NEWS
By JAY HANCOCK | January 17, 2009
Baltimore was on its belly the last time the economy got this bad. Unemployment was 11 percent in 1991. Nearly one in 10 city-based jobs had disappeared only a year after the recession began. Residents were fleeing by thousands for homes in nearby counties or the Sun Belt. Homicides were about to hit a new high, never to be exceeded. Say what you will about the terrible recession of 2008 and 2009, but it is unlikely to maul Baltimore in the same way. The city is showing a toughness that would shock those who once predicted it had passed a downward "point of no return."
NEWS
By Jennifer Moses | August 20, 2008
MONTCLAIR, N.J. - My husband, three children, dog and I recently moved - from Baton Rouge, La., where we lived for 13 years, to Montclair, N.J. I thought I was a fairly meticulous housekeeper, the type who cleans out closets and attics regularly. But it turns out we accumulated more stuff than currently exists in, say, Haiti. So we had a great purge. Then we moved, and started unpacking the stuff we hadn't gotten rid of, things so numerous that, if listed, they would fill up a piece of paper as long as the New Jersey Turnpike.
NEWS
By Sumathi Reddy and Tanika White | August 7, 2008
The Baltimore region is going gray. While the region's population showed a modest increase of about 4 percent from 2000 through 2007, the number of residents ages 55 to 64 and those 85 and older increased by about a third, according to an analysis of U.S. census data released today. The former group is the result of the baby boom generation reaching retirement age; the latter, an aging society living longer. "Longevity has increased so much," said Rose Viscidi, a resident of Charlestown Retirement Community in Catonsville who is her in 80s. She takes daily aerobics classes and keeps busy, engaging in a lifestyle that has become more the norm for her age group.
NEWS
By Gail MarksJarvis | July 13, 2008
Baby boomers are afraid of the bear market. Raised on Wall Street's buy-and-hold primer that's been spoon-fed to the first generation of 401(k) investors, many boomers gritted their teeth and stayed with the market through the 2000 to 2002 bear. Now, however, retirement is only 10 years away - or less - for many boomers, and they are wondering if it is foolish to stay the course. The stock market has recently touched bear market territory again - a drop of about 20 percent since October 2007.
NEWS
By SUSAN REIMER | July 6, 2008
Amid the torrent of unhappy economic news comes this from The New York Times: Our children shouldn't expect to inherit anything from us except, perhaps, a tendency toward male pattern baldness. Ron Lieber wrote last week that boomers have so many more demands on their retirement savings - from health care costs to a desire for a comfortable lifestyle - that there won't be anything left in the piggy bank for the kids when we go. Whether that is good news or bad depends on whether you are me or my kids.
NEWS
By SUSAN REIMER | June 22, 2008
We seem to have settled the issues of race and gender this election season (although that might be optimistic), so only one rude and divisive issue remains on the table: age. John McCain is old, there's no getting around it. He'd be 72 at his inauguration, the oldest president ever. His hair is white, he protects his cancer-scarred face with a silly hat that makes him look like he is a member of the cast of Cocoon and he moves like the Tin Man because of all the injuries and torture he suffered during his time as a prisoner of war. Barack Obama is young by comparison.
NEWS
By DAN RODRICKS | June 15, 2008
Last year, as Father's Day approached, I asked readers to answer the question, "What did you learn from your father?" The response was impressive. Men and women from all over, most of them baby boomers, took the opportunity to write loving tributes to their dads and to enumerate life lessons they'd passed along. Reading them made me happy, and envious. Many of the responses were posted on my blog, Random Rodricks. This year, we asked the same question and didn't get much of a response.
NEWS
By ILYCE GLINK | May 16, 2008
Are you a baby boomer? Statisticians consider anyone born between 1946 and 1964 to be a full-fledged baby boomer. The oldest are 62 and just old enough to start collecting Social Security and qualifying for a reverse mortgage. But for this group of Americans, retirement looks a whole lot different, according to Gene Warren, president and chief executive of Thomas, Warren and Associates. Warren, an economist who specializes in the study of retirement, helps developers and communities figure out how they're going to attract future retirees.
NEWS
May 11, 2008
Boomsday By Christopher Buckley Twelve / 323 pages / $14 Today we face mortgage defaults and a falling dollar, but so far it isn't as dismal as the picture satirist Christopher Buckley presents in this rollicking tale that comes out this week in paperback. In this novel, the American economy becomes so beleaguered with massive debt that a 29-year-old blogger and an ambitious senator mount a campaign to fix the problem by ridding the country of baby boomers. Not surprisingly, the boomers are less than thrilled with the idea and cultural warfare erupts.
NEWS
May 7, 2008
Boomers contribute to nation's wealth If columnist Jay Hancock really wants to have an honest discussion about our nation's current fiscal mess, let's start with the facts ("Boomers planting a debt bomb," April 30). American workers and taxpayers who are between 44 and 62 years old (the baby boomers) didn't create our current budget crisis; the Bush administration and its allies in Congress did that. President Bush inherited a budget surplus and a Social Security trust fund built up in preparation for baby boomers' retirements.