On November 14, the presidents of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras – the three countries that comprise Central America’s Northern Triangle – presented their “Alliance for Prosperity” plan [PDF] at an event at the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB).

The LA Times ran a nice story on Friday about the Coronel family of Azusa, California, and how they were able to buy back their foreclosed home "for $280,000, far less than the $400,000-plus debt that had gone into default." They had been able to stay in their home after their foreclosure because "Fannie Mae gave permission in 2010 for the Coronels to stay on in the Azusa house as renters."

The article asked if Fannie Mae's allowing this "indirect" principal reduction reflects a change in policy.  That's because before the Coronel's case, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac required foreclosed homeowners to pay their entire outstanding mortgage balance before being able to repurchase their homes.  That's while other buyers were able to pay the lower market price for the same property.

From January through August of 2014, 69 Haitians died from cholera and some 8,628 fell ill, a 76 percent drop from the previous year, the United Nations reported. In October, at a high-level donor conference convened to raise money to help fight cholera, World Bank director Jim Kim told the assembled diplomats that the reduction in cases was “an achievement of which Haiti and its development partners can be proud.” The U.N. decreased their projections for the number of new cases in 2014 to 15,000 from 45,000 and proudly stated that the “case fatality rate is below the 1 per cent target rate set by the World Health Organization.”

But the last few months have shown the optimism to be premature, at best. As heavy rains have hit Haiti, so too has a resurgence of cholera. With data through November 21, 2014 [PDF], the number of cases in 2014 has already shot past the 15,000 estimate to over 20,000. More worryingly, since the beginning of September, 135 Haitians have died from cholera, nearly twice as many as had died over the first 8 months of the year. Further, the much-watched case fatality rate stands at 1.3 percent over that time period, above the 1 percent target.

Yesterday, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which has treated nearly 30 percent of those sickened by cholera in Haiti, warned that the response capacities inside Haiti were severely limited and unable to cope with the recent increase. “We have tried to refer patients to other cholera treatment centers, but we soon realized there were not enough beds,” explained Olivia Gayraud, MSF medical coordinator in Haiti. “The Martissant center was quickly overwhelmed by the number of patients, as national health structures are poorly prepared to react to cholera outbreaks, despite them being predictable during the rainy season,” she added.

Eileen AppelbaumThe Hill, November 25, 2014

Mark WeisbrotTriple Crisis, November 25, 2014

The recent passage of a work-sharing program by the Illinois state Senate signals an increasing willingness across the country to provide employers with alternatives to layoffs. The state is now in the company of the District of Columbia and 27 other state legislatures, all of whom have also passeed work-sharing programs, and will be the 13^th state to have done so since 2009. Back in 2011, CEPR Co-Director Dean Baker penned a report on work-sharing, both in the OECD and the U.S. states that had already implemented such programs, and detailed its potential impacts on productivity and employment.