Today, Ball State University's Center for Business and Economic Research released its annual report card on how favorable each state is for manufacturing and logistics business. With scores ranging from bad to abysmal—3 F's, 3 D's, 2 C's and an incongruous A (for "benefit costs")—New Mexico might have to forget about being big industry's next suitor.

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65 debt collections claims have been filed by Your Credit Inc. against its customers in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court so far this year.75% of those debtors had Hispanic surnames, well above the 50 percent of the county population that identifies as Hispanic.

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1 County sheriff says county personnel paved six private roads.But will they plow them when it snows? 2 County Manager Roman Abeyta resigns suddenly, but says it’s not in response to road-paving scandal.Which probably means it’s in response to some other scandal we haven’t heard about yet. 3 Santa Fe airport director reportedly says American Eagle is cutting back flights to Dallas in response to winter weather.News flash: It’s summer. 4 Actor Val Kilmer will appear before the San Miguel County Commission to try to make amends with neighbors.Auditions for extras to play the parts of neighbors will be held prior to the meeting. 5 Gov. Bill Richardson performs marriage ceremony between Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart.It is time for the guv to start thinking about a second career. 6More than 40 governmental agencies in New Mexico haven’t submitted yearly audits.Maybe they eliminated calendars as part of their budget cuts. 7 Educational Retirement Board plans to sue formal financial advisor.That will at least keep some lawyers off the unemployment line.

In this week's Indicators, seniors at Capital High School and Santa Fe Prep answer two questions from SFR: What their plans are for next year, and to what degree the economy has affected those plans. Read the extended version (more questions, more answers) after the jump. Question 3: What's the one main thing you'd like to achieve in your first year out of high school? “I would like to write another novel this year.” —Caitlin, Santa Fe Prep “Get a legit job :)” —Kevin, Capital High “Getting out of my comfort zone. By traveling through Asia and other places I have never been to, I know I'll learn a lot about myself (things that I wouldn't learn if I went straight to college). Also, I honestly just want a break from school.” —Madeleine, Santa Fe Prep “Not be in debt from college.” —Sophia, Capital High Question 4: What's the most important thing you've learned? “Keep an open mind.” —Isaiah, Capital High “That there is a whole lot of world out there. By that I mean try to stay open in many ways. Don't be narrow in your views and realize that you are part of both your small community of personal relationships, and the larger world congregation. Don't get hung up on the small things.” —Grayson, Santa Fe Prep "Don't procrastinate." —Adrian, Capital High "One of the most important things I've learned is to approach everything with passion and focus—be that friendships, sports or academics—because an energetic and interested approach results in the maximum reward for everyone involved." —Caitlin, Santa Fe Prep "Probably how to balance my  money and not end up in too much trouble." —Sophia, Capital High Question 5: If you had to guess, where will you be in five years? “Working as a CSI” —Sergio, Capital High “South Pole?” —Daivi, Capital High “I hope to be earning my Masters, or maybe even be done earning the degree...finding an apartment in either New Orleans or Washington DC...applying to grad school somewhere... [U]ltimately it is a big unknown, which is both exciting and absolutely terrifying.” —Grayson, Santa Fe Prep “I imagine I will be in graduate school in five years. I'm not sure where, but I am currently interested in either Cambridge or Oxford University.” —Caitlin, Santa Fe Prep “'Nam.” —Anton, Capital High Cross-posted at sfreporter.com.

SFR's current cover story on economic inequality has been bouncing around the econoblogosphere. It's also getting some attention in the Roundhouse. Apparently, New Mexico Lt. Gov. candidate and state Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino just plugged the story in a budget hearing. That's according to the New Mexico Independent's liveblog. Here's a visual appendix to the story that lawmakers might find useful. SFR made the following color-coded charts using Internal Revenue Service data for the 2007 tax year. The first shows that New Mexico is a solidly working-class state, with only a sliver of the population claiming even moderate wealth. Approximately 18,500 New Mexicans reported incomes over $200,000, versus 719,200 who reported making less than $50,000. The next chart shows how much money each of those tax brackets holds. New Mexicans at the bottom of the income pyramid had incomes totaling $12.4 billion. Meanwhile, the 85,000 New Mexicans making more than $100,000 a year—those near the tip of the pyramid—claimed $18 billion in income. The final charts show where the state and local tax burden fell across those brackets, as figured by reported deductions. Not surprisingly, sales taxes mainly hit the working class (dark blue) and upper-middle class (red and green). Income taxes hit mainly the well-to-do (purple) and wealthiest (light blue). Above, the light blue represents $361 million in income taxes. The dark blue represents $71 million. Finally, here, the dark blue represents approximately $25 million in sales taxes. The light blue represents the $5.1 million paid by the wealthiest New Mexicans.

