PRI’s The Takeaway talks to controversial filmmaker Michael Moore about his new documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story. John Hockenberry asks if Moore’s high profile has affected his ability to capture the ‘gotcha’ moment.
For more economy-related videos from public media outlets around the country, check out our new video portal, videos.economystory.org.
G-20 Summit/Credit: Flickr user Desiree N. Williams
The G-20 summit brought the world’s largest economies together this week to look at the progress the world’s made on recovering from the economic downturn. As the summit in Pittsburgh wraps up, take a look at some sources from the Pittsburgh area that covered the event and the protests surrounding it, and get a perspective on how the region is coping in the new economy.
WDUQ’s news blog is covering the daily G-20 events, from the spouses of dignitaries touring the city, to protestors urging racial equality and a complete pullout of troops from Iraq.
The WDUQ blog wrote about the mood of the city on Thursday:
“A typical workday downtown is normally overflowing with with pedestrians and traffic during morning rush hour. Today, however, as a result of the road and business closures during the G20 Summit being held at the convention center, there’s an unusual, desolate mood to the city. Some groups of pedestrians walk through town, some workers and others curious passersby, dodging police barricades and tents.”
The Environment Report covered Pittsburgh’s image as a Rust Belt City and how the city has adapted to a decline in population.
The New York Times blog The Caucus looked at why Pittsburgh was chosen to host the summit. “The White House has repeatedly cited the city’s transformation from a Rust Belt shell to one whose economy rebounded on the base of the health, education and perhaps technology industries, ” Kate Phillips writes.
Indeed, a recent Pittsburgh Business Journal story noted that Google CEO Eric Schmidt sees tech developments in Pittsburgh as a model for helping other former manufacturing-based cities survive.
ProPublica’s ShovelWatch project analyzed Pennsylvania data and found that 32 institutions in Pennsylvania received government bailout funds, totaling 2% of the total $11.3 billion allocated to Pennsylvania so far in the recovery plan.
Will the combination of bank bailouts, the bustling tech sector, a young mayor and , international attention be a way out – or up — for hard-pressed Pittsburgh?
For Sale sign/ Credit: Flickr user Casey Serin
While there have been fewer layoffs and other positive signs in the overall economy, economists are still waiting on a change in the real estate market. Only a few areas in the U.S. saw an uptick in new home sales in August and lower housing prices haven’t instilled confidence in some of the hardest-hit areas of the country.
This week’s audio Q&A with Patchwork Nation Director Dante Chinni discusses the downside of lower home prices, and in turn, slower consumer spending in these types of areas.
“A lot of people have been counting on their homes as their nest egg, their retirement plan and they’ve been using it to finance a lot of things,” Chinni said. “And unless those prices start coming up, it’s hard to imagine how those places are going to be willing or able to spend a lot to get us out of the recession.”
Play audio: Patchwork Nation Q&A
In Columbus, Ohio, WOSU reported that home sales in the area rose one percent compared to July. Columbus is in Franklin County, one of Patchwork Nation’s Industrial Metropolis communities. But that change is so slight compared with how much prices have dropped that it’s unclear what the long-term impact will be.
On EconomyBeat.org, blogger Jon Brooks finds a real estate predictor blog that shows even less optimism for a real estate comeback, specifically for California, which was slammed by the mortgage crisis.
In May, KCET program SoCalConnected looked at communities in Southern California where housing prices have dropped significantly to help determine whether it is the right time to buy.
Life’s not quite a beach for the tourism industry in a down market – with state parks threatening to shut down in California , and hotel rooms going for cheap in big cities, the end of summer also means a shrinking bottom line for the tourism business.
The winter snowbirds have yet to arrive, but sun and sand mecca Hawaii is no exception to the downturn. As Hawaii Public Radio’s Ben Markus reports, the smaller islands like Kauai are turning to some new techniques to bring people off Oahu and exploring the other islands. The Rodgers and Hammerstein classic South Pacific was filmed in Kauai 50 years ago, and they are hoping a performance from the film’s original star, Mitzi Gaynor, will attract a crowd.
But it’s not just resort hot spots like Hawaii that are hurting. This summer, travel was down around the rest of the U.S. LaToya Dennis reported from Madison, Wisconsin on how cost concerns curtailed vacations for Wisconsin families.
And in Arizona, KJZZ’s Dennis Lambert spoke with a tourism industry official, who reported that fewer business an personal travelers are coming to Phoenix, causing the hotel revenue to drop nearly 30% over the summer.
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Even if vacations are pricey, you can still travel virtually. Ken Burns new project, America’s National Parks, just launched a new website, featuring video and images from the Grand Canyon to Acadia.
Spiral Galaxy/ Source: NASA
A statistic that gets tossed around a lot in the health care debate is that “Health care is one-sixth of the economy” – but what does that mean? The total U.S Gross Domestic Product is $14.1 Trillion, making one-sixth of that about $2.35 Trillion.
Those numbers for health care include programs like Medicare and Medicaid, as well as individual expenses and prescription drugs, doctors visits, healthcare workers’ salaries, insurance premiums – pretty much anything you can think of that involves the healthcare industry. While what counts as health care is likely loosely defined, no matter how it breaks down, it’s still a huge amount of money that’s really difficult to visualize.
I did a little search for two trillion to try to get a sense of what $2 Trillion looks like. Apparently there are only 400 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, so that didn’t work. Then I found this – two trillion tons of ice melting in the Arctic – so think of a whole shelf of ice disappearing and being replaced with dollar bills, and maybe you get some idea. There was also this one – two trillion text messages sent every day. I guess I send about five, so if everyone with a cell phone also sends about five, that’s a lot of texts. Needless to say, $2 Trillion is a lot of money.
How does it translate into legislation?
ProPublica’s health care reform primers help analyze the numbers.
Olga Pierce looked at the competing bills:
“Until last week, President Obama took a hands-off approach health care reform. Instead, in February he included eight general principles [4] in the presidential budget. The principles laid out requirements of a plan — it must make insurance available to everyone and address rising costs, for example — but did not specify policies.
That left Congress to debate many of the contentious issues, including whether to have a public option, and whether everyone should be required to have health insurance.”
And for a look at how these changes may affect Americans, a survey from the Public Insight Network asked people to record their most pressing health care need:
A map plots the biggest complaints about health care, ranging from lack of coverage to prescription drug expenses.
Andrew Haeg of American Public Media looked at the responses and featured some of the best in a column.
“But nearly all people, regardless of income, age or insurance status, spoke of making choices — life altering choices — in order to affford health care.
For Jeannette d’Armand of Seattle, Washington, the choice is between doing work she loves and taking a mindless job for the benefits. D’Armand wants to be a singer and a voice coach, but is doing data entry instead because she needs the benefits to pay her $500-plus health care expenses to take care of her Type I Diabetes. “I just feel that if I live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world,” says d’Armand, “I shouldn’t have to choose between health care and career.”
To share your story of dealing with health are woes, Tavis Smiley’s Faces of the Uninsured project is looking for contributions.
Still confused? Here are ten health care terms to know, from Youth Radio.