Silver Lining?

Are you a Flint homeowner desperately looking for something — anything! — positive about falling property values?

Well, this ain't much, but it appears your property taxes might be going down.

Of course, that means less tax money flowing to the city, which will probably mean cuts to services and...let's not think about that now.

Is it a recession yet?

More uplifting economic news from David Kiley at BusinessWeek:

"Michigan, once the center of America's industrial heartland, now holds a more dubious distinction: It leads the U.S. in joblessness. The state's unemployment rate hit 8.5% in May. That's up 2 percentage points from April, and compares with a figure of 5.5% for the whole U.S. in May...But bad as those unemployment figures look, the reality is actually worse. The official number is arrived at by surveying households and learning how many family members are unemployed but seeking work. So it does not reflect those who have given up finding a job, or those who are not yet looking but soon will be. That second category covers thousands of auto workers who are accepting buyout checks to drop off the payrolls of the companies that make autos or auto parts."

Which is it?

Who needs a recession when you've already got a depression? The University of Michigan News Service explains:

Michigan has endured six straight years of job losses and the next two years will see even more—the longest stretch of employment loss in the state since the Great Depression, say University of Michigan economists.