According to today's Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Thornburg Mortgage's $11 billion loan portfolio has found a buyer: Select Portfolio Servicing Inc., a Salt Lake City mortgage-servicing business owned by Credit Suisse Group (CS), won the auction for Thornburg's portfolio with a winning bid of about $95 million, according to Joel Sher, the failed lender's Chapter 11 trustee. If this summary of the Better Business Bureau file on Select is accurate, the sale could be bad news for homeowners who took out loans with Thornburg, which before its bankruptcy last year had a pretty good reputation for customer service: “Based on BBB files, this company has unsatisfactory record with the BBB due to unanswered and unresolved complaints. "The BBB processed a total of 136 complaints about this company in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period. Of the total of 136 complaints closed in 36 months, 59 were closed in the last year.”

In an interview for SFR's new cover story, "Born Poor," Santa Fe Institute economist Samuel Bowles suggested that the government invest directly in individuals, perhaps by giving everyone a lump sum to use however they wish—say, $250,000. “It sounds very radical,” Bowles says, “but it's very consistent with economic ideas.” It makes as least as much sense as giving hundreds of billions of dollars to Wall Street's largest banks—some of which helped cause the recession—so that the banks can lend it back to taxpayers at outrageous interest rates. SFR wondered what people would actually do with a cool quarter-mil, if it dropped in their laps. So, we asked. Surprisingly, no one said they would buy a one-way ticket to the Yukon and put the remainder in gold, guns and goats. This video was shot and edited by Corey Pein, with footage by SFR intern Dan Trottier.

A couple dozen people showed up outside the Roundhouse this morning in support of a proposal by state Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, to move public deposits of the giant financial institutions that helped cause the financial crisis and subsequent recession. Egolf's proposal, House Bill 66, got some national play in the Huffington Post the other day. "It's not going to be Brian Egolf going around giving big bags of cash to [local] banks," Egolf said, waving his arms as though he were wielding invisible moneybags, and drawing a laugh from the crowd. "If [the study called for in his bill] comes back with the result that there aren't any [local] banks that can handle this, then that's the result." SFR asked how Egolf could have confidence that community banks would behave more responsibly than, say, Bank of America, which holds at least $1.4 billion in state government deposits. Especially given the recent FDIC takeover of Santa Fe-based Charter Bank. "I have tremendous confidence. Charter Bank got caught in a in a federal regulatory vice grip," Egolf said. "There's a lot more to the story about Charter Bank than they just got shut down." Alan Hoffman, a businessowner who organized the press conference and rally, says federal regulators' overreacted in assessing Charter's loan portfolio. "It's the pendulum swing," Hoffman says. "For eight years they regulated nothing." Also in attendance: Santa Fe Alliance executive director Vicki Pozzebon and Santa Fe Area Home Builders Association executive officer Kim Shanahan (who's holding the "State $$ in State Banks" sign, above). Not surprisingly, Egolf has the support of the Independent Community Bankers Association, whose lobbyist, Domonic Silva stood by his side. State Sen. Tim Keller, D-Bernalillo, cosponsored Egolf's bill. And Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Hidalgo, signed on this morning, Egolf said. Egolf also sent US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner an email about his proposal, although, he tells SFR, "I don't know for a fact that he read it." Egolf says he knows Geithner from when they both worked under former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, for whom Geithner served as undersecretary for international affairs. The bill will go before the House Business and Industry Committee before moving on to House Appropriations, Egolf said.