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Category: National/International
Recycling Story: Summer Pavilion Built of Speedos
OK, this demonstrates the utter weirdness of my news feeds but I can’t help sharing. In short (heh), a summer architectural expo in London featured a pavilion built from Speedo swimsuits. Find story and photos here. Hope you had a great 4th of July.
California Developer Buys Own Debt
You read that headline correctly–California Developer Buys Own Debt. The Google Alerts service sends me articles from news resources from all over the place that have something about the Lincoln Highway in them. That is how I found this article about a land developer buying its own debt for a fraction of the original price.…
Krugman Says the “D” Word
[Update 3:30 p.m.: “Downtowner” at the Progressive Fox brings it home to Illinois.] From the NYT‘s Paul Krugman: “The Third Depression”. Krugman’s lately been comparing the US situation with Japan’s “lost decade.” Neither the Long Depression of the 19th century nor the Great Depression of the 20th was an era of nonstop decline — on…
Next Crisis: Commercial Real Estate
Hat tip to Steve Berg, who talked about this weeks ago: By the end of 2010, about half of all commercial real estate mortgages will be underwater, said Elizabeth Warren, chairperson of the TARP Congressional Oversight Panel, in a wide-ranging interview on Monday. “They are [mostly] concentrated in the mid-sized banks,” Warren told CNBC. “We…
Another Wave of Foreclosures Coming
Here’s the thing about waves. If the first wave brings you to your knees, the second one doesn’t have to be a tsunami to finish you off. My friends in real estate — not just in DeKalb, btw — have been working exclusively on short sales for at least a year with no end in…
Polling Legend Scott Rasmussen
I went to school with Scott Rasmussen. He will not remember me but everyone remembers him. He was already a legend. Stories about him on DePauw’s campus in the 1980s were unbelievable. He has a new book out: In Search of Self-Governance. His upcoming book sounds like it is way more fun: Mad As Hell:…
Davos, Switzerland: Awesome Pavement
I regularly work three jobs so once in a while, I can make it to professional conferences on my own money. I just returned from my second trip to Davos, Switzerland, home of the World Economic Forum. The conference I attended this year did not fall back-to-back with the WEF, but the one in 2008…
Haiti
I believe this will be worse than Katrina. In 1993, I had the honor of meeting Katherine Dunham in her home in East Saint Louis during her hunger strike for Haiti. Because of that experience, Haiti and the wonderful Haitian people I met have a special place in my mind. The devastation in Haiti is…
Guest Post in Sunlight Foundation Blog
Transparency Growing Pains in DeKalb, Illinois More about the Sunlight Foundation, which CB has linked to for a couple years under the “Good Government” blogroll heading.