economic downturn

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Drivers Learning to Love Older Cars

Maintenance cheaper than payment for newer models, consumers find

(Newser) - Thanks to the ongoing recession, drivers accustomed to trading in their vehicles often are warming to the idea of a longer covenant with their cars, the Wall Street Journal reports. While the concept might puzzle the less well-heeled, “the 3-year ownership mentality has crumbled,” one insider said. And...

In Tough Times, America Relearns Thrift

(Newser) - Staring down a recession, Americans are turning tail and running to their nearest shoe repair shop, reports the Christian Science Monitor, in a look at the reversal of the United States' "throwaway" society. Thrift stores and repair shops are doing brisk business while their retail counterparts languish, or...

Recession Takes Bite Out of CES Buzz

Attendance down at Las Vegas electronics expo

(Newser) - Whether or not the gadgets make a splash, this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas is certainly a low-voltage affair, Reuters reports. The sputtering economy has slashed turnout at the expo, which in years past hosted “so many people it’s hard to walk around.” And tech...

Cash-Strapped Calif. May Shorten School Year

(Newser) - Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting a week out of the public school calendar, the latest desperate measure in California's struggle with a $41 billion budget shortfall. The Governator says the $1.1 billion savings will ward off other cuts to education, which makes up 40% of the state budget. Schools...

Print Times Not Quite Dead, But Hope Lies in Its Ashes

Journalism faces a challenge, but hardly a disaster

(Newser) - We know it’s coming, that day when print newspapers cease to exist, but it won’t be this year, right? Maybe, maybe not, Michael Hirschorn writes in the Atlantic, and it wouldn’t necessarily be a disaster. The New York Times is in trouble—it could default on $400...

Calif. Budget Gap Could Mean IOUs, Not Tax Refunds

Facing $42B deficit, Schwarzenegger, state Dems continue to wrangle

(Newser) - Faced with a mounting budget gap and failed negotiations toward a solution, California may have to send out promissory notes to taxpayers owed refunds and local governments, the Los Angeles Times reports. Talks between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democratic legislature foundered yesterday; lawmakers sent the governor a disputed package...

Aluminum Giant Alcoa to Lay Off 13,500

Pittsburgh company slashes 13% of its work force

(Newser) - Alcoa, the world's third-largest aluminum maker, said today it will cut 13,500 jobs—13% of its work force—and slash spending and output to cope with the global economic slowdown. The reductions expand on cost-cutting measures announced in October, when the Pittsburgh-based company reported a 52% decline in third-quarter...

Fed Sees Recession Lingering Through '09

(Newser) - The Federal Reserve anticipates the recession will continue through 2009 despite its recent rate slash and other planned “nontraditional policies,” the Wall Street Journal reports. Minutes of the Fed's December 15-16 meeting, at which it cut rates to nearly zero, indicate a deep pessimism about the economy. Officials...

Billionaire Merckle Kills Self
 Billionaire Merckle Kills Self 
Jan 6, 2009 1:31 PM CST

Billionaire Merckle Kills Self

(Newser) - German businessman Adolf Merckle, 74, killed himself yesterday in the face of mounting debt and a crumbling multibillion dollar empire, Bloomberg reports. Merckle’s personal fortune of $9.2 billion put him 94th on Forbes' list of the world’s richest people, but his holding company, which owned stake in...

In Rare Move, Toyota to Suspend Production in Japan

11-day break amid shrinking demand is first since 1993

(Newser) - Toyota is suspending production at all 12 of its Japanese plants for 11 days over February and March, a stoppage of unprecedented scale for the nation's top automaker as it grapples with shrinking global demand. The last time it halted production at all its Japanese plants was in August 1993,...

