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...according to a forecast by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. The center estimates that owner-occupied households spent $122.6 billion on remodeling and repairs last year, compared with $139.1 billion in 2007. And the scope of many projects is small compared to what it was, say, three years ago, when newly built homes, swimming pools and huge additions were more the order of the day than the current crop of bathroom renovations and refaced cabinets...
...firm in West Reading, Pa., and takes midday jogs several times a week to break up his long, stressful office hours, decided this spring to have a shower installed in his company's headquarters. Gage did not react well to the first contractor's estimate of $14,000: "I say, 'Are you nuts? I'm not paying your country-club dues, pal.' He drops the bid to $4,400." But Gage got another estimate, from his receptionist's husband, for $1,100. "He wins, and he does a super job, top notch. The first contractor comes back...
...that massive demand offers only a temporary respite for Chinese policymakers. Over the past decade, China has rapidly built new steel mills, and in 2002 it became the world's largest producer of the commodity. Now Chinese officials say the country has more production capability than markets at home and abroad can support. In February, Luo Bingsheng, secretary general of the China Iron and Steel Association, said China's steel-production capacity exceeded the 2008 domestic demand of 500 million tons by 160 million tons. China's State Council has called for a consolidation of the industry in order...
...government similarly hopes to cut the number of major automakers from 14 to 10 and to consolidate the estimated 5,000 cement producers. Such restructuring should leave China with stronger, more stable industries. But the process will be painful. Workers often find themselves with little say in matters and few chances to negotiate for better severance or retraining, says Geoffrey Crothall, spokesman for the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin, a workers'-rights NGO. "Downsizing and consolidation in and of itself is not the problem. It's the way in which that process is undertaken," Crothall says. "What has been...
...dominance of the KDP and PUK in Kurdistan. Human-rights groups claim that the ruling parties use security issues as an excuse to jail and torture opponents and rivals. In addition, the parties' leaders control vast sectors of the region's economy, and foreign and local businessmen say it is nearly impossible to start a venture in Kurdistan without a silent partner from one of the two groups. Critics also say the parties use the allocation of jobs in schools, hospitals and government ministries as a way to enforce loyalty. And the region's few independent media outlets frequently complain...