Want to hedge against the downturn by investing in precious metals? In Germany, shoppers will soon be able to buy gold from vending machines . ( Daily Telegraph )
More than 40 communities across the country have canceled their Fourth of July fireworks , conceding that shooting off a colorful array of explosives is now a luxury that borders on wasteful. ( Washington Post )
Ca sh-strapped and unemployed New Yorkers are meeting job contacts on the fly, in nontraditional settings, outside of their professional networks . ( New York /Daily Intel )
The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance rose slightly last week , with the number filing ongoing claims fell for the first time since the start of the year. ( CNN/Money )
The recession has evidently created “a new breed of stay-at-home dads.” ( New York Press )
With the economy shrinking and more consumers defaulting on debts, credit card issuers are raising rates, cutting limits and slapping on new fees. ( Wall Street Journal )
“If you’re waiting on housing and finance to get us out of the mess they caused, then you better pull up a comfortable chair and a bag of popcorn, because it’s going to be a long wait,” writes Daniel Gross. ( Newsweek )
“So far, the collapse of the world economy since April 2008 has actually been worse than the rate of collapse in the Great Depression,” writes Henry Blodget. “The main difference between now and then is that most economists expect the world economy to recover more quickly than it did in the 1930s.” ( Huffington Post )
The recent wave of legal layoffs, rescinded job offers, and even bankruptcies has created the ugliest market for lawyers in more than a quarter century. ( New York Times /City Room )
President Barack Obama said yesterday that the recession struck largely because a post-Depression era business regulatory scheme couldn’t keep up with an increasingly global economy . ( Associated Press )
