Mike Reynolds

"But either Stevens or Alaska's other senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski, would be an overwhelming favorite to hold the governorship for the GOP." - Mike Reynolds via Bookmarklet

"possible federal indictments against Palin, concerning an embezzlement scandal related to the building of Palin's house and the Wasilla Sports Complex built during her tenure as Mayor. Both structures, it is said, feature the "same windows, same wood, same products." Federal investigators have been looking into this for some time, and indictments could be imminent, according to the Alaska sources." - Mike Reynolds via Bookmarklet

"We enable adults to determine whether a movie is appropriate for them or their children, according to their own criteria. Unlike the MPAA we do not assign an inscrutable rating based on age, but 3 objective ratings for SEX/NUDITY, VIOLENCE/GORE & PROFANITY on a scale of 0 to 10." - Mike Reynolds via Bookmarklet

"At this juncture, it’s useful to recall that the peak in spending would be in FY2010. As shown in this figure from this post, roughly half of the stimulus occurs in from October 2009 to September 2010." - Mike Reynolds via Bookmarklet

"If only we built more high-density, transit-oriented housing--which, incidentally, is not exactly thriving--the crisis could be happily resolved, he believes. This approach is echoed by big-city theoreticians like Richard Florida, who believes that both homeownership and the single-family house "has outlived its usefulness." In his "creative age," we won't have much room for either single-family homes or owners. Instead, we will be leasing our ever-more-tiny cribs--just like yuppies with their BMWs--as we wander from job to job." - Mike Reynolds via Bookmarklet

+1 AJ Kohn - Robert Kenney

""The latest quarterly reports of positive appreciation or losses close to zero reinforce the possibility that the losses are at or near the end," University of Central Florida finance professor Stanley D. Smith reported recently after studying market measures for the Mortgage Bankers Association of Central Florida." - Mike Reynolds via Bookmarklet

For what it's worth, Zillow says that value of my current home is up 10% since March. - Mike Reynolds

"As we wrote back in mid-May, “the official end of the recession isn’t likely to bring a material change in the discouraging economic news. The technical ends of recessions still bring plenty of pain for Joe Sixpack in the ensuing quarters. The fact that this recession is the deepest since the Great Depression suggests that the recovery period, whenever it commences, will be unusually slow and sluggish. And that’s the optimistic outlook!”" - Mike Reynolds via Bookmarklet

The recession is just getting started. Things will be rough as long as we continue to add debt on top of debt. - Russ Jackson

Season two is airing this fall. - Aviv

"The Jungle Cruise is an attraction at the following Disney theme parks: Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland (under the name Jungle River Cruise)." - Mike Reynolds via Bookmarklet

"The Create RSS operator module makes it easy to convert an entire list of items into an RSS stream when the input data is not in RSS format, e.g., the fields are not named correctly for RSS display and output" - Mike Reynolds via Bookmarklet

"Adults with a body mass index, a calculation based on weight and height ratios, of 30 or higher are considered obese. 1. Mississippi*** (32.5%); 2. Alabama* (31.2%); 3. West Virginia (31.1%); 4. Tennessee*** (30.2%); 5. South Carolina (29.7%); 6. Oklahoma*** (29.5%); 7. Kentucky (29.0%); 8. Louisiana (28.9%); 9. Michigan*** (28.8%) 10. (tie) Arkansas (28.6%) and Ohio* (28.6%); 12. North Carolina*** (28.3%); 13. Missouri (28.1%); 14. (tie) Georgia (27.9%) and Texas (27.9%); 16. Indiana (27.4%); 17. Delaware*** (27.3%); 18. (tie) Alaska (27.2%) and Kansas*** (27.2%) 20. (tie) Nebraska (26.9%) and South Dakota*** (26.9%); 22. (tie) Iowa (26.7%) and North Dakota* (26.7%) and Pennsylvania** 26.7%; 25. (tie) Maryland*** (26.0%) and Wisconsin (26.0%); 27. Illinois 25.9%; 28. (tie) Oregon (25.4%) and Virginia (25.4) and Washington*** (25.4%); 31. Minnesota (25.3%); 32. Nevada* 25.1%; 33. (tie) Arizona** (24.8%) and Idaho (24.8%); 35. Maine* (24.7%); 36. New Mexico*** (24.6%); 37. New York**... more... - Mike Reynolds via Bookmarklet

"Adult obesity rates increased in 23 states and did not decrease in a single state in the past year, according to F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America 2009, a report released today by the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). In addition, the percentage of obese or overweight children is at or above 30 percent in 30 states." - Mike Reynolds via Bookmarklet

"Bear in mind that inflation usually runs below the rate of wage change, thanks to productivity growth. So we’re really heading into Japanese-style deflation territory." - Mike Reynolds via Bookmarklet

It true, then the timing on actual stimulus spending is fortunate. - Mike Reynolds

"Now the real thing has been scored — and it’s OK. Something like 97 percent coverage for people already here, at a total cost somewhere in the $1 trillion range. Bear in mind that the Bush tax cuts cost around $1.8 trillion over a decade. We can do this — and have no excuse for not doing it." - Mike Reynolds via Bookmarklet

"How bad is the current recession? Here's one measure: the United States now has fewer jobs than it did nine years ago, even though the work force — the number of people either working or looking for work — has grown by 12.5 million people since then." - Mike Reynolds via Bookmarklet

Because there are more people now? Anything not based on percentage is silly. - Cristo the Troll™

Agree Chris, but this makes an ambiguous headline like "more unemployed now then ever" possible. On that note, I hear that the unemployment rate in the cavemen era was low. - Mike Reynolds

Depends on who you ask. Personally, I say no. Unemployment is going up which means people that were only on the brink before will start defaulting on mortgages and credit cards. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

gotcha - i'd say maybe - how's that for a decision? - Chris Heath

"There’s something else sitting out there, something a little less easy to define, that has me thinking about what my new friend Fred Kleisner, head of the Morgan Hotels, called the “W Recession.” No, not that W. I’m talking about the economy dropping precipitously, beginning to recover, then dropping again before ultimately climbing—down-up-down-up, like the shape of a “W.”" - Mike Reynolds via Bookmarklet

It's surprising more people aren't lining up around the block to hear Prof. William C. Taylor speak. - Cristo the Troll™

I wonder if the author was being ironic. - Clare Dibble

:) - Mike Reynolds

""Closed existing-home sales have improved but are coming in lower than expected because some contracts are delayed or falling through from the application of new appraisal rules for many transactions," he said. Many industry insiders have complained that home appraisals are being too often based on values of foreclosed properties, which sell for significantly less than the homes of ordinary sellers." - Mike Reynolds via Bookmarklet

Up 0.1% last month. That's a small roll. - Mike Reynolds