The resulting shortage of credit is strangling economies around the world, and threatening to afflict the American economy, too.

The ensuing winter was unusually severe, and serious shortage of coal threatened.

That's why a severe and growing shortage of qualified workers threatens New Jersey's continued economic growth.

The growing shortage of affordable housing is threatening to make the city once again unlivable.

Perhaps most ominously, shortages of seed and fertilizer are threatening to devastate next year's harvest.

Now, they say, the shortage of parking threatens to block further gains.

But the growing shortage of tax revenue threatens the public sector as an important economic stimulus.

Ultimately, the shortage of affordable housing here threatens not just people who cannot find homes but also the economic well-being of the region.

The shortage is made even more grave by the approach of winter and threatens to have a serious effect on Bulgaria's population.

The situation is especially visible in certain rural parts where this shortage of men threatens to extinguish life completely.