Mr Kerry, for his part, offered no meaningful reform of Social Security at all, despite the fact that the retirement of the baby-boom generation will soon swing the system into huge deficits.

ECONOMIST: Another small step for Kerry? | The

In the region surrounding Youngstown in northeastern Ohio, where the boom is in full swing, seismic instruments recorded nearly a dozen small quakes in 2011, with a magnitude-4.0 tremor reported December 31.

CNN: Debate over fracking, quakes gets louder

It was possible to anticipate a catastrophe of such dimensions, even as the housing boom was still in full swing.

BBC: Credit crunch: The blame game