- A Sea of Unwanted Imports – NYTimes.com – And for the first time, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, and Nissan have each asked to lease space from the port for these orphan vehicles. They are turning dozens of acres of the nation’s second-largest container port into a parking lot, creating a vivid picture of a paralyzed auto business and an economy in peril.
- Hullabaloo: (Card) Check Please. – It looks that way. The economic crisis, particularly the Big 3 meltdown, is offering the right what they see as a new opportunity to break unions and destroy any advances workers might have expected under a progressive government. They may be temporarily in disarray politically, but the right never forgets their primary mission — protecting the wealthy. And they are very good at advancing that agenda whether in the majority or the minority. Under the Shock Doctrine, they have a perfect opportunity to end the union movement in America and they'll certainly do their best to take advantage of the moment.
- The End of Wall Street’s Boom – National Business News – Portfolio.com – I thought I was writing a period piece about the 1980s in America. Not for a moment did I suspect that the financial 1980s would last two full decades longer or that the difference in degree between Wall Street and ordinary life would swell into a difference in kind. I expected readers of the future to be outraged that back in 1986, the C.E.O. of Salomon Brothers, John Gutfreund, was paid $3.1 million; I expected them to gape in horror when I reported that one of our traders, Howie Rubin, had moved to Merrill Lynch, where he lost $250 million; I assumed they’d be shocked to learn that a Wall Street C.E.O. had only the vaguest idea of the risks his traders were running. What I didn’t expect was that any future reader would look on my experience and say, “How quaint.”
- Debt Man Walking – For decades, the United States has relied on a tortuous financial arrangement that knits together its economy with those of China and Japan. This informal system has allowed Asian countries to run huge export surpluses with the United States, while allowing the United States to run huge budget deficits without having to raise interest rates or taxes, and to run huge trade deficits without abruptly depreciating its currency.
- CPI Drops, Sparking Deflation Panic – CNBC a-twitter about horrors of deflation and comparisons to Great Depression, cries for massive government spending. Possible that we're headed for deflation, but also worth noting that the last deflation panic, in 2003, led to Alan Greenspan keeping rates too low for too long, creating the housing bubble.
- Get the Most Out of Your Performance Review | BNET1 | BNET – As 2008 comes to a close amid a flurry of dreadful economic news, you may be less than excited at the prospect of your upcoming performance review. But unless your company is one of the few listening to calls to drastically overhaul the whole review process, there’s no avoiding a sit down with your boss. How can you use the opportunity to maximize your chances of getting a healthy raise in 2009?
- Earthfiles.com Environment | Part 1: Morphing UFO Over Levittown, PA Drops Little Squares of Light – UFOs? Maybe like Zombies, there are additional reports when anxieties intensify?
- FRAMESHOP: Frameshop: Rust-Covered Car Execs? Kick ‘Em To The Curb – Just imagine the floodgates of possibility opening were such a Presidential Forum were to be held. All the innovative thinkers in the automotive industry would finally gather in one place, unfettered by the dismissive arrogance of the old school executives. It would be the most exciting departure point for American innovation in decades. It would also inject much needed optimism into a nation that knows it must embrace sustainable practice, but is not quite sure what that would look like.
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