is graduating from high school and he has landed his first job after a very long job search. Collecting a paycheck makes Gentry, 18, a rarity in today’s working world.
Continue reading… “Only 25% of U.S. teens have jobs”
Despite the economy more singles are living alone and loving it!
Monica Russell and Rich Rickaby are close friends and have shared apartments with roommates and even with romantic partners before. Neither one of them wants to relive this arrangement ever again.
Continue reading… “More singles in the U.S. are living alone and loving it”
Sucks for American clean tech. Never mind that the industry is pretty universally regarded as one of tomorrow’s most important drivers of job growth and innovation—the already too-meager, maddeningly scattershot government support for clean energy is about to dry up altogether. So, goodbye ARPA-E?
David Roberts points us to this graph from a newish report from the Breakthrough Institute, the World Resources Institute, and the Brookings Institution, and, as you can see, it’s not pretty. And that sad-looking $11 billion stump too will disappear unless there’s a shift in policy.
Here’s Roberts…
Continue reading… “U.S. on track to stop funding clean tech”
More than a third of U.S. states allow the police to haul people in who don’t pay all manner of debts, from bills for health care services to credit card and auto loans.
Breast cancer survivor Lisa Lindsay end up behind bars because of a medical bill she didn’t pay– one the Herrin, Ill., teaching assistant was told she didn’t owe. “She got a $280 medical bill in error and was told she didn’t have to pay it,” The Associated Press reports. “But the bill was turned over to a collection agency, and eventually state troopers showed up at her home and took her to jail in handcuffs.”
Continue reading… “The return of debtors’ prisons”
Graduates with bachelor’s degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs.
The 2012 graduating classes in U.S. colleges are in for a rude awakening to the world of work.
The weak labor market has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don’t fully use their skills and knowledge.
Continue reading… “1 in 2 recent graduates are jobless or underemployed”
“China’s evaporating cheap labor pool will disrupt supply chains and consumption habits around the world.”
Shaun Rein takes a hard look at the economic colossus in The End of Cheap China. Rein is managing director of China Market Research Group, a strategic market intelligence firm with clients like Apple, DuPont and Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Continue reading… “World must adjust to end of cheap labor in China”
From senior executives identifying the profit motive as an obstacle to sustainability to corporations questioning the very nature of capitalism as we know it, the plus side of the recent financial crisis and ongoing slow recovery has been that tough questions are finally being asked about how our economy functions and whose interests it serves.
On May 2nd Forum for the Future—whose work on system innovation aims to create change across entire sectors of our economy—are hosting an event in New York which will explore better ways of doing business in a post-Great Recession world…
Continue reading… “To envision sustainable business, We must reimagine our economy”
More workers eat at their desks or don’t take a break at all.
Many employees work more and have less time to do it in today’s fast-paced work environment and poor economy. That is making the once-cherished midday lunch break a disappearing option.
Continue reading… “65% of workers eat at their desks or skip lunch break altogether”
The difference between a man’s paycheck and a woman’s paycheck may have something to do with where people live.
Continue reading… “States with the biggest gender pay gap”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.