Hot Docs: Geithner Says Global Recession Is 'Deepening'

Treasury Secretary Lays Out Grim Facts: The global economy is contracting, unemployment is rising, and world trade is declining. In other words, the "global recession is deepening." That is the view Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner laid out in a statement in advance of the G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Horsham, England, on Saturday. The meeting is a run-up to the April 2 London summit of G-20 government leaders. Geithner says this is a "global crisis which calls for a global response." The meeting should focus on two things, he says: "how to ensure recovery and restart growth, and how to reform and coordinate the international regulatory and supervisory system to ensure that no such crisis occurs again." Geithner is advocating more regulation and supervision of financial institutions, oversight of markets, and a "standing cooperative framework for actions in a crisis . . . that keep pace with the changes in the international financial system." The G-20 is made up of major industrialized nations such as the United States, Japan, and Germany, and emerging powers such as China and India.

Keeping Them Down on the Farm: The last-frontier image might be a big draw for Alaska, but those born to it may be interested in a little more civilization. A study of census data by the Pew Research Center's Social and Demographic Trends project finds that 70.8 percent of adult residents moved to Alaska from another state but only 28.2 percent of adults born there still live in Alaska. The research looked at which states were "magnets" in drawing in new residents and which were "sticky" in keeping those they already had. Alaska leads the list of states that were strong magnets but rated low on stickiness, while Alabama leads the list of states that were low magnets but high on stickiness. The state that was the strongest magnet with high stickiness was Arizona, followed by Florida, Georgia, Maryland, and North Carolina. The states that rated low on both the magnet and the sticky sides were Iowa, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, and New York.

People Continue to Cut the Cord: Oklahoma is leading the way when it comes to people ditching their land-line phones to become exclusively wireless users. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics reports in "Wireless Substitution: State-level Estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, January-December 2007" that 26.2 percent of the households in Oklahoma had only wireless phones in 2007. Coming in next was Utah, at 25.5 percent; Nebraska, at 23.2 percent; Arkansas, at 22.6 percent; and Idaho, at 22.1 percent. The number of those exclusively using wireless phones continues to grow nationally, now making up more than 17 percent of households. Stephen Blumberg, a health scientist with the CDC health statistics center, says the findings are important "because many of our largest surveys are done on calls to land-line phone numbers. All of those adults with only cellphones are being missed in these surveys." 

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