-----------------------------------------------------Ban on travel to Cuba may be lifted!-----------------------------------------------------
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A bipartisan group of senators says Congress is ready to pass legislation to allow all Americans to visit Cuba. Supporters say the move would create thousands of jobs.
A Senate news conference Tuesday and one in the House set for Thursday reflect new attempts to lift the travel ban, a key part of the U.S. trade embargo imposed after Fidel Castro took power in Havana in 1959.
The broader trade embargo would remain in place.Obama has ordered a review of U.S. policy on Cuba and last month loosened restrictions to let Cuban Americans visit relatives.
Journalists can travel to Cuba, as can people on humanitarian missions. If travel limits were lifted, about 3 million Americans would visit Cuba each year, according to a 2002 study by the Brattle Group, economic consultants in Washington.
The increase in air travel, cruises and a ripple effect through the travel industry would produce $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion a year, the group estimated, creating as many as 23,000 jobs.
Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) strongly opposes the measure. He warned that flooding Cuba with tourists and dollars would only sustain the Castro regime. Martinez accused the Chamber of Commerce and business interests of seeking profits at the expense of freedom and democracy. "They are not acting from a moral standpoint," he said. "They are simply acting from an economic advantage standpoint."
HaHaHaHaHa - Did I read that statement by a republican right?
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US home price drops set records in Jan.
Home prices sank by the sharpest annual rate on record in January, and the pace continues to accelerate, but there were a handful battered metro areas where price declines slowed, according to data released Tuesday.
The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of home prices in 20 major cities tumbled by a record 19 percent from January 2008. It was the largest decline since the index started in 2000. The 10-city index dropped 19.4 percent, also a new record.
All 20 cities in the report showed monthly and annual price declines, with 13 posting new annual records. Prices dropped by more than 10 percent in 14 cities.
Prices in the 20-city index have plummeted 29 percent from their peak in summer 2006, while the 10-city index has fallen 30 percent.
Prices have sunk back to levels not seen since late 2003.
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New Media replacing old.
20% — as in the percentage of journalists who worked in newspapers in 2001 who have since left the field because their jobs have been eliminated.
In 2008, "America's newspapers got smaller in just about every way." Half of the country's states no longer have a newspaper that covers Congress.A century ago, 689 cities in the United States had competing daily newspapers; at thestart of this year, only about 15 did, but one of those has already lost its second newspaper,and two more will likely become one-paper towns within days.
Dallasnews.com, which was at a couple million in revenue a few years ago, is now pushing $30 million in revenue. That's a fast growth rate.
"I'm 57. When I was 21, about 70% of people my age read a newspaper regularly. For people my age now, it's still about the same percentage. But in the Dallas market today, only about 30% of people between 18 and 24 look at a newspaper fairly regularly. That's a 40% gap. That's not good news for the newspaper in the bag."
There is a significant pricing gap between new media and old media.
The cost to reach 1,000 people is $20 for newspapers, but just $5 for those online. Advertisers definitely have more choices today.we need to train journalists for multimedia reporting. They need to move from being just print reporters to being comfortable taking photos and doing audio and video.
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The Great Housing Paralysis of 2009.
Have home prices hit bottom? The end may be in sight.
Nationwide, home prices will bottom out at the end of this year, according to the forecasters at Moody's Economy.com.
Median prices will probably fall another 10% on top of the 27% they've plummeted since their 2006 peak. That prediction assumes that President Obama's various recovery efforts - including billions to slow foreclosures and goose bank lending, plus a tax credit to most 2009 buyers who haven't owned in the past three years - will have some effect.
If they don't, says Economy.com's Mark Zandi, the bottom could come as late as 2011.
And then?
"The recovery will look more like a U than a V," predicts Mike Larson, a real estate analyst at Weiss Research. Translation: After home prices hit their lows, they'll probably stay there for a few years as the economy slowly struggles back to its feet. Prices aren't expected to reach their 2006 levels again for another decade. ======================
MONEY Magazine:
Latest forecasts and projections for the nation's 100 largest metro areas.
Rank Location One-year forecast (through March 2010)
1 Miami, FL -27.8%
2 Sarasota, FL -25.5%
3 Orlando, FL -24.5%
4 Fort Lauderdale, FL -24.4%
5 Phoenix, AZ -19.7%
6 Tampa, FL -19.1%
7 West Palm Beach, FL -18.7%
8 Jacksonville, FL -17.2%
9 Las Vegas, NV -17.0%
10 New York, NY -15.3%
11 Los Angeles, CA -15.3%
12 Riverside, CA -15.1%
13 Virginia Beach, VA -14.9%
14 Nassau/Suffolk, NY -14.9%
15 Stockton, CA -14.5%
16 Wilmington, DE -14.1%
17 Tucson, AZ -13.5%
18 Honolulu, HI -13.4%
19 Camden, NJ -13.3%
20 Providence, RI -13.2%
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Banks now also walking away from properties.
City officials and housing advocates (in South Bend, Indiana) and in cities as varied as Buffalo, Kansas City, Mo., and Jacksonville, Fla., say they are seeing an unsettling development: Banks are quietly declining to take possession of properties at the end of the foreclosure process, most often because the cost of the ordeal — from legal fees to maintenance — exceeds the diminishing value of the real estate.
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GOP Plan Aims to Expand Home Buyer Tax Credits.
Under the proposal, borrowers refinancing their mortgage would be eligible for $5,000 to help cover closing costs or to reduce their principal balance. The plan also revives a $15,000 home buyer tax credit proposal that Republicans pushed last year. This time, the proposal would require the borrower to have at least a 5 percent down payment. Both programs would expire in July 2010.
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