Word: aid
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...even in California, older private homes remain a challenge. Although new structures are built in compliance with toughened building codes, existing homes need to be retrofitted to get up to code - but that can be costly, and right now there's little in the way of aid for homeowners who might want to quakeproof their homes. That means there are still countless older structures that aren't built to resist earthquakes - especially strong ones - and could collapse during a major temblor, which is exactly how most of the deaths in the 1989 quake occurred. "If you have a 20-story...
...killing a 6-year-old boy and wounded nine others, mainly women and children. Security is being beefed up in Karachi, Pakistan's financial capital and biggest city - and the only one to have so far remained immune from the latest wave of terrorist attacks. (Read "How a U.S. Aid Package to Pakistan Could Threaten Zardari...
Torrential rains brought on by Typhoon Ketsana ravaged the Philippine capital, causing flooding that killed at least 250 people, displaced thousands and submerged buildings beneath up to 20 ft. (6 m) of water. Several countries pledged aid, and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo opened her palace to those left homeless. But critics, who note that the city of 12 million has long been considered flood-prone and lacking in proper drainage systems, blamed the government for not doing more to head off the disaster...
Even with all this aid, though, U.S. homeowners haven't been doing so well. The value of their real estate holdings has fallen by $4 trillion since 2006, according to the Federal Reserve. Millions of people have been booted from their dwellings over the past couple of years because they couldn't make their mortgage payments. Millions more foreclosures are on the way. The housing market, despite some hopeful signs over the summer, remains a terrible mess. (See high-end homes that won't sell...
Washington's reading seems to be that we're not subsidizing housing enough. Congress, the Bush and Obama administrations and the Fed have been piling on new aid. For now, they may be correct to do so. With the banking system still shaky, further big declines in house prices could bring disaster. Slowing a price collapse is a reasonable aim of government policy. But as we dig out of this mess, we ought to ask whether the vast infrastructure of government support for homeownership that has been built up since the 1930s is really such a wise policy...