More bad news for construction workers: According to the latest Commerce Department report, new housing starts dropped 18.9 percent to 625,000 units from 771,000 units in October. "New building permits, which give a sense of future home construction, plummeted 15.6 percent to 616,000 units from 730,000 units in October...Housing starts were down 47 percent in November from the rate in November 2007 and permits down 48.1 percent. Both were the largest year-to-year drops since January 1991." One expert quoted says that this data shows "zero sign of any stabilization" and indicates that we're not near any bottom; a more chipper-sounding expert says this news is good for the economy since "excessive inventory" needs to be mopped up. [Reuters]
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