EconomicCrisis.US

The European debt crisis is raising the odds of a U.S. recession, with economic contraction more likely than not by early 2012, according to research from the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank.

While it is difficult to gauge the odds precisely, an analysis of leading U.S. economic indicators suggests a rising chance of a recession through the end of the year and into early next year, researchers at the regional Fed bank wrote on Monday. The risk of recession recedes after the second half of 2012, they found.
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The hard economic times of the last few years have been felt widely, but not uniformly. As we have often noted on Patchwork Nation, American communities that relied heavily on specific slices of the economy — hoing, manufacturing — were particularly hard hit.

A new report from The Brookings Institution, The Re-Emergence of Concentrated Poverty: Metropolitan Trends in the 2000s, sheds light on what those differences mean in America’s largest metro areas. And when you examine the numbers from that report using Patchwork Nation’s 12 county types, some common themes emerge in how life is changing in urbanized and rural America.
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One question an economic columnist hears these days is this: How much longer will the U.S. and the rest of the world be on the cusp of economic crisis? Good question. But another posed often suggests the depths of current anxiety: Is everything going to turn out all right for the American economy our kids inherit?

There is compelling evidence that the U.S. has an acute problem—too little demand, too much unemployment and too many underutilized factories. This will pass. When? That depends on how much further Americans decide to reduce their debts, what policies the U.S. pursues and how long Europe takes to straighten itself out.
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The Occupy Movement is not only resulting in the occupation of public space, but also in political space. We are already shifting the dialogue and the movement has just begun.

When we started planning the occupation of Freedom Plaza six months ago, our goal was to create a place where the ignored voices of the American people could be heard. They are starting to be heard thanks to occupations all over the country. If it is not clear to the economic and political elites, this is the beginning of an American revolt.
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