Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Wednesday March 29 2017 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:            

Is Bankruptcy For Illinois The Answer? - (www.zerohedge.com) Could a formal bankruptcy proceeding for the State of Illinois be the answer to it’s fiscal crisis? If you think that’s out of the question, as many do, you’re wrong. On the contrary, though Congress isn’t working on it now, the option is quite viable, though subject to obstacles and open issues. The question is certain to gain growing national attention as a number of states sink further into insolvency, so it’s time to get up to speed. I have yet to see a single Illinois politician or reporter raise the question, but plenty of others outside the state are talking about it for Illinois. More on that later. This article summarizes the basic issues. First, why? Why would Illinois or any other state consider bankruptcy? Just as for insolvent corporations and municipalities that reorganize, a successful state bankruptcy would provide a fresh start by putting a state on a sustainable path that frees up funding for needed services — funding that’s getting crowded out by legacy debts. It would do that in three primary ways:

More Than Obamacare Repeal, Small Businesses Want Congress to Rein In Costs - (www.nytimes.com) LaRonda Hunter, a business owner in Fort Worth, Tex., views the Affordable Care Act as a literal job killer. Fearful of triggering the law’s employer mandate, which requires businesses with 50 or more workers to offer health insurance or pay penalties, Ms. Hunter has held off on expanding her small chain of hair salons. She voted for President Trump with the hope that he would quickly make good on his promise to strike down the health care law. On Friday, she watched in despair as the Republicans’ replacement plan unraveled — leaving the law, commonly known as Obamacare, in place “for the foreseeable future,” according to Paul D. Ryan, the House speaker. “I’m disappointed,” Ms. Hunter, 57, said. “I’m mostly mad at my party for being so disorganized. I’m hoping Trump has learned something about how the government works.”

Will US healthcare failure shake investor confidence? - (www.ft.com) Scrutiny of Trump’s tax plans will increase now he has failed to roll back Obamacare. After a week dominated by questions over whether Donald Trump will be able to push his economic agenda through Congress, here are the questions FT markets reporters are asking in the final trading week of March. Will investors keep faith in Trump’s ability to drive tax cuts? That is the question facing equity markets after the White House failed to muster the support needed in the House of Representatives to pass an alternative to Obamacare. With Mr Trump and Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House, pulling the bill shortly before the stock marked closed on Friday, there was little time for reaction.

Italy at the Grim Edge of a Global Problem - (www.wolfstreet.com) To be young, gifted, educated and Italian is no guarantee of financial security these days. As a new report by the Bruno Visentini Foundation shows, the average 20-year-old will have 18 years to wait before living independently — meaning, among other things, having a home, a steady income, and the ability to support a family. That’s almost twice as long as it took Italians who turned 20 in 2004. A Worsening Trend: Eurostat statistics in October 2016 showed that less than a third of under-35s in Italy had left their parental home, a figure 20 percentage points higher than the European average. The trend is expected to worsen as the economy continues to struggle. Researchers said that for Italians who turn 20 in 2030, it will take an average of 28 years to be able to live independently. In other words, many of Italy’s children today won’t have “grown up” until they’re nearing their 50s.

What Happens to the U.S. Midwest When the Water's Gone? - (www.nationalgeographic.com) In the coming decades this slow-speed crisis will unfold just as the world needs to increase food production by 60 percent, according to the United Nations, to feed more than nine billion people by mid-century. The draining of North America's largest aquifer is playing out in similar ways across the world, as large groundwater basins in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East decline rapidly. Many of these aquifers, including the southern Ogallala, have little ability to recharge. Once their water is gone, they could take thousands of years to refill.


No comments: