The National Bureau of Economic Research said today that our economy bottomed out in the June of last year. The 9.6 percent of Americans who are unemployed, the average household whose wealth dropped 2.8 percent in the second quarter and the 3.8 million who fell into poverty in 2009 could be forgiven Read More
Tales of The RecessionOld People
Just a few weeks ago, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco was saying that enhanced immigration would result in boosted productivity, enhanced investment and general economic awesomeness. Today, the West-Coast central bankers are hanging their hats on the rehiring of people who’ve left the workforce as the recession deepened. To wit: Teenagers Read More
Thanks to increased public scrutiny in the era of bailouts, SEC investigations and other forms of government inquiry, newcomers to Wall Street’s top firms aren’t getting the classy treatment they used to, according to this Businessweek trend piece on the death of “sell night.”
On sell nights of yore, investment banks would wine and Read More
Americans felt slightly better about the economy in August than they did in July. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index rose to 53.5 for August from a revised July figure of 51. Per Briefing.com, analysts had expected the index to ring in at 50.5.
Despite the incremental improvement, the index is still far below Read More
New York, superior to the nation as a whole in nearly all respects, can add one more category in which it dominates: The Great Recession hurts in the Empire City, but New Yorkers are far less scarred by our nation’s economic woes than the average American.
Thanks to real estate prices that have failed to fall apace Read More
A stagnant economy may rank right up there with bad breath, ugly shoes and emotional neediness among the things that prevent people from reproducing. According to a Centers for Disease Control study reported by the Associated Press, the number of births shrank 2.7 percent in 2009, despite an increase in the population.
The CDC contemplated the idea that the Read More
City Comptroller John Liu will be handing out over $750,000 in raises to employees at the Comptroller’s office, according to an email sent out to office employees.
His office stressed that the salary bump-ups will go to staffers in the Comptroller’s office who predate Liu’s term, which began on January 1 of this year, and Read More
