David Leonhardt's in today's New York Times Business Section (given more prominent play on the Times ) touts a slight recent increase in weekly earnings as evidence that the recession isn't causing widespread pay cuts after all. Read More
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Construction costs throughout New York are falling, according to a data analysis by the New York Building Congress. Materials and labor costs for office buildings are down 10 percent since last year, with costs for apartment buildings down 9 percent, Read More
Despite the prospect of exploding budget gaps in the future, Albany has taken only modest steps toward streamlining state government, such as closing a few prisons and offering $20,000 buyouts to state employees. Read More
Workforce Reduction Plans (WRPs) submitted by state agencies will save $260 million over the next two years "through a combination of severance payments, attrition, and the elimination of funded vacancies," the. Pardon us for holding our applause. Read More
Attention New York: on the eve (roughly) of the one-year anniversary of Lehman Brothers' collapse, a new report from J.P.Morgan in London opines that because of the effects of eight likely financial-regulatory changes worldwide, "what is certain ... Read More
New York City will track the whereabouts of its 379 building inspectors with GPS technology installed, not in their city-issued vehicles, but in their cell phones. Read More
The financial and corporate sectors' highest rollers during the boom-and-bubble period have also been hit hardest by the recession. A on the front page of today's Wall Street Journal reviews how the downturn is affecting the incomes of th Read More
Almost all of the projected $2.1 billion deficit in this year’s New York State budget can be traced to falling tax receipts. But rising spending will represent a growing share of the problem over the next three years. In fact, more than one-third of the projected growth in next year’s gap, and over half the growth in the gap for fiscal 2013, can be traced to spending increases beyond those forecast by the Division of the Budget (DOB) in April. Read More