Lynn Parramore
Screwed: 5,500 at Lonmin
A daily review of the employment fallout around the country and the world.
Platinum producer Lonmin Plc will shed up to 5,500 full-time workers…Florida’s Seminole County schools face between 400 and 1,200 job cuts…Manitowoc will eliminate 400 jobs at Shady Grove plant…California’s Paramount Unified board of education will warn of about 225 layoffs…
Recession Briefing 2.25
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
Obama Assures Nation: ‘We Will Rebuild’ (NYT)
The Prez gives another command performance. President Obama urged the nation on Tuesday to see the economic crisis as reason to raise its ambitions, calling for expensive new efforts to address energy, health care and education even as he warned that government bailouts have not come to an end.
Dow: Triple-digit rally after rout (CNN Money)
Stocks bounced Tuesday, a day after falling to nearly 12-year lows, after comments from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke that downplayed bank takeover fears helped to spark a big rally. The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) gained 236 points, or 3.3%, its best day on a point basis in over a month. The Dow ended Tuesday’s session at the lowest point since May 7, 1997.
Redux: Barter is Back
Looking back at the Great Depression to see the path ahead.
If past crises are any indication, a cash shortage won’t stop the wheels of commerce.
During the1930s, people without money started trading goods and services as a way to keep themselves afloat. Workers exchanged labor for room and board. Students traded farm produce for tuition. Moonshiners, bless them, exchanged goods with just about everybody.
People with skills in high demand did especially well. Someone who could bake delicious bread or sew quality clothing could draw people from miles around to barter for their products. Eventually, people established more formalized barter groups like The Unemployed Citizens League, which had 200,000 members across the country at its peak…
Screwed: 20,000 at Royal Bank of Scotland
A daily review of the employment fallout around the country and the world.
Royal Bank of Scotland plans restructuring and job cuts that may affect up 20,000 workers across 60 countries…Boise-based Micron Technology Inc., maker of memory chips, plans to cut as many as 2,000 jobs…Layoff notices go to another 1,100 Boeing workers…Toronto-area steel distributor Russel Metals Inc. is shedding 500 jobs…
Recession Briefing 2.24
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
U.S. Is Pressed to Add Billions to Bailouts (NYT)
The government faced mounting pressure on Monday to put billions more in some of the nation’s biggest banks, two of the biggest automakers and the biggest insurance company, despite the billions it has already committed to rescuing them.
Man Living in Cave Hit by Recession (ABC)
That’s right. For nearly five years, Curt Sleeper and his family have lived in a cave. His mortgage is about to come due and he can’t refinance. So now, the 17,000-square-foot, subterranean home is being auctioned off on eBay.
Layoffs on the Menu
It used to be that if you were out of work, you could always wait tables. Freelancers, actors, and recent college grads have long relied on this economic truism as a hedge against hard times. But a Saturday piece in The Orlando Sentinel that caught our eye suggests that the times are a-changin. Sandra Pedicini’s “Slump takes toll; servers lose jobs as restaurants cut back” chronicles the woes of restaurant staff as tips dwindle and layoffs pile up faster than food orders. Waitstaff at the acclaimed Manuel’s on the 28th at the Bank of America Center’s top floor once held some of the most enviable jobs in town. Last week, these servers joined the ranks of the 91,700 restaurant, bar and food-service workers across the country who have found themselves jobless in the last six months…
Screwed: 700 at JP Morgan Chase
A daily review of the employment fallout around the country and the world.
JP Morgan Chase to close credit card service center, 700 jobs lost…Vodafone said to plan hundreds of job cuts at U.K. division…Lagardere Active to layoff 250 workers..China’s Founder Tech axes 200 jobs…
Recession Briefing 2.23
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
A Dose of Deference and Earnest Showbiz (NY Times)
Jackman channels Depression-era glamour at the Oscars. He sang, he danced, he sat on Frank Langella’s lap and he also presented the 81st annual Academy Awards. Hugh Jackman was a shrewd, even thrifty choice for a recession-era Oscar night — the hosting equivalent of a value meal.
Disagreements About Stimulus Embroil G.O.P. (NY Times)
Republican governors split sharply during the weekend over how to respond to the economic crisis, a debate whose outcome will go a long way toward shaping how the national party redefines itself in the wake of its election defeats of recent years.
Mickey Rourke, Avatar of Excess. Or Angel of Redemption?
Through the extraordinary arc of his career, Mickey Rourke has personified our obsessions, our excesses, and now, finally, the possibility of our redemption.
Way back in the mid-eighties, in 91/2 Weeks, he cast his knowing gaze on Kim Basinger, playing an arty type who works for peanuts in a SoHo gallery. New York City is grey and gritty, filled with predatory squeegee men and homeless bodies that the resigned masses hopscotch over on their morning commute…
Traveling Tight: Hedge Your Health
Tough economic times may tempt you to dispense with insurance when you plan your getaway. Please resist! The quickest way to compromise your bank account, not to mention your sanity, is to start thinking of insurance as a luxury.
The main travel insurance plans available are trip insurance and travel medical.
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