Categories

Florida: Detroit with Palm Trees

West Palm Beach
The boosterish headline in the West Palm Beach paper was
curious and somewhat contradictory. They were trumpeting the fact that the “values” of houses
were “bargains” and should be swiftly picked up because the comparable available prices in this
normally high flying market had not existed for 15 years or more. Not many writers can spin [...]

Good Morning, Vietnam!

Ho Chi Minh City We were up and at it on a Sunday morning as we shifted around the agenda to get a feel for the city and the country by taking a bus 60 kilometers away to see the Cu Chi Tunnels, a historic national site in Vietnam.  The tunnels were legendary.  Built [...]

Poverty Rate Soaring in US & Canada

couch surfing

Toronto Erik Eckholm summarized the Census Bureau’s report in a clear but painful way:

“With the country in its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, four million additional Americans found themselves in poverty in 2009, with the total reaching 44 million, or one in seven residents. Millions more were surviving only because [...]

Soft Case for Home Ownership: Forced Savings/Low Interest Rates

New Orleans        Dueling columns in the Times smashed the drunken or doped spin of the Realtors Association trying to claim that the housing market was “back” and in the “Your Money” section made a soft and shrugging case for home ownership:
“Indeed, many people who are buying at the moment are locking in mortgage rates [...]