What do you do when you when don’t make enough money to cover your monthly expenses. You use your credit card. You also us it for that nice 46 inch TV, but we’re not judging. Well as most people are aware, American has had a 20+ year love affair with there credit cards.

Every bank [...]

As the size of the nation’s debt grows to levels never seen before, Wall Street is starting to sound the alarms, saying that we need to keep the debt growth in check, or suffer a longer recession. Private firm will not be able to compete with the government in spending, washing away their ability to [...]

The FDIC will take another hit this week, in the tune of $700 million caused by the collapse of 4 regional banks bringing the annual total failure to 29.
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“Banks in a bind: The recession has left regional banks reeling, with cash-crunched consumers struggling to pay off their loans.”
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The number of banks which have failed in [...]

The recession has hit even the fable German car makers, as BMW, maker of sports and luxury cars saw a loss in the fourth quarter of 2008, and Volkswagen predicted a decline in profit this year.
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“BMW said in a preliminary statement that it had suffered from write-downs related to the reduced value of leased cars [...]

Looks like the economist have official told us what we all new. Great Britain is in recession, and it’s the worst one since the 1980’s
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With the collapse of the mortgage market in October, international government attempted to fight off recession by pouring money into financial institution through bailouts. However as the months have gone by, [...]

Alcoa announced today that earlier cost-cutting changes weren’t enough due to the economic downturn.  They will make more work-force cuts, close plants, and reduce capital expenditures by 50%.
The layoffs will affect 14.5% of the current employees and contractors totaling 15,000 fewer positions. �
Aluminum, Alcoa’s main business, prices have dropped significantly since earlier in 2008, when growing [...]

CNN hosted Peter Schiff again, during the interview Peter says what he thinks about the bailouts.
He’ saying that people need to work for the money, and we have to work hard.  A “bailout”  won’t fix everything.
Peter Schiff was made famos for predicting the recession on August 28, 2006.  You can see that famous prediction in [...]

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the official source in determination of a recession, the US has been in a recession since December 2007. �
The NBER site is currently running very slow (guess why?) but CNN Money has an article quickly covering the announcement. �
Isn’t it nice to know this after the fact? [...]

CNN has an article, a letter really, The ‘Great Crash’ in the history books.  The author writes to his children (in the future) about what was going through his mind in and around this crash we are experiencing.
It is very well put together, and a recommended read.  Nothing new, just a sobering look at our [...]

“Japan, the world’s second-largest economy, has officially slipped into recession, hurt by weak export growth and steep cuts in corporate spending amid the worsening global slowdown.”
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Breakdown:  

GDP (Gross domestic product) shrank at an annual rate of 0.4% from July to September

Declining was 3.7 percent in the previous quarter

First time since 2001 that Japan’s economy contracted [...]

Bloomberg.com reports Citigroup’s Pandit to Reduce Headcount by 50,000, Cut Expenses.
After many other job cut announcements, Fidelity cuts 1300 jobs (and many more job cuts), here comes a big one.  Citigroup announces that it will reduce expenses by 20 percent, and cut 14% of its workforce. �
Citigroup (NYSE:C 9.52 on 11/17/2008) is helping the rest of [...]

As the United State is heading into recession sales data shows a decline of 2.8% in October from September with a 4.1% decline form October 2007. Consumers are faced with plunging stocks, rising unemployment and general concern about the state of the economy.
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The decline in October is the fourth consecutive monthly drop this year [...]

Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX 9.40 on 11/12/2008) has reported total earnings of $5.4m.  That is generated from 16226 outlets worldwide.
In real numbers, that is $332.80 generated in the last 3 months, on average, at a store. �
Suddenly going and spending $6 to fill up on sugar and caffeine isn’t so appetizing.  Times aren’t as great, and we don’t [...]

A great post at The Market Ticker, What Jobs? analyzes the U6 — a broader term of unemployment.
The U6 chart analyzed in September by Felix Salmon, at Market Movers, it was scary back then.  Now, it is worse.
According to the article, the U6 analyzes unemployment with a more realistic view of the impact the economy [...]

In another move that should scare even the most optimistic economist (is that an oxymoron?), Fidelity will cut nearly 1300 jobs this month (as reported by CNN Money, Fidelity to cut nearly 1,300 jobs).
According to the article, a second round of layoffs is planned for the first 3 months of 2009. �
With all of these [...]