Can Political Upheaval Protect You From Recession?

A couple of months ago, while working on a story about what the recession is called in other countries, I reached out to a Lebanese friend who working in Washington, D.C. Her response: There wasn’t a recession in Lebanon. Hmm, I thought. Something to look into.

Dr. Doom is ahead of me, as always. (Not to mentioned overhyped, but stay with me.) Nouriel Roubini has done a survey of countries that have been gliding through the downturn for Forbes.com. “All economies have been affected by the crisis, but a combination of policy responses and strong fundamentals has given some countries, especially some emerging market economies, a relative edge,” he says.

Strong fundamentals aren’t the whole story. In Lebanon’s case, for example, banking regulations kept a lid on subprime investments that the U.S. banks all went wild for. But there was also an upside to “domestic political uncertainty”—it helped keep the country’s economy relatively isolated…

You Say “Recession,” I Say “Spad”

In American English, we have a handful of words for the recession: downturn, slump, bust, economic collapse, financial crisis. We talk about “hard times” and “tough times.” Here at Recessionwire, we’ve used all those synonyms to death. So we decided to look beyond our borders at how our friends around the world refer to the recession. (And not so we can look smart at cocktail parties.) (Okay, maybe a little bit.) We think they sound best thrown randomly into the middle of an English sentence, using a thick, “authentic” accent…

When the Going Gets Tough, the French Sell Underwear

Charlott’ Lingerie, a French company that sells unmentionables door-to-door, is seeing the recession through rose-colored lace—uh, lenses. More women being laid off doesn’t mean less money for spending on frilly things, but a bigger pool of potential saleswomen.

That’s according to Eurosavant, an intelligent blog about the non-English-language press in Europe that summarized a recent series in Libération. The French newspaper explored how a number of companies are taking advantage of the downturn…

Screwed: 10,000 at BT

A daily review of the employment fallout around the country and the world.
BT, a British telecommunications company, plans to cut 10,000 jobs in another round of layoffs… Konkola Copper Mines, Zambia’s largest copper miner, has cut 1,300 jobs… North Carolina’s Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is laying off 534 employees, excluding classroom teachers… Oklahoma-based engine plant, Mercury Mercruiser, has laid off 135 employees in the past two weeks…