St. Petersburg Times - "Jobs sink, worries rise" (1-5-08)

"The unemployment rate rose from 4.7 percent in November to 5 percent in December, the Department of Labor reported Friday. While that's not a high rate historically, it's considerably worse than the year-ago rate of just 4.3 percent. And it was enough to send stocks into a swan dive as some skittish investors headed for the hills. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 2 percent Friday, dropping 256.54 points to close at 12,800.18."

Bloomberg - "Pimco's Gross Says Fed May Not Avoid a Recession" (1-5-08)

"Bill Gross, manager of the world's biggest bond fund, said the Federal Reserve may not be able to avoid a recession even if central bank policy makers lower borrowing costs by at least another percentage point."

Orange County Register - "Wells Fargo eyes added 10% home price drop" (1-5-08)

"The O.C. housing market is becoming more unbalanced by the day. This is evident in the glut of existing home inventories in the County. Unsold existing home inventories in Orange County hit 25.3 months at current sales rates. That is five times the level of inventories found in a “normal” housing market with rising home prices. The final nail in the proverbial coffin was the August and September financial turmoil, which is quickly morphing into a full-blown credit crunch. This caused banks to tighten credit standards even further and extend the tightening into the prime and Alt-A mortgage markets that up until then were virtually untouched by what was unfolding in the sub-prime space. Orange County home sales have dropped nearly 42 percent over the past twelve months through October, and median existing home prices have dropped by 6.4 percent, according the California Association of Realtors."

North County Times - "Small builders struggle to stay afloat" (1-5-08)

"Construction spending nationally is down 2.6 percent from 2006 to $1.08 trillion, according to a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. And local building permits, which foretell future construction spending, indicates local construction will plummet even more over the next year. New home permits in San Diego County for November fell 35 percent from the same month in 2006 to 170, according to data from Burbank-based Construction Industry Research Board. The amount of money expected to be spent on 2007 home permits, $1.7 billion, is down 26 percent from 2006 and 49 percent from 2005."