Crash Survival Zone

The very real need to address the nation’s immediate economic crisis has drowned out meaningful debate on how to address the much more serious long-term fiscal challenges the nation faced before the collapse of housing, credit and stock markets. Because of the economic crisis and the splurge in federal spending during the last year, the [...]

The current economic slump isn’t just squeezing people’s incomes. It’s also jolting the ways we think about money. Household budgets are tightening up everywhere as people scramble to save cash and guard against hard times. The frantic race to keep up with the Joneses has been put on hold. And as layoff notices and foreclosures [...]

Consumers are eating in, holding on to their cars longer and cutting back on entertainment. That means companies that make pasta, sell replacement auto parts and let you stay home and watch a movie (no babysitter needed) are benefiting. So are discount retailers. And with the economy mired in recession and likely to remain that [...]

By Albert R. Hunt

Used-car salesmen, lawyers and journalists can relax; they’ve been replaced as America’s favorite villains by corporate executives, or at least investment bankers.

Hailed only a short while ago as masters of the universe and princes of perpetual profits, they now are reviled.
Consider:

– Americans, no surprise, overwhelmingly oppose the huge bonuses that are paid [...]

In the Depression, smart college students flocked into civil engineering to design the highway, bridge and dam-building projects of those days. In the Sputnik era, students poured into the sciences as America bet on technology to combat the cold war Communist challenge. Yes, the jobs beckoned and the pay was good. But those careers, in [...]

As we slowly grind into the 20 month from which we can see the August 2007 stock market peak in the rearview mirror of our nearly bankrupt American automobile, the market is hesitant in which way it wants to move after the little bull market we are experiencing.  Yet the public has no doubts about [...]

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 [...]

What’s the last thing people want in a recession? More kids, apparently. According to data-tracking firm the Nielsen Co., dollar sales of products in the “family planning” category, which include condoms and over-the-counter female contraceptives, were up 10.2% for the first two months of this year. Unit sales were up 1.5%, which indicates that consumers [...]

The recession will have a lasting impact on the way people shop

“WANT IT!” screamed the words plastered on the walls, counters and shopping bags in the flagship emporium of Saks, a big American retailer, on Fifth Avenue in New York. The same exhortation was emblazoned in huge letters on a giant red and white ball [...]

Enclosed shopping centers, long the cathedrals of American consumerism, are closing their doors by the hundreds as the recession continues to clobber retail sales. Is America’s love affair with the mall over?

Are malls dying?

The vital signs are not good. Even before the recession hit, consumers had developed mall fatigue, and the classic enclosed shopping mall [...]