Along with the national GDP figures that came out today was news that the Massachusetts economy slowed its growth in the fourth quarter. Not the best of news, but Mass. still retains its lower-than-national unemployment rate.

Read more here.

President Obama may have “no interest” in running General Motors, but Barney Frank sure does. From Today’s Wall Street Journal Opinion page.

The latest self-appointed car czar is Massachusett’s own Barney Frank, who intervened this week to save GM distribution center in Norton Mass. The warehouse, which employs some 90 people, was slated for closure by the end of the year under GM’s restructuring plan. But Mr. Frank put in a call to GM CEO Fritz Henderson and secured a new lease on life for the facility.

Mr Frank spokesman Harry Gural says the Congressman discussed, among other things, “the facility’s value to General Motors.” We’d have thought that would be something that GM might have considered when it decided to close the Norton center, but then again, a call from one of the most powerful Members of Congress can certainly cause one to reconsider what qualifies as “value”

The article goes on to say…

As Mr Gural put it, Mr. Frank was “just doing what any other Congressman would do” in looking out for the interests of his constituents. And that’s the problem with industrial policy and goverment control of American business. In Washington, every Member of Congress now thinks he’s a czar who can call ‘ol Fritz and tell him how to make cars.

Jay Fitzgerald’s article from today’s Boston Herald:

A University of Massachusetts report out yesterday warned that the state’s jobless rate could hit 9.1 percent in a few months – and possibly head into double-digit territory soon afterward – at the current rate of economic decline.

Breaching the 9.1 percent mark would push the state’s jobless rate higher than it was during the severe recession that rocked the commonwealth in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Read more

You probably read this in the daily newspaper, but here it is in an easy-to-read and understand format.

From The Warren Group:

[The Massachusetts'] condominium market, which experienced more moderate sales declines in September and October, saw double-digit percentage declines in sales and prices in November.

Sales sank 27.5 percent to 1,204 from 1,660 in November 2007. Sales through November decreased 23.1 percent to 18,862 from 24,514. The median condo price retreated 12 percent to $240,000 in November from $272,700 a year ago.

I don’t have a break-down for Boston, but it will be forthcoming. As you know, as a whole, Boston has not “suffered” a drop in average or median sales prices, although sales volume has dropped by between a quarter and a third.

Graphs courtesy The Warren Group

Good news: Massachusetts’ unemployment rate was only 5.5% in November, 2008, while the United States’ unemployment rate was 6.5% in November, 2008.

Bad news: Because Massachusetts’ rate was lower than the national average, Bay Staters who are currently unemployed will only receive seven extra weeks of benefits whereas those on unemployment in states with rates higher than 6% will receive up to thirteen extra weeks of benefits.

Go us?