financial crisis

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Tight Times Force Sentimental Sell-Offs

But many make far less than they'd hoped from collectibles

(Newser) - With money tight, many are seeking to part with collectibles they’d hoped to hold onto—and reaping smaller rewards than they’d expected, the Chicago Tribune reports. “I wanted my daughter to have some sort of family heirloom. It can’t be that way right now,” said...

Poll: Few Plan Splurges With Tax Refunds

More people than ever are just paying off bills

(Newser) - Taxpayers’ refund checks are starting to arrive, but this year the economy might not see much of a boost from that money, an AP poll finds. More people are planning to spend their refunds in some way, but 54% say they’ll pay off existing bills rather than go on...

Foreclosures Draw Eager Buyers, but Banks Drag Feet

Red tape and bureaucracy hinder efforts to buy repo'd properties

(Newser) - Bargain hunters are turning to foreclosed homes for deals, but many are finding that buying repossessed properties from banks is a bureaucratic nightmare, the Washington Post reports. Though the housing market cannot stabilize until the unprecedented volume of foreclosures is sold off, banks are sluggish to act and fraught with...

Brain Drain Wallops Wall Street
 Brain Drain Wallops Wall Street 
Apr 12, 2009 3:16 PM CDT

Brain Drain Wallops Wall Street

It's not just the firings: others are leaving for safer jobs

(Newser) - The financial crisis is reshaping not just the landscape of Wall Street, but its face as well, reports the New York Times in a look at the hemorrhaging of the Street's top talent. Layoffs aside, finance's best and brightest—arguably the same daring risk-takers responsible for the recession—are seizing...

Etiquette for 2009: Don't Mention Your Job

Unemployment straining friendships

(Newser) - The onetime small-talk staple “So, how's the job going?” is liable to get you into trouble these days, reports Newsweek. Rising unemployment is straining friendships as the haves learn to interact with the have-nots. Among 30- and 40-somethings, discussing luxurious vacation plans is not a good idea, and for...

Thai Protesters Disrupt Asian Summit

Demonstrators want to show world the flaws in their government

(Newser) - Hundreds of demonstrators in the Thai tourist town of Pattaya blocked the entrance to the building hosting an East Asian summit meeting today, giving foreign leaders a firsthand look at the country’s political schism. Economic concerns weighed heavily with the protesters, most supporters of ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra; one...

Goldman Mulls Stock Offering to Repay Feds

Hopes to repay $10B government loan

(Newser) - Hoping to pay off a $10 billion government loan, Goldman Sachs may take advantage of a rising market to make a multibillion-dollar new stock offering, the Wall Street Journal reports. Employees, investors, and executives all like the idea of cutting the government’s role in the firm, which has held...

All Those Years We Were Racing to Nowhere

Investors Wasted 12 Years

(Newser) - For years, denizens of Wall Street have been living a frantic existence, sleeping, eating and otherwise living at the office, “because whatever it is that had to happen had to happen immediately, or yesterday,” writes Elizabeth Wurtzel in the Wall Street Journal. And what did this feverish “...

Downturn Lays Bare Dubai's Dark Side
 Downturn Lays Bare 
 Dubai's Dark Side 
ANALYSIS
Apr 9, 2009 9:09 AM CDT

Downturn Lays Bare Dubai's Dark Side

Boomtown's shaky foundations becoming apparent as hard times hit

(Newser) - Dubai's "Disneyland for grownups" is becoming a more sinister ride as the emirate's boom times end. Countless grand building projects lie half-finished in the sand while indentured building workers from abroad unable to leave languish in work camps, Johann Hari writes in the Independent. He sees Dubai as a...

Bailout Honchos Weigh Toxic-Asset 'War Bonds'

Treasury's new idea would allow private investors to profit from bailouts

(Newser) - Responding to charges the bank bailout privatizes profits while socializing losses, the Obama administration is exploring creating mutual-fund-type instruments that would allow private citizens to invest in toxic assets. The bailout funds, akin to war bonds, would allow the taxpayers who funded the bailout to profit along with Wall Street,...

Venture Capitalists Start to Regain Their Nerve

Confidence gradually rebounding with stimulus plan

(Newser) - Venture capitalists are starting to get their confidence back after an exceptionally timid year, the New York Times reports. A key index shows the administration's efforts to stabilize the economy have given investors glimmers of hope. "There is some degree of stability in the financial markets and that allows...

US Extends Bailout to Life Insurers

Treasury throwing a lifeline to a third industry

(Newser) - The Treasury Department has decided to give struggling life insurance companies access to federal bailout funds, insiders tell the Wall Street Journal. The industry—which had earlier seemed largely immune to the credit crisis—has been hit hard by stock market and real estate declines, leaving some firms on the...

In Recession, Wine Drinking Falls—But Not in US

(Newser) - Shun that bottle and save your euros: That's what French and Italians are saying as the recession cuts into wine consumption—but only in traditional lands of the vine. New World drinkers are still sipping steadily, with US tippling surpassing Italy's for the first time. After years of non-stop growth,...

Post Office Will Stop Wilderness Deliveries

Remote Idaho area too expensive to get to; residents are at a loss

(Newser) - Neither rain nor sleet nor snow ... but remote location will keep the US Postal Service from delivering mail to the Idaho wilderness starting June 30, NPR reports. Faced with a $6 billion deficit, the mail carrier is cutting back across the board, and that includes the last airstrip service in...

R&amp;D Dollars Flow Even as Revenues Slump
R&D Dollars Flow Even as Revenues Slump
ANALYSIS
Apr 6, 2009 11:11 AM CDT

R&D Dollars Flow Even as Revenues Slump

Firms see innovation as key to post- recession success

(Newser) - Revenues may be plummeting, but US companies spent as much on research and development in 2008’s fourth quarter as they did in 2007's, the Wall Street Journal reports. Analysts point to products like the iPod, introduced during the last recession, as proof that continued R&D outlay can lead...

GE's Immelt Lacks Options
 GE's Immelt 
 Lacks Options 
ANALYSIS
Apr 3, 2009 2:32 PM CDT

GE's Immelt Lacks Options

CEO needs to shrink, simplify the business, but can't

(Newser) - Don’t envy GE’s Jeffrey Immelt. Though his core business remains profitable, the CEO presides over a huge, unwieldy empire. Parts of the conglomerate, like GE Capital, have tanked the entire corporation’s share price and caused it to lose its prized AAA credit rating. Worse, Immelt may  have...

Surprise: G20 Had More Substance Than Hot Air
Surprise: G20 Had More Substance Than Hot Air
ANALYSIS
Apr 3, 2009 7:08 AM CDT

Surprise: G20 Had More Substance Than Hot Air

(Newser) - Unlike most economic summits, the G20 talks have delivered more than just a promise to talk some more in the future, Steven Pearlstein writes in the Washington Post. The meeting may not have been the turning point declared by President Obama, but the market-boosting measures agreed upon represent a more...

G20 Measures 'Necessary, But 'No Guarantees': Obama

(Newser) - President Obama touted the resolutions of the G20 summit today in London, saying swift and muscular action was needed to reverse the global economic downturn, the AP reports. Steps like the injection of funds into the IMF and the creation of a global regulatory body “were necessary,” he...

AIG Bailout Has Failed: Greenberg

Government should focus on reducing stake, restructuring firm, former CEO says

(Newser) - AIG’s former CEO told Congress today the bailout of the insurance firm has “failed” and that the government should restructure the company, the Wall Street Journal reports. At a House committee hearing, Hank Greenberg said he blamed his successors for the firm’s implosion: "I think they...

Gonzo Blogger Exposes SoCal Housing Market

Jim Klinge's unrestrained criticism of real estate practices brings him buyers

(Newser) - With “transparency” a political mantra and the housing market an unqualified mess, one real-estate broker is seeking unfettered truth, the Los Angeles Times reports. Armed with a video camera, blogger Jim Klinge is chronicling California’s real-estate crash, sparing no broker’s feelings with scathing appraisals not just of...

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