Another major earthquake on New Madrid is inevitable, geologists say

It’s a bleak scenario. A massive earthquake along the New Madrid fault kills or injures 60,000 people in Tennessee. A quarter of a million people are homeless. The Memphis airport — the country’s biggest air terminal for packages — goes off-line. Major oil and gas pipelines across Tennessee rupture, causing shortages in the Northeast. In Missouri, another 15,000 people are hurt or dead. Cities and towns throughout the central U.S. lose power and water for months.

Losses stack up to hundreds of billions of dollars. Fortunately, this magnitude 7.7 temblor is not real but rather a scenario imagined by the Mid-America Earthquake Center and the Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management at George Washington University. The goal of their 2008 analysis was to plan for a modern recurrence of quakes that happened along the New Madrid fault more than 200 years ago, in 1811 and 1812.

No one alive has experienced a major earthquake in the Midwest, yet geologists say it’s only a matter of time. That puts a lot of uncertainty on disaster officials. Their earthquake precautions — quake-resistant building codes, for example — have never been reality tested. Some question if enough has been done to strengthen existing buildings, schools and other infrastructure.

It is difficult to prepare for a geological catastrophe the public cannot see and has never experienced. “We mostly react to disasters, and it’s been extremely rare that we get ahead of things,” said Claire Rubin, a disaster response specialist in Arlington, Va. “A lot of hard problems don’t get solved. They get moved around and passed along.” Read more >>

A look at tax breaks that expired this year

While much of Washington is consumed by the debate over tax cuts scheduled to expire next year, a big package of tax breaks already expired this year. Among the biggest, along with the cost to retroactively extend each one for 2012 and 2013:
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Individual tax breaks

— Relief from the Alternative Minimum Tax. The tax is designed to ensure that wealthy people can't use tax breaks to avoid paying any federal taxes. However, it was never indexed for inflation, so Congress routinely adjusts it to keep it from imposing hefty tax increases on millions of middle-income families. Cost: $132 billion.

— State and local sales tax deduction. Taxpayers can take this itemized deduction instead of deducting state and local income taxes. It is geared for people who live in states without state income taxes: Alaska, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Florida, South Dakota, Washington, Nevada, Texas and Wyoming. Cost: $4.4 billion.

— A deduction of up to $4,000 for qualified higher education expenses: Cost: $4.2 billion.

— A tax credit for improvements to make homes more energy efficient. Cost: $2.4 billion. Read more >>

Fedex to cut thousands from workforce

Fedex, the global delivery company, said Wednesday it was planning to cut "several thousand" people from its workforce via a voluntary departure program beginning early next year. Company chairman Fred Smith said at an investment conference in Memphis, Tennessee, that the cuts would come in the company's Fedex Express global express delivery service, and in the US unit, Fedex Services.

The cuts are part of a plan to boost profits by $1.7 billion by 2016, mainly through intensified cost reductions. They also come in the wake of the company's warnings that its business is being hit by the global economic slowdown. The company gave no specific number on the staff reductions, but emphasized they would be voluntary. Read more >>

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Moody’s Now Threatening Downgrade on 5 U.S. States

Ratings agency Moody’s, which in recent weeks has warned that it will downgrade its AAA on the debt of the United States Federal Government, has now issued a new slate of threats to individual states. Today the “investor’s service” released a statement announcing that it has placed five states, Maryland, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee, and the Commonwealth of Virginia, on review for possible downgrade from their current AAA bond ratings. The agency cites the states’ high federal employment and medicaid exposure as reasons for the review, which will affect a total $24 billion of rated debt.

“While all states are indirectly linked to the U.S. government to some degree, we have identified the five Aaa-rated states that are most vulnerable to changes in the U.S. government rating,” said Nicholas Samuels, a Vice President in Moody’s State Ratings Team. These five states have above average exposure to several sovereign risk factors that Moody’s outlined in a July 13 special comment, “Implications of a U.S. Rating Action for Aaa-Rated U.S. Municipal Credits.” The risk factors are macroeconomic sensitivity, capital markets reliance, and dependence on federal revenues, offset by financial resources available to counteract those risks.” More...

1 in 7 on food stamps - in some states 1 in 5

Image via Wikipediahe use of food stamps has increased dramatically in the U.S., as the federal government ramps up basic assistance to meet the demands of an increasingly desperate population.

The number of food stamp recipients increased 16% over last year. This means that 14% of the population is now living on food stamps. That's about 43 million people, or about one out of every seven Americans.

In some states, like Tennessee, Mississippi, New Mexico and Oregon, one in five people are receiving food stamps. Washington, D.C. leads the nation, with 21.5% of the population on food stamps.

Idaho saw the biggest increase in its food stamp program, with a spike of 39% compared to last year, followed by Nevada, at 29%, and New Jersey, at 27%. More...

Food Stamp Rolls Continue to Rise

More people tapped food stamps to pay for groceries in September as the recession and lackluster recovery have prompted more Americans to turn to government safety net programs to make ends meet.

Some 42.9 million people collected food stamps last month, up 1.2% from the prior month and 16.2% higher than the same time a year ago, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Nationwide 14% of the population relied on food stamps as of September but in some states the percentage was much higher. In Washington, D.C., Mississippi and Tennessee – the states with the largest share of citizens receiving benefits – more than a fifth of the population in each was collecting food stamps. More...