financial crisis

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Credit Freeze Hits High Fliers of Commercial Real Estate

Slowdown plus tough credit slams office market

(Newser) - When the commercial real estate market was hot, the sky seemed to be the limit, and increasingly complicated financing arrangements were common. Now the combination of economic crisis and credit freeze has exposed the market's precarious underpinnings, which resemble the pitfalls that brought the residential real estate sector to its...

Obama Puts $500K Limit on Exec Pay at Bailout Firms

(Newser) - Executives at companies that get “exceptional help” from the federal government are in for a big pay cut, President Obama announced today. Top-level executives will have salaries capped at $500,000, Obama said, “a fraction of the salaries that have been reported recently.” The only other compensation...

Obama May Cap Pay of Bailed-Out Execs at $500K

Pay to be capped at $500,000, bonuses canceled

(Newser) - The Obama administration plans to announce sharp new limits today on how much executives of bailed-out companies can make, the New York Times reports. The rules, still being hammered out, would cap the pay of top executives at $500,000 and bar them from receiving any bonuses apart from normal...

While We're At It, Give Marriage a Bailout

Recession, laws making it more expensive, so make nuptials easier

(Newser) - Between the recession and various legal knots, it’s no wonder so many Americans are eschewing marriage, Mark Penn writes in the Wall Street Journal. Either go with the bailout flow and revamp tax codes and the like to make marriage easier and less financially constrictive, or use similar tactics...

Banks Turn Phone Into New Automated Teller

Banking via mobile device grew by 2.7M users in 2008

(Newser) - Customers worried about pinching pennies have more ways than ever to manage their finances through mobile devices, the Wall Street Journal reports. In 2008, 3.1 million people used mobile banking services, up from 400,000 in ‘07—and that number is expected to reach 7 million this year...

I'd Rather Say I'm in Porn: Shunned Wall Streeter

Financial types feel they're unfairly 'vilified' in crisis

(Newser) - Working on Wall Street used to have glamor to it—but now, saying you work at JPMorgan or Goldman Sachs immediately establishes you as “one of them,” the New York Times reports. Wall Streeters are facing a new pariah status, and many believe they’re taking an unfair...

Citi May Bail on $400M Marketing Deal With Mets

The call to spend taxpayer money more wisely may overshadow agreement

(Newser) - Citigroup, trying to duck controversy over its use of taxpayer bailout dollars, is considering  reneging on a $400 million marketing deal with the New York Mets, the Wall Street Journal reports. The 20-year partnership—which includes naming the Mets new stadium Citi Field—may be scratched because Citi accepted $45...

BofA Knew of Merrill's $4B Bonuses

Private bonus agreement backs up Thain's claim that Bank of America was aware of payouts

(Newser) - Ousted Merrill Lynch boss John Thain appears to have been speaking the truth when he said Bank of America knew all about Merrill's controversial December bonuses, the Wall Street Journal reports. A copy of a private bonus agreement obtained by the Journal shows that the two firms agreed on a...

Macy's Slashes 7K Jobs
 Macy's Slashes 7K Jobs 
Feb 2, 2009 12:50 PM CST

Macy's Slashes 7K Jobs

Job cuts, dividend reduction could save retailer $410M

(Newser) - Macy's said today it will cut 7,000 jobs, or 4% of its work force, and slash its dividend as it looks to lower expenses. The Cincinnati-based retailer says the reduction includes positions in offices, stores, and other locations. The cuts will include some unfilled jobs. Macy's anticipates the reductions...

Obama Stimulus Is Good Politics, Bad Economics

(Newser) - Just days ago, President Obama said it was time for “tough choices,” but Obama himself hasn’t made the tough choices on his stimulus package, Robert Samuelson writes in the Washington Post. Obama could have opted to bolster the economy, or he could have tried to pursue a...

US Consumer Spending Falls Yet Again

1% drop greater than forecast; 6 straight months of decline

(Newser) - Consumer spending fell in December to finish off its worst year since 1961, Bloomberg reports. Purchases fell 1%, topping analyst estimates of a 0.9% decline. It was the record sixth consecutive month spending has fallen, and that streak may get longer, one economist predicted. Thanks to nearly 2.6...

Stocks Follow Europe Down
 Stocks Follow Europe Down 
MARKET Open
Feb 2, 2009 8:49 AM CST

Stocks Follow Europe Down

Dow dives 110 on heels of big declines overseas

(Newser) - US stocks fell at today’s open, tracking big declines overseas, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Dow was off 110 points, while the S&P and Nasdaq fell 1.2% and 0.9% respectively. Among the big losers were Bank of America, down 7%, and Citigroup, down 6.5%,...

States Get Creative as Jobs Disappear

Even as tax revenues shrink, states pay to entice employers

(Newser) - State governments, reeling from diminished tax revenues that have forced cuts in services and, in some cases, jobs, increasingly are offering tax breaks and incentives to employers in an effort to stimulate the job market, reports the Wall Street Journal. “Now is not the time to back off the...

Feds May Curb Pay at Rescued Financial Firms

Administration hopes move will bolster flagging bailout support

(Newser) - Seeking to curry public favor, the Obama administration is weighing pay cuts for executives at financial institutions that receive government aid, the Wall Street Journal reports. The move would apply to firms receiving “exceptional” help—a term not clearly defined but seemingly along the lines of that given to...

Welfare Rolls Not Expanding to Meet Crisis

The 1996 reform is making it tougher for needy to get help as economy flatlines

(Newser) - Welfare programs, rewritten in 1996 to give individual states more control, do not seem to be responding to the growing needs of the disadvantaged as the economy tanks and unemployment soars, reports the New York Times. Some 18 states—including many of those with the highest job losses—actually cut...

Laid-Off? Be Your Own Boss

Interest in small business is booming as unemployment rises

(Newser) - The pink slips are flowing, but that’s not halting thousands from using severance packages and savings to found their own businesses, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The new gigs often bear little resemblance to past ones—one Wall Street exec now walks dogs—and differ from the economy at...

Super Bowl Party? Try These Booze Bargains
Super Bowl Party? Try
These Booze Bargains
SUPER BOWL
Feb 1, 2009 5:16 AM CST

Super Bowl Party? Try These Booze Bargains

Esquire finds brown-bagging it has its rewards

(Newser) - With Super Bowl looming, cheap booze is probably on your radar. It's not too late to check out these bargains recommended by Esquire:
  • Paul Masson Grande Amber VSOP brandy: This $13 bottle “goes down far more smoothly than anything from France in this price range could even aspire to.
...

Downturn's Latest Victim: the Billable Hour

Long a legal standard, clients are saying no to lengthy litigation

(Newser) - Might the billable hour—long the standard of measure for legal services—be on its way out? Law firms are rethinking their business models as the economic crisis makes clients more demanding, the New York Times reports. Firms are experimenting with alternative payment methods such as flat fees and percentages...

Team Obama Mulls 2-Part Bank Bailout

Plan would have feds buy up some toxic assets, insure others

(Newser) - The bank stabilization plan the White House is cooking up may mix two competing strategies, the Wall Street Journal reports, setting up a “bad bank” to buy portions of banks’ toxic assets while offering guarantees against future losses on part of the remainder. The goal is to bolster banks...

Iceland Up for Emergency EU Membership

Brussels says it will fast-track process for crisis-stricken nation

(Newser) - Iceland will be fast-tracked into the European Union to rescue the tiny Nordic state from financial disaster, senior officials in Brussels tell the Guardian. Depending on the result of the Icelandic election, the country could apply for membership as soon as May. While accession to the EU normally takes years,...

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