After three decades of stability, the national rate of homeownership suddenly began rising in the mid-1990s, going from 64% in 1994 to 69% in 2004. But new research published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta concludes that the bulk of the increase was caused by looser mortgage-lending practices rather than demographic factors.

A Nevada bulk email firm has been ordered to pay Earthlink $11m for spamming the ISP's customers. Earthlink won the judgment in a CAN-SPAM suit filed in a federal court in Atlanta against KSTM LLC. They got off easy.

The Confederate States of America had an agrarian-based economy that relied heavily on slave-worked plantations for the production of cotton for export to Europe and the northern US states. If ranked as an independent nation, it would have been the fourth richest country of the world in 1860. When the Union blockaded its ports in summer 1861, exports of cotton fell 95% and the South had to restructure itself to emphasize food production and munitions production. After losing control of its main rivers and ports, it had to depend on a rickety railroad system that, with few repairs, no new equipment and federal raids, crumbled away. The financial infrastructure collapsed during the war as inflation destroyed banks and forced a move toward a barter economy for civilians. The government seized needed supplies and livestock (paying with certificates that were supposed to be paid off after the war, but never were.) By 1865 the economy was in ruins.