We Live In A Third World Country

Here's more evidence of that:

Thousands of commuters into New York City confronted another round of potentially heavy delays on the Long Island Rail Road on Tuesday morning, a day after an electrical short in a pair of cables sparked a fire in a control tower, causing an almost total shutdown of train traffic for part of the day.

The railroad canceled 33 westbound trains into the city from Long Island — about one-fourth of its normal morning rush-hour traffic — and warned of “significant schedule changes and delays” for the morning and evening rushes.

Rail service was also temporarily suspended along the busy Northeast Corridor for the second time in less than two weeks because of an Amtrak power problem. New Jersey Transit officials said the problem was affecting Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast Line and Midtown Direct trains.

Infrastructure is falling to pieces and instead of using stimulus money to rebuild it, they used it to fire teachers, close schools and open charters.

And the economy is tanking anyway - here's the latest evidence of that:

Housing sales in July plunged to their lowest level in more than a decade, exceeding even the grimmest forecasts.

The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday that the seasonally adjusted annual sales rate of 3.83 million was 25.5 percent below the level of July a year ago.

July was the first month that buyers could not qualify for a tax credit of up to $8,000, so analysts were expecting weak results. But their consensus called for a decline of about 13 percent.

“Truly gut-wrenching,” said Jennifer H. Lee, senior economist for BMO Capital Markets.

July sales were down 27.2 percent from June. It was the lowest rate for existing-home sales, which include houses, condos, co-ops and town houses, since 1999. For sales of single-family homes, it was the lowest rate since 1995.

The number of homes on the market increased only slightly but the large drop in sales was enough to push inventory levels up to 12.5 months. A normal market has an inventory level of about six months.

Higher inventories tend to cause prices to decline, as many sellers compete to take advantage of fewer buyers.

The drop in sales came despite the lowest mortgage rates in decades.

Foreclosures continuing to rise, 13 months of inventory already on the market, lots more "shadow inventory" of foreclosed properties and homes not yet put on the market - whew!

Look out below!

Well, at least NY State won money to fire teachers, close schools and open up charters.