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| North Port is facing dwindling cash reserves
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| North Port faces a looming financial crisis that could force it to cut tens of millions of dollars from its budget for years to come. But instead of cutting expenses, the city is spending its savings and hoping for an economic turnaround. Without tax increases and deep spending reductions, city budget writers predict North Port's general fund will be $10 million short by 2011, with cumulative shortfalls of $59 million by 2014.
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| @ Sarasota Herald Tribune | Posted: 07/21/09 at 0201 EDST
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| Community banks unhappy with proposed regulations
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| Regulations from the Department of Treasury aim at strengthening supervision of the banking industry in light of the financial crisis that has seen bank failures and instability in the industry. The regulations outlined in an 89-page report would create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, eliminate the Office of Thrift Supervision, provide stricter requirements for on-hand capital and create a national bank supervisor position.
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| @ Bradenton Herald | Posted: 07/21/09 at 0315 EDST
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| Florida unemployment up to 10.6 percent
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| Florida's unemployment rate crept up to 10.6 percent in June to stay at the highest level since 1975. The rate was 0.3 points higher than the revised May unemployment rate and is 4.6 percent higher than June 2008. That means about 970,000 employable Floridians don't have jobs. Florida's unemployment rate is 1.1 percent higher than the national rate of 9.5 percent.
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| @ Panama City News Herald | Posted: 07/21/09 at 0320 EDST
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| Central Florida Hispanics bare brunt of subprime-loan fiasco
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| The worse the terms of the mortgage, the more likely that it went to a person of Hispanic descent, government records show. Although Hispanics received one-fourth of all the residential mortgages granted in Central Florida two years ago, as the housing market was losing air, they wound up with one-third of the region's subprime loans — and more than 40 percent of the worst-of-the-worst subprimes.
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| @ Orlando Sentinel | Posted: 07/21/09 at 0330 EDST
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| Why tax cuts work
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| Economists, philosophers, and politicians have understood this simple bit of common sense throughout the ages -- and so should you. It's a practical lesson that defies political parties, demagoguery, and dictatorship. It is intuitive, understandable -- and provable. Yet it is forgotten in the heat of the moment, and must be relearned by every generation -- a very costly lesson: Raising tax rates above a certain level actually reduces tax revenues.
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| @ Chicago Sun Times | Posted: 07/21/09 at 0345 EDST
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| Looking to buy your first house in Illinois?
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| First-time home buyers may soon get some help with their down payment from the state of Illinois. Called the Home Start Program, the plan would allow a first-time home buyer to use up to $6,000 of the $8,000 federal tax credit, which was approved earlier this year, for a down payment on a house. The deal is only available with Federal Housing Administration loans, and borrowers need a credit score of 660 or above.
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| @ Peoria Journal Star | Posted: 07/21/09 at 0400 EDST
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| The Conference Board Leading Economic Indictor for the U.S. increased for the third consecutive month in June
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The six-month change in the index has risen to 2.0 percent (a 4.1 percent annual rate) in the period through June, up substantially from - 3.1 percent (a –6.2 percent annual rate) for the previous six months.
Editor's Comment: This is a pleasant read
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| @ The Conference Board | Posted: 07/21/09 at 0415 EDST
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| Ben Bernanke: The Fed’s Exit Strategy
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| The exit strategy is closely tied to the management of the Federal Reserve balance sheet. When the Fed makes loans or acquires securities, the funds enter the banking system and ultimately appear in the reserve accounts held at the Fed by banks and other depository institutions. These reserve balances now total about $800 billion, much more than normal. And given the current economic conditions, banks have generally held their reserves as balances at the Fed.
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| @ Wall Street Journal | Posted: 07/21/09 at 0419 EDST
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| Summers Urges Banks to Lend More, Says Recovery Pace ‘in Doubt’
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| White House National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers chastised some banks that received government aid for not doing enough to reduce foreclosures, while declaring that next year’s economic growth pace is “in doubt.”
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| @ Bloomberg News
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| Tories would give Bank sweeping powers
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| The Bank of England would be given sweeping new powers by a Conservative government to prevent another financial crisis, in a regulatory shake-up that would rip up Gordon Brown’s 12-year-old tripartite system.
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| @ Financial Times - UK | Posted: 07/21/09 at 0652 EDST
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| Canada offers $140M to eight carbon-capture projects
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| The eight proposals are early stage projects that will reduce emissions into the atmosphere and store the carbon dioxide underground or put it to use in other industries.
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| @ Financial Post - CA | Posted: 07/21/09 at 0655 EDST
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