One of the popular statistics that economists like to throw around right now is regional mall vacancies. What this statistic measures is how many store-locations are empty in regional or local malls. If the Smoothie King or American Eagle used to have a spot at the local mall and now they don’t–then that factors into this statistic. And unfortunately, the statistic doesn’t look good.

Vacancies at the largest U.S. retail centers rose to the highest level in at least a decade as unemployment and “inconsistent” consumer spending reduced demand from tenants, Reis Inc. said.Vacancies at the biggest malls, known as regional and super-regional centers, increased to 8.9 percent in the first quarter from 8.8 percent in the previous three months and 7.9 percent a year earlier, the real estate research company said in a statement. The rate was the highest since 2000, when New York- based Reis began tracking the data.

The statistic is relatively new, as the article states, so it may mean nothing! Or it may mean something, but nothing relative to the recession. There is no way to know except through time and comparison.

JAL, Japan Airlines, is a company that was once known for being the largest and most successful airliner in Asia by revenue. However, since the recession struck in 2008 the company has been struggling to remain afloat. Previously there have been rumors of a government takeover or selling off to another company. Now word has surfaced that bankruptcy is an option, too.

JAL, Asia’s largest airline by revenue, applied in October for help from the Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp of Japan (ETIC), a body of turnaround specialists established to bail out companies with state-guaranateed funding. [ID:nT128108]

The ETIC has discussed with JAL’s creditors the possibility of using a Chapter 11-style bankruptcy procedure if it decides to support the carrier, but has not ruled out a restructuring outside of bankruptcy court, the two sources said.

When one of the largest and most successful companies in Asia is discussing bankruptcy, you know it has been a bad year for the economy worldwide.

Existing homes in the United States are those that have not been recently constructed–and their sales have risen by the most since February 2007, prior to the crash of the housing market. The real estate market was hit particularly hard by that recession and has yet to recover because of a public that is wary of buying anything, much less large purchases like homes.

However, the latest forecast from the National Realtors Association projects a ten percent rise in existing home sales–a not-insignificant sign of progress that we can all hope will lead to a recovering economy. As to the causes of this climbing rate of sales:

Cheaper homes and stimulus such as the $8,000 incentive, extended and expanded by the Obama administration this month, have revived an ailing housing market that contributed to the worst economic slump since the Great Depression.