In 2009, the U.S. Congress passed and President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).  You may recall the phrase “shovel ready projects” or saw the big green signs along local freeways touting infrastructure work to be done locally. The initial price tag was about $787 billion.  There first object of ARRA was [...]

Check out the Youth Unemployment rates for Portugal, Greece, and Spain. Talk about driving social mood to a darker place… Courtesy Zero Hedge: For comparison, the Youth Unemployment rate (16-24 year olds) in the United States was last reported at 18.1%.

There is an interesting article in the Oakland Tribune today about the differences between the South Bay and East Bay economies. While the South Bay has technology, the East Bay became far too reliant on construction and real estate during the boom. From The Oakland Tribune: The current economic boom will be robust enough for [...]

A housing recovery can’t happen without consumers feeling more confident and spending money again. Two news stories this morning suggest that we’re still heading in the wrong direction. Most of us are financially hanging by a thread while our actually incomes are falling. DS News reports Job Loss Could Put One in Three Out of Their [...]

There was a really interesting article published on CNN.com a few weeks ago which asked: Are Jobs Obsolete? It’s a fresh take on our rising unemployment problem, suggesting that maybe the lack of paying jobs really isn’t a problem at all. With technology and productivity both increasing so much lately, we simply don’t need as [...]