Earlier today, General Motors announced the good news that it turned a profit of $1.3 billion last quarter — oh, and CEO Ed Whitacre will be leaving at the end of the month. [More]
recession watch
Should There Be More Legalized Gambling?
By 8.11.10
Even though the American Gaming Association recently stated that gambling revenues were down 5.5% last year, a growing number of state and city governments are looking at casinos and gambling as a way to spur economic growth during this not exactly golden age. [More]
Could You Live With Only 100 Items?
By 8.10.10
Over at the New York Times, they have a profile of a woman in Portland, OR, who has spent the last three years with only 100 items to her name. In addition to living with less clutter, she and her husband have also managed to erase $30,000 in debt. [More]
After 99 Weeks Of Unemployment, Still No Job
By 8.3.10
The NYT has a profile of a woman who has passed the 99 weeks of unemployment benefits and is now essentially homeless, living in a motel paid for with charity from friends. In 2008 she had a good job and was going to business school. Now she’s on food stamps and making ramen in a motel ice bucket. [More]
Consumer Spending Stalls, People Are Saving Their Money
By 8.3.10
When consumer spending stalls it’s bad for the economy — but on the other hand it seems that people are saving money and paying down debt. [More]
Strip Clubs Banned From Advertising Jobs At UK Employment Offices
By 8.2.10
Times are tough everywhere. Which means desperate people will consider taking jobs, like stripping or performing nude on a web cam, they wouldn’t otherwise have considered. But the government in the UK doesn’t want to encourage its citizens to find these types of sexy jobs and has banned a certain class of employers from advertising at tax-funded employment offices. [More]
Congress OKs Unemployment Extension
By 7.22.10
The bill to extend and restore unemployment benefits to out of work Americans now only has to make its way to the White House after Congress passed the legislation by a vote of 272 to 152. [More]
It's A Buyer's Market For Burial Plots
By 7.22.10
Sure, it’s maybe a bit morbid to think about buying your cemetery plot now, when you’re so young and healthy and, you know, breathing. But burial expenses are, well, expensive; that’s why you see all those ads for “life insurance” advertised to old people on daytime TV. So if you’re looking now to save a bit of cash for you or your loved ones’ eternal resting places, you might want to consider snapping up your patch of ground now. [More]
Should College Students In Dorms Have To Buy Their Own Toilet Paper?
By 7.21.10
Often, one of the perks of living in a dorm at college is the housekeeping, which dumps the trash, hoses down the bathroom and refills depleted toilet paper rolls in the stalls. But at Texas A&M, students in dorms may soon be responsible for having to supply their own TP. [More]
Obama Signs Off On Financial Reform Bill
By 7.21.10
After months of debate and compromises that left some members of both parties less than thrilled, President Obama signed the financial reform bill into law this morning, which means that all problems with all banking is fixed forever… right? [More]
Senate Votes To End Stalemate On Extending Unemployment Benefits
By 7.20.10
The bill that will restore and extend unemployment benefits to millions of out of work Americans just got one step closer to reality this afternoon, with the Senate voting 60-40 to end the stalemate that had logjammed the legislation from being voted on. [More]
1.6 Million Homes Hit With Foreclosure Notices In First Half Of 2010
By 7.15.10
If you received a foreclosure notice this year, you’re not alone. According to tracking firm RealtyTrac, 1.6 million properties received a foreclosure filing — defined as default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — during the first half of 2010. The good news: that number is down 5% from the previous six months. The bad? It’s up 8% from the first half of last year. And RealtyTrac doesn’t see any relief coming, as a “massive number of distressed properties and underwater loans continues to sit just below the surface.” [More]
"I Bought It From Yahweh" Is Not A Good Defense For Squatting In Foreclosed House
By 7.15.10
Here’s a tip to anyone looking to squat in a foreclosed home — People probably won’t believe you if you tell them you purchased the property from Yahweh (aka God, aka Big Man in the Sky). It’s a lesson a Montana man learned this week after being convicted of not only illegally living in a home that wasn’t his, but also trying to use it as collateral for a loan. [More]
Rich People: More Likely To Default On Mortgages Than You Are
By 7.12.10
Are you a fancy person? Then you have a 1 in 7 chance of defaulting on your mortgage, says a new study of data compiled for the New York Times. Those of you with mortgages of less than a million dollars only have a 1 in 12 chance of defaulting, the paper says. [More]
Find This Woman A Job, Get $1,000
By 7.7.10
Know someone who’s hiring? It might be worth $1,000 to you. An unemployed woman in Texas is going to new lengths, offering the cash as a reward for finding her a steady job. [More]
Economy Too Crappy For Lots Of Lilith Fair Shows
By 7.6.10
EW.com says that Lilith Fair has had to cancel 10 dates: Salt Lake City, Montreal, Raleigh, Charlotte, West Palm Beach, Tampa, Birmingham, Austin, Houston, and Dallas due to bad ticket sales, low attendance, and occasional lack of Kelly Clarkson and Norah Jones. [More]
Men Behind AIG Collapse Prove Why They're The Biggest A-Holes On The Planet
By 6.30.10
Back in 2007, we were all living in our 8-bedroom homes paid for with adjustable rate mortgages. And AIG’s Financial Products unit was selling credit-default swaps like there was no tomorrow. Then we all woke up in our parents’ basements with no job and AIG was owned by the taxpayers. But Joseph Cassano, the former head of said Financial Products division, thinks he could have done a better job of bailing out the banking industry he helped lead to ruin. [More]
Are We Entering The Third Depression?
By 6.28.10
Paul Krugman, economist and NYT columnist thinks so, and suggests that now is not the time to radically cut back in spending. He says that recent speeches coming out of Europe seem to be taken from the Hoover playbook, and he’s worried. [More]
