The top 10 most recession-proof professions, according to Jobfox, an internet-based job site, are, in order: sales representative, software design and development, nursing, accounting and finance executive, accounting staff, networking and systems administration, administrative assistant, software implementation, business analyst, and finance staff.
Federal bank regulators closed the country’s fifth bank this year when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of Thrift Supervision announced Friday that they shut down $32 billion IndyMac Bank FSB in Pasadena, Calif.
Five bank closures in seven months sounds like a lot.
And it is.
But let’s add a little perspective here. While the number of closings is the most in the past five years, it’s not the most in the new millennium.
Bank failures in the United States topped 11 in 2002.
So while the number of bank failures is up this year, keep in mind that it’s not the most — yet.
There was some astonishment among rural economy watchers when reports began hitting the presses that a respected USDA economist, Keith Collins, had conducted a study saying ethanol production had driven food prices up 30 percent.
Well, it turns out, that’s not quite what the study actually said.
Collins reported that ethanol production had been a factor in the increasing price of corn, which does have an impact on other food prices, especially poultry and pork. He put the ethanol impact at about 1.8 percent of a 4.3 percent rise in food prices.
Mike Woolverton, grain marketing economist with Kansas State University Research and Extension, said some mainstream media — including some with considerable influence in Congress — were just a tad math challenged when they converted those numbers into a 30 percent increase.
Collins’ numbers are actually pretty much in line with those reported by K-State for months. And Woolverton said future impacts on food prices are also being grossly overestimated.
Collins’ complete study is still available to read on the Farm Journal website.
Here’s a great history on the mortgage mess, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, after the formal announcement of the Bush administration’s bailout plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Excellent, in-depth reading that I highly recommend.
Plus, the stock market is falling in the wake of Henry Paulson’s bailout plan.