The mortgage crisis will cost the good people of Nashville/Murfreesboro more than $900 million in 2008, according to the US Conference of Mayors.
That’s 0.7% of the total economy around these parts. The damage here seems to be pretty much right in the middle compared to other US cities.
Nationally, the mortgage crisis is expected to reduce the growth of the US economy to a paltry 1.9% in 2008 – a full one percent below the original projection.
Job growth is expected to dive under 1%, which is truly pitiful.
(Hint to Democratic presidential candidates: The economy will be big news this election year!)
More from the Mayors:
2008 will bring more foreclosures, slower growth of U.S. GDP, stresses for state and local government budgets, and curtailed consumer spending.
But it’s not all doom-and-gloom:
In the end, the economy will not come off the rails, and we may actually have learned something.
Learned something? Like unregulated corporate greed is ultimately destructive to the economy and the middle class? Left to their own short-sighted self interest, corporations will screw their customers/employees over until economic disaster is inevitable. Didn’t we figure that out 100 years ago?
I guess sometimes we need a refresher course.
- Rick Lewis
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