The Jim Bohannon Show 25-Oct-11 CF mp3 32K
Commercial Free

Tueday, October 25, 2011

On The Jim Bohannon Show...
The Great Recession was triggered in large part by the collapse of the so-called housing bubble, and the nation's housing market has yet to recover - a major reason why our economy has not significantly improved even though the recession has technically ended. When the bubble burst, we found there were many people owning homes who were not really financially qualified to do so, and there were also many people who wound up owning homes that were actually beyond their price range. As home values tumbled, many homeowners found themselves "underwater" - owing more on their home than it was currently worth. As a result, the number of foreclosures has skyrocketed. The Obama administration took a step to ease the pain - slightly - yesterday, announcing a program that would allow a very-narrowly defined group of homeowners the ability to refinance their homes at far lower rates despite being "underwater." Critics called the plan too little, too late, but for those few who qualify it could be a great boon. We'll discuss the plan and what we can expect from the overall housing market with John McIwain, senior resident fellow at the Urban Land Institute. 

Empowerment of women has been a part of American life from the nation's founding - from Abigail Adams in the 1770s to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today. But it is not a popular concept in many other places around the world, especially in the more patriarchal societies in the Arab world. Better treatment and opportunities for women were a part of the impetus for the Arab Spring uprisings. But for empowerment to truly take hold anywhere, it must start early, when the women to come are just girls. There is a new, global effort underway to empower girls - and yes, boys as well - at the website ChangeMyWorldNow.com The site is designed as a place to bring together and support a new generation of thought-leaders to create important, and sustainable, change. The effort is the brainchild of award-winning children's book author Gina Otto, who started the ball rolling with her modern-day fairy tale "Cassandra's Angel" (published by Sterling). It was written to instill the ideas of self-reliance, self-worth, tolerance and self-acceptance early in a person's life.