Recession Briefing 2.4

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

Hilton Pledges Help To The Economy (SF Gate)
We’ll always have Paris. Ms. Hilton has promised to help the struggling global economy by doing what she does best: shopping.

UPS Q4 hit by tough economy; package volumes down (Reuters)
The economy is not down with brown. United Parcel Service Inc reported a reduced quarterly profit on Tuesday, forcing it to cut costs, including freezing some wages.

Read more…

Traveling Tight: Don’t Get Fleeced by Currency Conversion Fees

Money’s tight. So every penny counts when you’re on the road…

Psst. You may be incurring up to 3% in currency-conversion fees when you travel abroad every time you use your credit card. In recent years, banks have started piling fees right on top of the standard 1% fee that Visa and MasterCard charge for foreign purchases. Why? Because they think you’re too jet-lagged to notice.

Screwed: Up to 1,800 at Morgan Stanley

A daily review of the employment fallout around the country.

Morgan Stanley may lay off 3% to 4% of staff this month … Farm equipment maker Deere & Co. expands Iowa layoffs to 200 … more Hawker Beechcraft layoffs coming this week in Kansas … Macy’s went public with plans to cut 7,000 jobs including over 1,000 in San Francisco.

Read about layoffs at the sites compiled on our Layoff Tracker page.

Recession Briefing 2.3

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

Economy won’t stop the spring break party (USA Today)
Bring on the keg and break out the bikinis. It’s party time, and college students aren’t planning a staycation.

In Recession, Libraries Are Booming (CBS)
Libraries are becoming the hot spot for just about everyone. Funding is scarce, but applications for library cards are up and the unemployed are flocking to use resources for job-hunting.

More families move in together during housing crisis (USA Today)
Hey, Mom, I’m home! Love isn’t all that’s keeping family together today. The bruising housing market is, too.

5 Bubbles Waiting to Pop (Including My Apartment)

Welcome to the Bubblesphere, ’09. Remember the signs? Irrational exuberance. Excessive risk-taking. You’d think we’d learn our lesson, but it’s tricky to see a bubble until it pops. Nobody has a crystal ball, but there are indications that these five potential bubbles may soon deflate in dramatic fashion.

Screwed: 2,110 More at Caterpillar

A daily review of the employment fallout around the country.

Caterpillar will increase previous layoffs from 20,000 to 22,110 … Corning says it will cut 13% of the workforce through the end of 2009 … Mountain View legal team Fenwick & West laid off 36 staffers and plans to freeze associate salaries for a year.

Recession Briefing 2.2

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

Gametime in the NFL: Super Bowl or Recession Bowl? (AP)
The stadium was filled with fans, but they didn’t buy the T-shirt. Big bashes were cancelled, but that didn’t stop the Boss from rousing the crowd with a nostalgic rendition of “Glory Days.”

In a Sole Revival, the Recession Gives Beleaguered Cobblers New Traction (WSJ)
Shoe repair gets a new shine as frugal customers opt to fix footwear rather than buy new. The recession breathes life into a dying industry.

Paris’ haute couture designers snub recession (AP)
Récession? Quelle récession? French designers turn out rhinestrone-encrusted frocks and sumptuous spring garments. The credit crunch is not a creative crunch, sniffs Dior.

Redux: Will the Recession Spark a Music Revolution?

Little known fact: Many of America’s quintessential cultural elements – the hamburger, the hotdog, Hollywood, baseball, horse-racing and rock-and-roll, to name a few – can be traced to Great Depression. We’ve been shocked into recalling that financial markets feature cycles of contraction and expansion. But culture does, too. Oddly, these cycles appear to be inverted. When the market contracts, culture seems to expand. Innovators emerge, values shift, and tastes change. People begin to play outside the box.

The Book Reporter: Crash Proof

Peter D. Schiff deserves a gold medal, while most of us deserve a dunce cap. Schiff, an economic commentator and stockbroker, was once dubbed “Mr. Doom” and “Chicken Little” by the media for his dire warnings about the real estate bubble and the shaky state of the American economy.

Blago’s Guide to Getting Fired

Recessionwire salutes Blago for facing the firing squad with rare aplomb. After mounting a week-long PR campaign in which he teared up, praised himself, and flirted with the ladies on The View, he showed the Illinois legislature his middle finger by skipping his impeachment hearing.