Depression: Business section leaves me in a funk

    The business section of my hometown paper, the Hartford Courant, has shrunk over time to a mere few pages of news.  Today's four pages are rife with nothing but bad news for Connecticut residents contemplating the sale of their homes in the near future, and especially for those who want to relocate to a coastal area. To add personal insult to injury, the section adds that Starbucks is closing 600 stores, bringing to a halt their business model of global expansion.  I am one of those dopes who bought into that whole coffee culture promise a few years ago and purchased shares of what my British niece refers to as "Star-Bloody-Bucks" (she worked at one of their London outlets for a few weeks).
    I suspect the news on housing in Connecticut is being replayed in your own geographies.  The median sales price of homes in our state plunged 11 percent in May.  It was the worst of the last five months of declines, indicating that things will get worse before they get better (despite what those nattering nabobs of sunshine at the National Association of Realtors say).  The richest state per capita in the nation has seen the median value of a home drop from $305,000 a year ago to $272,000.  A declining sales rate just adds to the gloom.
    I suppose my wife and I are fortunate to own property in coastal South Carolina where prices are also declining, but at a slower rate than in Connecticut.  That means the delta between what our primary house may be worth in two years and the price of a retirement home in the south is not widening for us because we are locked in.  For others, as I have said here before, they may want to take the money from their primary home as soon as they can and run south.
    The other side of the news for us is that, according to today's business section, insurance rates for coastal residents are up between 20% and 100% in just the last four years.  Scientists say that rising sea temperatures -- thank you global warming -- are increasing the likelihood of stronger hurricanes and, therefore, greater damage to property.  Our condo is ¾ of a mile from the ocean, and our own insurance rates are up about 50% since 2004.  Property and casualty insurers, though, have taken a page from the oil industry; the insurers' profits were up $66 billion in the three years ending in 2006.
    And then there is the item in the business section under the headline "Study: Workers Not Saving Enough for Retirement."  Hewitt Associates found that four out of five workers will not be able to maintain their lifestyles at their current rates of savings.  Two thirds of the 2 million employees Hewitt studied at large U.S. corporations will wind up in retirement with less than 80% of what they need.  I, of course, have a vested interest in people's interest in golf.  But golf, as much as we love it, is discretionary spending, and given a choice between golf and eating something better than dog food, I know what my choice would be. (No wisecracks, please; it will be the food)
    At least I am not a customer of Citibank.  Today's business section says hackers stole ATM card codes of the bank's customers.  It is a sad state of affairs when the only good news for some of us in the business section is bad news for others.