Main Street

Remainders

It’s Friday, I’m trying to finish my other work before the week ends…but there’s all this interesting stuff to read. I recommend you read it. Depending on your own work situation, of course.

• Foreclosures aren’t going to peak until 2011? This is not good.
• Oh…this is also very depressing.
  

  At least one in two children in 17 small counties in the United States is living in poverty, according to a U.S. Census survey measuring income and poverty in small areas and school districts.

• If you’re confused by the whole how often to get a mammogram thing (I sure am), what with contradictory recommendations, the New York Times has a helpful explanation.
• Somewhat happier:
  

  Building green could add hundreds of billions of dollars to the economy, according to a new report released by the United States Green Building Council.

  The study, conducted by consultants Booz Allen Hamilton, predicts that over the next four years, green building practices will create 7.9 million jobs and contribute $554 billion to the gross domestic product of the United States.

• More on green jobs.
• More promising news. (Via Balloon Juice)
  

  Ohio’s attorney general sued Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch Ratings on Friday, asserting that they provided misleading credit ratings that led to hundreds of millions of dollars in losses for state funds.

  The official, Richard Cordray, filed the lawsuit in United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio on behalf of five Ohio funds that assert they lost more than $457 million because of “false and misleading ratings” of mortgage-backed securities by the ratings agencies.