Despite the Crash in Prices, Affordable Housing Still Lacking

When Florida legislators recently struggled to balance the battered state budget, they decided to plug holes with $190 million from a $300 million affordable-housing trust fund. After all, why should a cash-strapped state shell out money for new home construction when there are tons of vacant homes just waiting to be snapped up?

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Obama shines stimulus spotlight on urban economy

President Obama met Friday with 85 mayors from across the country to discuss the implementation of city-related funding from the $787 billion stimulus package. “You shouldn’t have to succeed despite Washington; you should be succeeding with a hand from Washington, and that’s what you’re getting now,” Obama said at a White House reception. “This plan does more to lay a new foundation for our cities’ growth and opportunity than anything Washington has done in generations.” The economic stimulus package sets aside billions of dollars for highway construction, transit improvements, school modernization and community development block grants

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Why the Stock Market Keeps Plummeting

Faced with ubiquitous signs of global economic meltdown, investors sold stocks in force on Tuesday, dragging the broad market indexes down near the lows reached last November. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index, weighed down by financials, fell 4.56%, while the Dow Industrials sank 3.8%, falling to within a fraction of its November 2008 low. Among the hardest hit sectors were bank stocks, down 10%, oil service stocks, down 8.2%, and semiconductor stocks, which fell 6.7%

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Lessons Obama learned from stimulus deal

President Obama will pitch his plans this week for dealing with record home foreclosures and trying to thaw frozen credit markets — and taking some key lessons learned into consideration. Aides said the White House has learned several lessons from the fight over the economic stimulus plan, including that the president is better at selling his ideas when he gets out of Washington.

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Building Green Houses for the Poor

When most people hear the term “green building,” they probably imagine something like Bank of America’s soon-to-be-completed Midtown Manhattan headquarters. The skyscraper will have floor-to-ceiling insulating glass walls, automatic light dimming, water recycling, air filtration and on-site power generation

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The Case for Nationalizing the Entire Economy

The advocates for nationalizing U.S. banks have been out in force recently. Senator Lindsay Graham, who almost certainly does not have a PhD in economics or finance told ABC News that banks were in such deep trouble that government ownership of the institutions may be the only way to save the financial system

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Obama planning ambitious road ahead

Fresh off victory on President Obama’s signature $787 billion economic recovery plan, several top White House aides say they’re planning an ambitious agenda for the rest of February. The Senate had waited for the return of Democrat Sherrod Brown, who was returning from his mother’s wake in his home state of Ohio, to close the voting late Friday. For the rest of the month, the White House agenda will focus on addressing the housing crisis, cleaning up the banking mess and laying the groundwork for reform of the health care system and entitlement programs like Medicare.

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