Football-related concussions and their long-term health effects are a topic of controversy and a focus of sports journalism. Players at all levels, from high school to professional, frequently suffer mild brain injuries, despite helmet innovations and rules instituted to discourage certain kinds of helmet-to-helmet contact.
The United States sees about 85,000 alcohol-related deaths a year, making pricing and regulation of the industry an important public health issue with broad consequences.
The impact to human life of alcohol consumption is well documented — in the United States an estimated 79,000 lives are lost annually due to excessive drinking. As terrible as the loss of life is, the full price that society pays is even greater — health care costs rise, property is damaged, productivity is lost, and more.
The trend of suburbanization characterized a long chapter in American residential living, but in recent decades many urban areas have seen transformations as waves of new apartments and condos have been built. Beginning in the 1990s, new building permits began to increase in many core urban areas.
Between 1994 and 2006, subprime lending grew from $35 billion to $600 billion a year in the United States, amounting to 23% of all mortgage dollars lent. The ensuing subprime mortgage market crash led to severe disruptions in the global financial markets. By the third quarter of 2007, about 25% of subprime loans were either delinquent or in foreclosure.
