Correspondingly, consumers have shifted away from stores that primarily sell discretionary goods in favor of those supplying necessities and lower-priced items.  Vehicle sales have suffered the most profound decline in retail spending since 2007.  In 2007, consumers spent about 21 percent of their money at dealerships.  So far this year, dealers have captured only about 17 percent of spending.  Because gasoline prices have risen 27 percent since 2007, gas stations have experienced some of the largest share gains. 

Consumers are also spending a greater share of their income on food and healthcare.  Jewelry sales have been among the economic casualties.  Though stabilizing more recently, jewelry sales volumes declined 23 percent over the course of 2008 and have yet to fully recover as a share of total spending. 

Although the U.S. economy expanded at a 3.8 percent annual rate from the fall of 2009 through the summer of 2010, it has averaged only about 1.6 percent growth since then.  Some economists calculate that the U.S. economy is presently more than 15 percent below full output, by far the worst number since the Great Depression.

Even prior to the most recent state budgets, tuition and fees for public colleges and universities have been rising rapidly, though public schools are still far less expensive than private ones on average.  According to the College Board, tuition and fees for in-state students average $7,600 last academic year compared with $27,300 at private colleges.  But the affordability proposition is on the wane.  For instance, last month Texas and New Hampshire announced tuition hikes of 6 to 10 percent at certain public universities.  This month, California’s four-year colleges are seeking to increase tuition by up to 12 percent on top of an 8 to 10 percent increase announced earlier this year.  At the same time, financial aid packages are disappearing.  In June, New Hampshire, despite boasting one of the nation’s better economies, ended all state grants.

Take the African nations of Burundi and Burkina Faso as examples. Up until 1990, these nations were characterized by similar rates of growth and income. But in late 1993, civil war erupted in Burundi after a presidential assassination. Roughly 300,000 people died over the next dozen years, most of them civilians. Peaceful Burkina Faso is now two and a half times richer than Burundi. People in nations that suffer habitual violence are more than twice as likely to be malnourished, three times as likely to miss primary school and almost twice as likely to die in infancy compared with others in developing countries. The implications of this World Bank analysis are far-ranging, including the idea that preventing violence should be given much higher priority than it is now.

The industry has suffered a series of setbacks recently, including in the form of rapidly rising construction materials prices and the three-pronged tragedy in Japan. Construction materials prices leapt another 2 percent in March, the largest monthly increase since July 2008. Over the last six months, construction materials prices are up 5.9 percent despite the lack of recovery in the nation’s construction sector. Iron and steel prices have surged 15 percent over the past year.

Among the factors driving materials prices higher is a sagging U.S. dollar, which fell roughly 8 percent over a recent nine-month period and the remarkable economic expansions now taking place in much of the emerging world. The rise in construction materials prices is hammering already thin industry profit margins and also translating into diminished nonresidential construction starts.

One of the casualties of the three-pronged tragedy in Japan is the U.S. nonresidential construction sector, which has been counting upon the nation’s nuclear renaissance as a driver of future demand for engineers, facility designers and eventually contractors.

Though Federal Reserve data indicate that the availability of bank credit to commercial real estate may no longer be deteriorating, there is little evidence that credit availability has improved.  Commercial real estate loans were down nearly 9 percent nationally during the first quarter of 2011 compared to the prior quarter.  The lack of credit availability improvement coupled with stubbornly high vacancy rates have conspired to reduce privately-financed construction levels. Among the most negatively impacted segments are lodging, office and commercial construction, which are collectively down 58 percent from October 2008 levels.

With federal stimulus package monies having been largely spent down, the industry is facing several more months of spending declines as privately-financed activities fail to replace expected declines in publicly-financed activities. Battered state and local government budgets are also negatively impacting the construction industry, with education- and safety-related spending down significantly over the past year (-13.3% and -19.3%, respectively).

In his first year as governor, he tackled a large budget deficit without raising taxes, though many of his cuts are deeply unpopular among certain stakeholders. Among other things, he cut nearly half a billion dollars in municipal funds, which could force some of the state’s 566 local governments to begin sharing services or simply reduce them. The Tax Foundation, a non-partisan think tank, ranks New Jersey 48^th in the nation for its business climate. That sounds terrible, but before Mr. Christie came to Trenton, New Jersey ranked dead last.

The improving business climate is already paying dividends. Honeywell, a manufacturing and technology giant, had intended to leave the state, but decided last year to stay after the governor offered to increase tax credits. Coca-Cola is constructing a new factory that will create 650 jobs.

There are many reasons to avoid prison, including the fact that by all accounts it appears to be a nasty experience. One of the other reasons to avoid prison is that it is not consistent with good economic outcomes.

According to a new report from the Pew Center on the States and Pew’s Economic Policy Group, incarceration reduces former inmates’ earnings by 40 percent when compared to demographically similar counterparts who have not been imprisoned. The report estimates that upon release, former inmates typically work nine fewer weeks per year and that their annual earnings decline to $23,000 from $39,000.

There are a number of potential factors behind these statistics, including career interruption and the stigmatizing effects that a criminal record can have upon a job applicant. Among other findings in the report was that the U.S. houses more inmates than the top 35 European nations combined and that incarceration rates have risen sharply since 1980, particularly for young African-American men. Today, more than one in three young African-American men without a high school diploma is behind bars.