Kunstler on: What will U.S. suburbs look like in 40 years?

James Kunstler, the author of The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the 21st Century, World Made By Hand, and three books about suburbs and cities: The Geography of Nowhere, Home From Nowhere, and The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition.
“The suburbs have three destinies, none of them exclusive: as materials salvage, [...]

Hard Times indeed – tent cities, shelters, food lines (11/08)

In hard times, tent cities multiply

RENO, Nev. – A few tents cropped up hard by the railroad tracks, pitched by men left with nowhere to go once the emergency winter shelter closed for the summer.
Then others appeared – people who had lost their jobs to the ailing economy or newcomers who had moved to Reno [...]

Here comes the Era of Conspicuous Thrift

Most people say they are cutting back on restaurants, travel, and luxuries, the paper reports. Instead, they’re staying at home and renting movies for entertainment.
Here in London, we went out to a restaurant last night and found it almost empty. “Where are the customers?” we asked the waiter, thinking we were too early. “Oh… it’s [...]

A Sea of Unwanted Imports (New York Times) – 18 Nov.2008

LONG BEACH, Calif. — Gleaming new Mercedes cars roll one by one out of a huge container ship here and onto a pier. Ordinarily the cars would be loaded on trucks within hours, destined for dealerships around the country. But these are not ordinary times.
For now, the port itself is the destination. Unwelcome by dealers [...]

What’s a Depression, Daddy? (New York Times) – 7 Nov.2008

Money talks, but in a good economy, it tends to do so using signs and symbols like cars and clothes and real estate. When times get hard, though, money loses its mouthpieces, and people must speak out loud about their finances, using actual words. “My 401(k) is in the toilet.” “I can’t believe I’m about [...]

The Formerly Middle Class (New York Times) – 17 Nov.2008

At the beginning of every recession, there are people who see the downturn as an occasion for moral revival: Americans will learn to live without material extravagances. They’ll simplify their lives. They’ll rediscover what really matters: home, friends and family.
But recessions are about more than material deprivation. They’re also about fear and diminished expectations. The [...]

More Shipping Woes

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Asian shipping slows as crisis strangles demand from US, Europe
KUALA LUMPUR: The ports and shipping lanes of Asia, the arteries of world trade through which goods and commodities surged in the boom times, are starting to seize up as the financial crisis strangles demand.
The Baltic Dry Index, a signpost of economic trends which tracks the [...]

The U.S. Faces Serious Risks of Brownouts or Blackouts in 2009, Study Warns

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A new study released this week highlights what experts have been saying for years:  the U.S. faces significant risk of power brownouts and blackouts as early as next summer that may cost tens of billions of dollars and threaten lives.
The study, “Lights Out In 2009?” warns that the U.S. “faces potentially crippling electricity brownouts and [...]

Beware of Dirty Debt Collection Practices

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Getting the Money at All Costs Causes Some Debt Collectors to Break the Law
By JENNIFER PIRONE and LEE FERRAN
Nov. 1, 2008 —
In tough economic times, millions of Americans are in debt. Some of them have been contacted by collections agencies.
Many of those interactions have been far less than pleasant for the consumer and, sometimes, they’re [...]

No Letters of Credit (L/C) means No Shipping

Of the $13.6 trillion of goods traded worldwide, 90 percent rely on letters of credit or related forms of financing and guarantees such as trade credit insurance, according to the Geneva-based World Trade Organization.
Letters of credit are centuries-old instruments that allow far-flung partners to complete large transactions. An importing company gets its bank to issue [...]