An Olympic foreclosure, Pelosi piñata, and more of the week's economic news

Another work week in our rollercoaster of an American economy is coming to a close, and it's been a stimulating one! (Yuk, yuk.)

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009  (a.k.a. "The Stimulus") turned one year old yesterday, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dropped into town to laud the bill and shame its detractors. She said that while Republicans have spent the week railing against the irresponsibility of government spending, they have no trouble going back to their districts and getting their photos taken with workers whose jobs the program created.

Pelosi said she'll return to Washington full of stories of how the stimulus has benefited the Bay Area, surely marking her as a figurative piñata for conservatives (oh wait, and as a literal one, too ).

On tonight's Crosscurrents, KALW's Nathanael Johnson will detail one stimulus project gone awry --the aborted BART connector to the Oakland Airport--and how the project's failure has yielded a larger success.

Meanwhile, Bay Area home sales are down, but not out.  And as KALW's Zoe Corneli reported last night, for those trying to hang onto their houses, the prospects are bleak as experts predict another wave of foreclosures unless loan modifications increase.

Apparently, no one is immune from the foreclosure plague.  The Whistler Blackcomb resort, site of the Vancouver Olympics' downhill events, is reportedly on the brink of foreclosure and may be auctioned off  tomorrow, even as Olympic skiers take to the hill for the Men's Super G.  A story that truly demonstrates global unity, but one I doubt Bob Costas will mention.

In other pan-national news, some say the dollar will continue to rise over the next few months, hurting exports. Others say it's poised to drop. With all that uncertainty, time to convert your savings to gold, like the commercials say? George Soros seems to think so.

And lastly,  unemployment benefit claims went up 31,000 last week, but are down overall in the past month.