Birth Rate Drops Amid Recession
THE WASHINGTON TIMES: Decline first annual dip since start of decade

ATLANTA | There aren't just fewer jobs in a recession. There are fewer babies, too.

U.S. births fell in 2008, the first full year of the recession, marking the first annual decline in births since the start of the decade and ending an American baby boomlet.

The downturn in the economy best explains the drop in maternity, some experts believe. The Great Depression and subsequent recessions all were accompanied by a decline in births, said Carol Hogue, an Emory University professor of maternal and child health and epidemiology.

And the numbers have never rebounded until the economy pulled out of it, she said, calling the 2008 recession the most likely culprit for fewer babies.

It's not clear that it's the only explanation, however. Another expert noted a recent decline in immigration to the U.S. may also be a factor.

The nation recorded about 4,247,000 births last year, down about 68,000 from 2007, according to a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics.

This recession began in December 2007, and since then the economy has lost almost 7 million jobs. Housing foreclosures worsened in 2007 too, and fell into a state of crisis in 2008.

The largest decline in births were in California and Florida, two states hit hardest by the housing crisis. >>> Mike Stobbe, Associated Press | Saturday, August 08, 2009

Democracy in Decline
REAL CLEAR POLITICS: The broad, sneering European-elite response to the plucky Irish vote to oppose the further centralization of governmental power in the European Union and the emerging opinion in China suggest that from Brussels to Shanghai, democracy may be losing its appeal. Democracy in Decline >>> By Tony Blankley | June 18, 2008

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UK: Communities Declining at ‘Fastest Rate Ever’
THE TELEGRAPH: The hastening decline of community life in the countryside is highlighted today in a new Government report.

Nearly half of all neighbourhoods have lost key amenities such as surgeries, post offices, shops and schools in the past four years, figures from Oxford University show.

The report suggests that towns and villages across England are losing basic services at "their fastest rate ever", prompting claims that Labour is overseeing "the slow death of community life".

The news comes after Stuart Burgess, Gordon Brown's "rural advocate", warned that poorer people in the countryside, who already face housing shortages and have little chance of a good education, "form a forgotten city of disadvantage".

The report, published quietly on the Department of Communities and Local Government website last month, reveals which parts of the country have lost out because of their distance from services such as doctors' surgeries and post offices.

It found that 45 per cent of the neighbourhoods in England - 14,493 out of 32,439 - have become more "geographically deprived" since the last such study was conducted in 2004. Communities Declining at 'Fastest Rate Ever' >>> By Christopher Hope, Home Affairs Correspondent | April 14, 2008

TELEGRAPH LEADER:
Our Countryside in Peril >>>

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)