GLOBAL ECONOMY • Feb 2013 • Volume 2 / Number 3
Coal: A key player in expanded U.S. energy exports
In a November 2012 report that received significant attention in the media, the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted that the United States will be nearly energy self-sufficient by the year 2035.
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Recent articles
Patterns of homeownership, delinquency, and foreclosure among youngest baby boomers
The recent decline in the housing market was preceded by strong growth for over a decade. From the fourth quarter of 1995 to the fourth quarter of 2005, homeownership rates increased from 65.1 percent to 69.0 percent.1 In the 1990s and early 2000s, mortgage originations grew six-fold, from $459 billion in 1990 to $2.9 trillion in 2005. Over this same period, mortgage delinquency rates (around 4.5 percent) and foreclosure rates (around 1.2 percent) remained low between 2000 and 2005.2
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Injuries, illnesses, and fatal injuries in mining in 2010
Fatal injuries in the mining industry declined throughout the 20th century. From 1900 to 1945 there were more than 1,000 fatal injuries every year in coal mining alone, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). Since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) began collecting fatal injury data in 1992, there have been no more than 60 fatal injuries in coal mining in any given year, and fewer than 200 fatal injuries per year for all workers in the mining industry as a whole. Despite such improvements, fatal injury rates in mining remain more than four times higher than the average for all industries, and high-profile accidents continue to make headlines.
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Retirement costs for defined benefit plans higher than for defined contribution plans
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) March 2012 Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC), private industry employers now spend more per employee hour worked for workers with defined contribution plans than for workers with defined benefit plans. Â However, a slightly different picture can be revealed when ECEC data are averaged by plan participants only (those employees that use or are enrolled in a plan).
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