Recession: 5 weeks on the brink

5 weeks on the brink: Reliving the meltdown of '08

U.S. Economy Falling Years Behind Full Speed

"Americans addiction to money. Their addiction to debt. Have got them where they are.."

As the recession grinds on, more and more of the nation's means of production -- its workers, its factories, its retail outlets, its freight lines, its bank lending, even its new inventions -- are being mothballed.

The mathematics are daunting. The shortfall is running at more than $1 trillion in annual sales and other transactions.

Only once since the Great Depression has there been such a severe loss of output -- in the 1981-82 recession -- and after that downturn, it was seven years before the economy regained the lost production..

Source: http://finance.yahoo.com

Your job is safe here: "Good workers too hard to replace.."

Revenue may be down and the pressure to slash costs intense, but some companies say job cuts are not an option.

Companies that have avoided layoffs amid this recession are the exception, not the rule. Employers have cut 5.1 million jobs since the recession began, including 663,000 last month alone.

But some are looking to shave costs while keeping their work forces intact, so that when the economy does turn around, they'll be ready to ratchet up production again...

Source: http://biz.yahoo.com

Gloom deepens as 76,000 global jobs go

Corporate bellwethers in the US and Europe slashed more than 76,000 jobs from their payrolls to confront the deepening economic downturn, marking one of the most brutal days yet for workers on both sides of the Atlantic...

Read more gloom deepens...

Source: ft.com