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15 Feb 2011 13:33

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U.S.: If you build it, a carefully managed number of people will come

  • coming soon The World Trade Center memorial is on pace to be opened for public attendance by the ten-year anniversary of the attacks (which, as it always bears mentioning, betrays a shamefully slow process).
  • not so fast Due to the expected volume of visitors, size of the memorial, and transit/security concerns, it’s anticipated that visiting the memorial will be crowd-restricted at about 1,500 people. source

21 Sep 2010 10:09

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Biz: Housing starts get boost in August after some crappy months

  • 10.5% boost in housing starts in August source
  • » Why this is really good: Because housing starts just went through a couple of very crappy months. In the aftermath of the end of the homebuyer tax credit, housing starts plunged in May and June at record rates. While early, this suggests that housing is starting to recover on its own. That said, both single-family and multifamily housing starts are near 50-year lows.

17 Jun 2010 10:42

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Biz: Housing market, meet crapper: The market takes a huge hit

  • 17.2% dip in new home builds between April and May
  • 10% dip in future home construction contracts source
  • » What the heck happened? Simply put, home sales were artificially inflated by an $8,000 homebuyer tax credit. As soon as the tax credit went away, the bottom completely fell out. In some areas of the country, home sales are down 20 percent from May 2009, when the worst of the financial crisis had ended.

19 Apr 2010 12:06

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World: Iran’s getting a new nuclear site all gussied up today

  • That’s what state-run Press TV is saying. Because Iran loves annoying the U.S. and doing what they want, the country has a new nuclear site ready for construction. The country previously announced they would build two sites starting in 2011, but now one’s in the hopper as soon as Ahmadinejad gives the go-ahead. This comes in the wake of a nuclear summit the country put on to compete with the one the U.S. had last week. source

16 Dec 2009 10:23

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Biz: Construction numbers: Can they fix it? Yes they can!

  • +8.9% from October’s depressing six-month low number
  • -12.4% from a year ago; at least they’re building source

31 Oct 2009 10:45

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U.S.: Where did the stimulus save jobs, mostly? Education. Weird.

  • 325,000 of the jobs saved were in education – which is a nice, but unexpected windfall source

16 Jun 2009 10:31

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Biz: Lots of new houses were being built in May. A FREAKING TON.

  • +17.2% increase in housing starts in May; that’s a massive leap source