Measuring ‘economic adversity’ poses challenges

An index of Economic Adversity from Moody’s Economy.com and msnbc.com has taken the economic pulse of 381 cities across the US. The good news: only one city is still spiraling further into recession. The bad news: as economic recovery moves slowly forward, understanding each community’s singular struggles proves a complex task.

Las Vegas has been battered by the perfect storm of falling tourism and a crashing housing market. Ian Mylchreest, executive producer with State of Nevada on KNPR, reports on a city in crisis.

Oklahoma, on the other hand, is a state where at least two cities ? Oklahoma City and Lawton ? are in a state of recovery. But what does recovery mean after such a profound economic crash? Like Las Vegas, Oklahoma has its own unique set of problems. With an economy based on oil and natural gas, the state projected massive earnings ? and then fell short by a billion dollars in 2009, throwing the state budget into a tailspin. Gail Banzet, reporter for KOSU in Oklahoma, joins us with more.