From the category archives:

Economy

The New Normal Is: Abnormal – It Won’t Last

Much has been made of the new catchphrase “The New Normal” which is becoming the phrase du jour for news outlets and talk shows. While the phrase was initially coined by PIMCO’s Mohamed El-Erian (or at least caught on after his statements on the economy), the press has taken it to a whole new level […]

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Why were the Risk-Averse so Heavily Invested in Stocks?

Akin to how our grandparents’ generation is known for their thrift and frugality from living through the Great Depression, our generation may very well be known for a similar sort of risk-aversion…a changed generation of humility and financial conservatism, after seeing the worst financial conditions and stock market deterioration in our lifetime (note: in our […]

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A WakeUp Call from Foreign Workers in a Flat World

There isn’t much to say about this video other than – Wow, Reality Sinking In. If you think the current economic downturn, the layoffs, the headlines are bad now, imagine what western economies may look like in 20 years when virtually any role can be outsourced to someone a world away who wants what you have […]

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Will Card-Check (Removal of Secret Ballot Union Votes) Kill US Business?

If you haven’t heard about the Card Check legislation working its way through Congress, you will soon. It is destined to be the biggest issue facing this country and pitting labor vs. business now that the financial crisis has reached critical mass. Card Check is the nickname for legislation to change the way workers unionize. […]

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US Workers Have the Worst Severance Packages

While not entirely surprising, I found this BusinessWeek article to be interesting in that it highlighted just how much US company severance packages lag behind our industrialized peers. Of the 8 countries in the comparison, in terms of weeks of severance per years worked, the US was last, at 1.78 vs. the following other country […]

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Lowest Mortgage Refinance Rate Comparison by the Readers!

After perusing the web for the best mortgage refinance deal out there, it’s evident that the rates, points and fees required by different lending outfits are all over the map. Even worse, in corresponding with some loan officers on a refinance that I’m considering, I’ve found the practices to be rather deceptive (didn’t we learn […]

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Layoffs: You May Be Next – Tips to Avoid, Prepare and React

What can you do to Prepare for or Mitigate a Layoff? While there are myriad advice pieces on this topic of avoiding a layoff or finding a new job quickly, many of them are useless or complete common sense. I’m sharing a few of the things I do to stay one step ahead of the […]

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A Government Mandated Layoff Freeze?

In yet another in a long line of silly ideas that may great sound bites, a prominent economist is calling for the Obama to plea with Fortune 500 companies to cease their layoff plans for months in an attempt to allow for the stimulus plan to take effect and to help in the recovery of the […]

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TARP Fund Irony: Credit Enables 20,000 Layoffs by Pfizer

In a perverse irony, the same TARP funds that were envisaged by our prudent leaders are now resulting in massive layoffs. While I’d like to say that correlation is not causation, consider the linear progression of events today, the same single day that over 70,000 job cuts were announced: As more details emerged from Pfizer’s […]

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