Editor’s Note: This “Sustainable Developments ” column will be printed in the December 2008 issue of Scientific American.

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* Blackouts and Cascading Failures of the Global Markets (Jeffrey D. Sachs, Scientific American)

Editor’s Note: This is the extended version of the “Sustainable Developments” column from the January 2009 issue of Scientific American.

* Protesters disrupt foreclosure auctions in Sacramento (Jim Wasserman, Sacramento Bee)

Protesters disrupted several foreclosure auctions Tuesday on the Sacramento County Courthouse steps, winning a temporary cancellation of one and sending an unidentified auctioneer to the hospital with chest pains.

* Sympathetic Victims? (Gwen Moritz Editor’s Note) (Gwen Moritz, Arkansas Business)

Our recent story about people who invested tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock peddled by Darrell Lainhart of Sherwood included several sympathetic victims: A woman who needs the $30,000 her husband invested because hes now in a nursing home with Alzheimers disease, a disabled veteran, a man who hoped to become a full-time missionary.

* Assessing the future of the Cal Neva Resort and Casino (Annie Flanzraich, N Lake Tahoe Bonanza)

Nev. Since the Cal Neva Resort, Spa and Casinos bidder-free, two-state auction earlier this month, more than 25 new interested investors have inquired about the hotel and casino, said Steve Sugarman, a spokesman for owner Canyon Capital Realty Advisors.

In an image that echoes scenes of the Great Depression, a Texas bank has just finished up demolishing 16 new and partially built houses it acquired in Southern California through foreclosure. The bank determined that wrecking the homes was more cost-effective than finishing and selling them.

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* Who really killed bankruptcy reform? (Emily.Flitter, American Banker)

The banking industry expressed grave fears over the mortgage cramdown legislation that failed in a Senate vote last week , but a post-mortem on the scene makes that anxiety seem a little overhyped. With so many different groups vying to kill the legislation, the vote last week was never a nail-biter.

* Empty neighborhoods fill Rust Belt (Dan Sewell, The Washington Examiner)

Painted murals spruce up a boarded-up building on Race St. in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, Thursday, April 9, 2009. The neighborhood, which took its name from early German immigrants, is highlighted by its 19th century Italianate architecture. Now, roughly two of every three homes there are vacant or used by squatters in some streches. (AP Photo/Al Behrman)

* Bankers Worry: Worst Is Yet To Come (David Wessel, Wall Street Journal)

New loans may be profitable, given how cheaply banks can borrow today. But many banks are still worrying about whether they ll get paid back on old loans.

* Town cracks down on tax delinquents (Bettina Thiel, Lewisboro Ledger)

The town is moving to pressure tax delinquents into paying up their tax debt in an effort to raise revenue.

* The other mortgage insurance (Scott Van Voorhis, Boston Globe)

Whenever I mention Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI), the insurance that covers the lender against your default, readers get confused. Where is the insurance that covers us, if we cant pay our mortgage? There are such programs for auto loans. Does such a thing exist for mortgage loans? Yes, Virginia, it does exist.

* Subprime lobbyists in $370m battle (Edward Luce, The Financial Times)

The top 25 US originators of subprime mortgages the risky assets that sparked the global financial crisis spent almost $370m in Washington over the past decade on lobbying and campaign donations as they tried to ward off tighter regulation of their industry, an investigation has shown.

* Homebuilders narrow their quarterly losses (Alex Veiga, Orange County Register)

The nation’s top three homebuilders this week reported financial results that gave little hope the spring selling season will be strong enough to stop the red ink.

* Editorial: Predatory lending bill needs to be refined (Gatehouse Media, Evening Times)

The Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act, which goes before the House Rules Committee this week, would prevent lenders from washing their hands of loans once the loans have been bundled and sold off to investors.

* ‘Underwater’ homeowners piling up in Palm Beach, Broward counties (Paul Owers, S. Florida Sun-Sentinel)

More residents of Palm Beach and Broward counties are joining the ever-expanding club of homeowners who owe more than their properties are worth.

* View of the Day: Markets make feverish recovery (Kevin Gardiner, The Financial Times)

possible swine flu pandemic is arriving at a time when the global economy is on its knees and risk appetite still fragile. But in 2003, the worst news on Sars didnt prevent the global market from rallying, says Kevin Gardiner, head of global equity strategy at HSBC.

* Urban Policy (The Brian Lehrer Show: Wednesday, 29 April 2009) (Public Radio, WNYC)

* House prices have fallen by �45000 from peak Halifax says (Harry Wallop, Telegraph)

* Funeral home director admits embezzling more than $200,000 (Robert Patrick, St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

* Recession may be over early, some forecasters believe (Kevin G. Hall, Sacramento Bee)

* L.I. POL TOOK CASH FOR CONTRACTS (Kieran Crowley, New York Post)

* Roberts: Obama will have to fight to reduce federal spending (Steven Roberts, Milford Daily News)

* Private sector jobs data adds to economic hopes (Burton Frierson, Reuters US)

* Verizon Continues SMS Spam Suits (Chloe Albanesius, PC Magazine)

* Student-loan program on chopping block (Aldo Svaldi, Denver Post)

* In Charlotte, Wells Fargo lays off 548 employees (Rick Rothacker, The Herald)

* Trading hogs for the highway: Worker gets big boost with career change (Oliver Wiest, Olney Daily Mail)

David Crook has worked in the Dot Foods warehouse at Mount Sterling, done heavy construction work and had a job in a large hog confinement operation.

* Nurturing money-savvy youngsters (Candice Choi, Mail Tribune)

Here are some ways to instill financial discipline in children early in case they have to cope with a troubled economy later in life

Dear Harry: Something has concerned me for a long time as a single taxpayer. I realized that the government encourages marriage for whatever reasons, even though the divorce rate is in the 50 percent area. It’s clearly unfair for the government to tax me more than a married individual considering that my responsibilities as a single person are actually more than a married man. For example, the …

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Dear Harry: Something has concerned me for a long time as a single taxpayer. I realized that the government encourages marriage for whatever reasons, even though the divorce rate is in the 50 percent area. It’s clearly unfair for the government to tax me more than a married individual considering that my responsibilities as a single person are actually more than a married man. For example, the …

Read the whole article

* Trading hogs for the highway: Worker gets big boost with career change (Oliver Wiest, Olney Daily Mail)

David Crook has worked in the Dot Foods warehouse at Mount Sterling, done heavy construction work and had a job in a large hog confinement operation.

Mosquito control workers can measure the recession by the number of green, cloudy swimming pools they see – algae-covered havens for mosquitoes dotting neighborhoods hit by the foreclosure crisis.

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