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Category Archives: Disasters
Current Economic Situation, 3/7/2021
Texas Governor Greg Abbott marked Texas Independence Day March 2 by announcing the state would remove the statewide mask requirement and allow businesses to return to 100% occupancy on March 10. It is true that TX DSHS reports fewer COVID cases than earlier in 2021, but only about 1.8 percent of Texans are vaccinated. Removing the mask mandate has generated a fair amount of comment, while increasing the occupancy of businesses and other facilities has been far less controversial. The mask mandate is not really an economic issue,… Read More →
Current Economic Situation, COVID-19, 4/30/2020
Next week, May 3-9, is Hurricane Preparedness Week. Weather analysts expect this to be a bad year for hurricanes. It’s a bad year for a bad year. The coronavirus complicates evacuation and sheltering plans, and some experts believe the combined effects of COVID-19 and a hurricane would be immense. It seems somewhat strange to think about planning to evacuate the coast when we’ve been hunkered down at home for the past six weeks. On the other hand, I live further inland and can totally picture myself waiting out… Read More →
Current Economic Situation, COVID-19, 4/16/2020
This hasn’t been a good news week on most fronts. Keep reading for some bright spots at the end of this article. The U.S. Department of Labor released a glimmer of good news this morning, announcing Americans filed 5.2 million new unemployment claims the week ending April 11. That is down by 1.37 million from an adjusted 6.6 million the previous week. Still, more than 15 million Americans have filed for unemployment in the past few weeks. March unemployment should be released tomorrow, April 17. The IMF announced… Read More →
Personal and Family Financial Resources after a Disaster
The sites below include information about overcoming financial set-backs and management after a disaster. One of the nice things about each of the resources listed below is that information is provided in short, topic-specific chunks so it is easy to find and quickly read or watch the info you are most interested in. Many resources are provided in both English and Spanish. My favorite resources for individuals and families: Navigating Tough Financial Times is a recent post from AgriLife Extension relevant to the COVID-19 situations. Managing Money in… Read More →
Long-term Financial Management After Disaster
This morning the Texas Tribune is running two articles (here and here) about how long it may take for federal resources to reach Texans affected by Hurricane Harvey and how that lag may affect poverty, homelessness, and well-being throughout the state. The sites below include information about overcoming financial set-backs and management after a disaster. One of the nice things about each of the resources listed below is that information is provided in short, topic-specific chunks so it is easy to find and quickly read or watch the… Read More →
Cultivating Community Wealth: Wealth and Disaster
This post is part of an eight-week series on Cultivating Community Wealth. As we wrap up this series on Cultivating Community Wealth, we take a look at what happens when communities face disaster. We often think of natural disasters, such as drought, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and wildfire. But disasters can also be purely economic—the loss of a major employer. Some economic losses may be due to a loss of competitive advantage in the region, but losses can also result from global economics and other situations outside the region’s… Read More →
Do disasters help the economy?
Do disasters help the economy? One of my colleagues asked me recently what economic impact analysis has to say about this question. He provided a link to a Forbes article countering the frequent claim that disasters can be/are good for the economy; in turn, Forbes linked to this example from the New York Times. I’ve heard the claim before, of course. In fact, you often hear people say that rural areas and farmers/ranchers are not impacted by drought, fire, or other disasters because of government disaster relief payments…. Read More →