Tough Times Force Gen Y to Buckle Down
 Tough Times Force 
 Gen Y to Buckle Down 
Glossies
Jan 5, 2009 8:05 PM CST

Tough Times Force Gen Y to Buckle Down

Young talent may have to stay put, but Managers need to keep them engaged

(Newser) - They're just out of school, but Millennials—the Gen Y techies who expect jobs-a-plenty and accommodating bosses—are hitting career walls in a plunging economy, the Economist reports. These Internet-savvy job-hoppers are cringing as managers get tough and autonomy withers. “The recession is creating lower turnover, but also higher...

Help Wanted: Must Make Coffee, Change World

(Newser) - Coffee is pretty serious stuff in Portland, Oregon, but a relatively new shop on the block is taking the preparation of caffeinated beverages to a rarified extreme, the New York Times reports. The Ladybug Organic Coffee Company requires applicants for barista positions to fill out a five-page application, complete with...

Strapped? Sell Your Gold—at the Mall

(Newser) - Up and down the East coast, cash-strapped shoppers are trading in gold and silver, not at pawn shops, but at the mall, the Boston Globe reports. Merchants at kiosks buy the precious metals for less than half of market value, but customers are still pouring in. “It's certainly something...

Recession Shreds Publishing Industry; Is Literature Next?

Until outfits learn to cope with digital challenges, it'll be a tough go for writers

(Newser) - The publishing industry has been battered in the past month, as large houses hemorrhage editors and consolidate divisions, leading some to wonder if literary publishing will ever be the same, Jason Boog writes on Salon. The list of ills is long: too-high advances paid to a dwindling number of sure...

Shoppers Turn to Funny, Useful Gifts

Boots, joke books, comfort clothes score big in recession

(Newser) - Christmas shoppers are thinking small this year, and the gifts they're buying reveal how Americans are coping with recession, USA Today reports. Here's a list of today's trends:
  • Practical: Nearly half of the most popular items searched for online were boots, according to one mall inventory service. Gifts that help
...

Invest in Gardens, Where Yields Make Wall St. Blush

25-to-1 return includes benefits 'that, literally, money can’t buy,' seed-seller says

(Newser) - With the economic outlook darkening, there’s still one good investment that will help you weather the downturn, George Ball writes in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: a garden. The “astonishing garden-grown return on investment is not modern-day speculative sleight-of-hand, but real, tangible and fungible,” the chairman of the Burpee...

Economy Spells Weary Christmas for Toy Charities

Donations off as much as 30%, some say

(Newser) - Across the country, charities that dole out gifts to underprivileged kids have seen donations fall off steeply compared to last holiday season, USA Today reports. Some are reporting as much as a 30% decline in giving as the economy flags. “Families that would normally have been helping us by...

Cash-Poor Newspapers Decamp From Washington
Cash-Poor Newspapers Decamp From Washington
ANALYSIS
Dec 18, 2008 2:43 PM CST

Cash-Poor Newspapers Decamp From Washington

Cost of covering DC wins out over concerns about informing the public

(Newser) - US newspapers are shuttering their Washington bureaus—though hardly for lack of news, the New York Times reports. Consolidation and a steep fall-off in ad dollars have forced many to reevaluate their coverage in recent years, leading to a focus on local news and a reliance on agencies for coverage...

4 Financial Doomsday Scenarios
 4 Financial Doomsday Scenarios 
ANALYSIS
Dec 17, 2008 11:20 AM CST

4 Financial Doomsday Scenarios

(Newser) - James Rickards is far more pessimistic about the economic crisis and its global implications than most of his analyst colleagues, Politico reports. But he’s also well respected by US intelligence and defense services. Here are four of his nightmare scenarios.
  • Terrorism: Al-Qaeda has long sought to disrupt the US 
...

OPEC Slashes a Record 2.2M Barrels

(Newser) - OPEC has approved a cut in output of 2.2 million barrels of crude a day, the largest reduction ever, MSNBC reports. The consortium believes that stabilizing prices now by decreasing supply will guard against a price spike when consumer confidence increases. OPEC’s monthly report predicts that demand will...

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