The Other Side Of China’s 8% GDP “Growth”: Ghost Cities | zero hedge. al-jazeera news piece about an empty city in china.

The Jobless Rate for People Like You – Interactive Graphic – NYTimes.com. The worst off: black men ages 15 to 24 without a high school degree: 48.5%. The best off: white women ages 25 to 44 with a college degree: 3.6%

Detroit house auction flops for urban wasteland – The Globe and Mail. holy crap.

The New Untouchables – NYTimes.com. it’s people who can hustle.

Mortgage rate hike could cool housing rebound – The Globe and Mail “But although rates are on the rise from April, when they hovered at 5.25 per cent, they are still far below the 7.25 per cent reached in 2000. (They were as high as 21.75 per cent in August, 1981.)”

toronto confusion

From The Star today: “Toronto jobless rate hits 10%”. From The Star yesterday: GTA housing market hot. The latter points out a a semi-detach home in the Danforth that “sold in May for $715,000 after being listed for $549,000″.

Clearly, the recession is effecting Toronto. Is it just not effecting people who are approved for half million dollar mortgages?

Canada lost 45,000 more jobs in July “Canada’s jobless rate remained steady at 8.6 per cent in July, even as the country lost about 45,000 jobs. The unemployment rate remained unchanged from June as people gave up looking for work and dropped out of the labour market.” That is one depressing quote. Summer unemployment for full time students is at 21%.

Charlie Rose – A conversation with Martin Sorrell. Head of WPP, the second largest communication (read: advertising) company in the world. sharp insight. via jody.

Record number on unemployment – The Globe and Mail. 780K people on EI now. EI claims in Ontario and Alberta went up 16% in one month. crazy.

How Trillion-Dollar Deficits Were Created – NYTimes.com. that’s nuts. As the related article states: “The first is that President Obama’s agenda, ambitious as it may be, is responsible for only a sliver of the deficits, despite what many of his Republican critics are saying. The second is that Mr. Obama does not have a realistic plan for eliminating the deficit, despite what his advisers have suggested.”

How To Brace Your Portfolio for Inflation – WSJ.com. or more so, hyper-inflation. not a ton of options for average folks though he does mention the option of grabbing a 10-year fixed rate mortgage for 5%.

Talking Business – Poking Holes in a Theory on Markets – NYTimes.com “Our default reflex is that the world knows what it is doing, and that is extravagant nonsense”

Deficit swells from $34-billion to $50-billion – in 4 months – The Globe and Mail. the article mentions that half the increase is from EI claims (which increased by 10% just last month). i love that this article didn’t last 24 hours on the Globe’s front page.

‘Youth Magnet’ Cities Hit Midlife Crisis – WSJ.com. lots of 20somethings are still moving to cities like portland even as unemployment reaches 11%. the photos in the slideshow for the article are also really nice and typical portland. also, turns out that 8% of people in portland commute by bike, 10 times the national average.

Nouriel Roubini – The Almighty Renminbi?. it’s scary to think how large the chain reaction will be when the US loses it’s reserve currency status.

Yet more victims of the downturn in business travel | Gulliver | Economist.com. it’s Rogers. cause they bleed you dry on roaming. via amanda.

Big City – Skadden Offers Lawyer $80,000 to Take a Year Off – NYTimes.com. $80K is one third of an associate salary at that firm.

Carl Icahn – We’re Not the Boss of A.I.G.. NYTimes op-ed about utter lack of power shareholders possess.

Financial Rescue Approaches GDP as U.S. Pledges $12.8 Trillion – Bloomberg.com “The U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have spent, lent or guaranteed $12.8 trillion, an amount that approaches the value of everything produced in the country last year”. You might also remember that household debt is also 100% of GDP. via amr.

Sweden Says No to Saving Saab – NYTimes.com “We are very disappointed in G.M., but we are not prepared to risk taxpayers’ money. This is not a game of Monopoly.” The next TV commentator to call a Scandinavian country “socialist” without being ironic should be shot.