Jobless

In S.C. the jobless rate for June was 12.1 percent, the fourth highest rate in the country. Reportedly 264,957 South Carolinians were actively seeking work. In June 2008 S.C. had a jobless rate of 6.5 percent. Members of the federal open market committee (FOMC) at the U.S. Federal Reserve met about a month ago, and they disclosed a prediction of national unemployment to probably hover around 10.1 percent in the last quarter of this year, while S.C. economists are talking 15 percent unemployment for the state by the end of this year. For June 2009, Allendale County reported an unemployment rate of 23.5 percent. In N.C. the statewide jobless rate is 11 percent. Georgia's rate is 10.1 percent.

Russians have it worse, much worse...

For the first half of 2009, the Russian economy shrank 10.1 percent. Expectations allow for a resumption in economic growth for 2010 but no more than maybe 1 percent.

...while we don't have it so bad if we compare potatoes to potatoes

The U.S. economy is expected to shrink for all of 2009 no more than 1.5 percent and maybe as little as 1 percent. The FOMC says it can reasonably hope for 2010 economic growth in the country in the range of 2.1 percent to 3.3 percent. At the same time, though, inflation could be heating up in direct response to a record deficit of more than $1 trillion, and that's in just the first nine months of the fiscal year. The budget year began in October, and by the end of June, the federal deficit was $1.1 trillion.

Office occupancy downtown

According to Colliers Keenan, downtown Columbia office occupancy fell 2.7 percentage points since the end of last year to 82 percent by the end of June. Office space annual rental rates fell from $19.18 per square foot at the end of last year to a recent $18.97. The central business district actually could be seeing an even lower occupancy rate of 73 percent after the evacuation of the SCANA headquarters on Main Street and the relocation of NBSC, the McNair Law Firm and Edens & Avant, all into the new Main & Gervais Building by Holder Properties, leaving their empty offices behind.

S.C. home sales

The number of June home sales in the state, almost 4,200 homes, came in about 13 percent above sales in May, according to the S.C. Association of Realtors. But compared with June 2008, S.C. home sales suffered an 11.3 percent drop. In June, Columbia- area home- building permits gained 18 percent more than in June 2008

Midlands foreclosure sales

From the first quarter in 2009 to the second quarter, home foreclosure sales increased 108.1 percent, according to RealtyTrac.com. In Richland County alone, 330 homes were sold in foreclosure in the first quarter of the year, and for the second quarter, 826 homes were sold in foreclosure, an increase of 150.3 percent.

Nationwide, however

New residential construction in the U.S. rose in June to an annual adjusted rate of 562,000, a jump of 3.6 percent for the month. For June 2008, the annual adjusted rate was about 1 million new homes, both single- family and multi- family.

Risking the goose that lays the golden eggs

The Southern Environmental Law Center filed a motion on Monday, July 20, asking a federal judge to stop construction of the S.C. State Ports Authority's terminal in North Charleston. The law center and the S.C. Coastal Conservation League want to see additional traffic studies to further understand the traffic generated by the new terminal, something about the horrors of a successful port project generating jobs in S.C. and anticipating far more in five years when the expanded Panama Canal is complete. Adam Smith, presumably, rolled over in his grave and bumped into Alexander Hamilton. Maybe the nattering no- growth nabobs are right this time in their deference to tourism. Maybe the tourist industry is better than gains in worldwide trade. After all, who wouldn't want to serve ice cream, change sheets, wait tables, and clean bar bathrooms under the new minimum wage instead of making three times that while the worldwide trading companies' shareholders invest even more money into a growth game in S.C.?

One of the golden eggs, for example

Carbon Motors Corp is looking for a new plant site to employ about 1,300 people and to produce more than 75,000 cars a year. The product is a purpose- built lawenforcement patrol vehicle. S.C. is in competition with Georgia and Indiana for the nod, which is likely to come by the end of July.