Crash Survival Zone

by Martin D. Weiss

years ago, when Dad and I used to look at official data and analysis, we knew they were flawed. So we developed our own.

That’s how we figured out that the capital of savings and loans was grossly overstated and that thousands of S&Ls were headed for a massive bust.

…more…

Money & Markets

Families around the country are weathering out the recession by hunkering down with relatives and friends. It’s not just a lower-income phenomena either. The homeward bound are former white-collar and blue-collar workers who believe they might have a better chance finding work in their hometown because they know more people, who, in turn, know still [...]

Never before has America had so many compelling reasons to preserve the homes in its older residential neighborhoods. We need to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. We want to create jobs, and revitalize the neighborhoods where millions of Americans live. All of this could be accomplished by making older homes more energy-efficient.

Let’s begin with [...]

A measure of U.S. job prospects fell in March for a 14th straight month, indicating the labor market will deteriorate further, a private report showed.

The Conference Board’s Employment Trends Index last month decreased 2.3 percent to 90.1, the lowest since February 1994, from a revised 92.2 in February, the New York-based research group said today. [...]

Joseph Ramelo gave up searching for work in January to return to school, two months after he was laid off as a San Francisco election clerk. Antonio Poe is struggling to get by doing part-time landscaping in Greensboro, North Carolina, after losing his job as an electrician.

While such workers are feeling real pain from the [...]

Sixteen months into the recession, the job market continues to offer few signs of hope for U.S. workers.

Sectors that had held up through much of the downturn — such as the government — are now cutting jobs. Temporary employment, generally seen as a leading indicator of a turnaround, is declining sharply. Even people who still [...]

In our worsening recession, it’s important to adapt and to make yourself desirable to employers. You can take a class or find a mentor, or perhaps buff up your résumé. The unfortunate reality, however, is that many of your inherent traits make you grossly unattractive to employers. With that in mind, here’s a list of [...]

The economic downturn is hitting the legal world hard. American Lawyer is calling it “the fire this time” and warning that big firms may be hurtling toward “a paradigm-shifting, blood-in-the-suites” future. The Law Shucks blog has a “layoff tracker,” and it is grim reading. Top firms are rapidly thinning their ranks, and several — including [...]

The American economy surrendered 663,000 more jobs in March as the unemployment rate surged to 8.5 percent, its highest level since 1983, the government reported Friday.

The latest snapshot of accelerating decline in the national job market lifted to 5.1 million the number of jobs lost since the recession began in December 2007. More than two [...]

With slow sales and tight credit, many small businesses are caught in a death spiral that contributes to the hemorrhaging job market.

Employment at small businesses with 500 or fewer employees decreased by 614,000 positions in March, marking one of the sharpest drops yet in 14 consecutive months of declines, according to an employment report released [...]