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Bank of America (BAC) has made headlines by announcing layoffs of approximately 20 bankers in Asia, marking the first major downsizing move in 2024. The decision comes as China and Hong Kong markets continue to underperform, leading to a growing bearish sentiment among smart money players. This move sets the tone for potential shifts in the financial landscape as major institutions respond to market challenges. The economic landscape is painted with shades of concern as the Richmond Fed Survey reveals three consecutive declines. The performance post-lockdowns has experienced a downward trajectory since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC). This trend...

U.S.—In a disastrous turn of affairs for the push to get more people vaccinated, rates have plummeted after Jennifer Aniston and other celebrities say they won't communicate or hang out with people who aren't vaccinated. Aniston has vowed to block and cease all communication with the unvaccinated, making a very strong case for never getting the vaccine. Many say they would rather die of COVID than hear from celebrities. "So, if I don't get vaccinated, I never have to hear from Jennifer Aniston ever again? Say no more!" said one man, exiting the line to get the vaccine in front...

We are only just beginning to see what the economic fallout from coronavirus will be. And Wall Street economists are now throwing out some brutal forecasts for what economic data in the quarters ahead might hold. “We now guesstimate that second quarter GDP will drop at a 10% annualized rate, after a 2% fall in Q1,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, in a note to clients on Monday night. The gnarliest figures in Shepherdson’s forecast come from where he sees consumer spending heading during the next few months.

When airlines are cutting back on flights, when cruise lines are canceling cruises, when shipyard traffic drops significantly, when factories in China are down for a month or more, all in response to or in anticipation of coronavirus ripple effects -- there is going to be an economic downturn in the coming months. That’s pretty much a ‘duh’; how could there not be a downturn when all these factors are heading south at the same time? More specifically, there will be layoffs in affected industries, and the Fed acting to lower interest rates isn’t going to change that fact. The...

Even people who don't follow the stock market closely are aware that the global economy is weakening and appears to be heading into recession.For those who track the stock market, the signs are ominous: the U.S. was the last major market to notch gains this year and in October the U.S. market followed the rest of the global markets into an extended slide which has yet to end.Just as sobering, key sectors such as oil, banking and utilities have crashed with alarming ferocity, reaching oversold levels last seen in 2008 as the global financial system was melting down.These sectors...

As this is championship season in sports (yes, it’s always championship season for some sport), let’s begin our discussion with a sports analogy. Over the course of a game, we have seen our beloved Home team riddled with injuries. Our star players have been physically and emotionally clobbered, as the Visitors have used every tool at their disposal against us, regardless of the rule book. They tripped and tackled our starters, given us two broken legs and three broken arms, driving five of our best out of the game. Kicking our boys during time outs, shooting darts from dart guns,...

Apple has made its first attempt to quantify how many American jobs can be credited to the sale of its iPads and other products, a group that includes the Apple engineers who design the devices and the drivers who deliver them - even the people who build the trucks that get them there. On Friday, the company published the results of a study it commissioned saying that it had "created or supported" 514,000 US jobs. The study is an effort to show that Apple's benefit to the US job market goes far beyond the 47,000 people it directly employs here....

In the midst of the current economic downturn, there is one group that seems to be prospering: public employees. While the private sector is struggling to grow and create new jobs, federal government jobs are doing quite well. This week’s chart by Mercatus Center Scholar Veronique de Rugy shows the growing number of federal government employees. Using the latest data for annual government employment from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the chart shows that relentless growth in public sector employment largely overshadows private sector employment. In 2010, there were 22,482,000 government employees. That’s an increase of 1,692,000 employees since 2000....

In recent days, oil prices have climbed above $100 per barrel. As chaos spreads through the Arab world, we could soon see much worse. According to recent testimony given to Congress by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, the current soaring oil prices are no reason for concern. According to the stock market, which has dropped hundreds of points each time oil prices have edged up another dollar or two, the situation is a five-alarm emergency. Who is right?

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama outlined new multibillion-dollar stimulus and jobs proposals Tuesday, saying the nation must continue to "spend our way out of this recession" until more Americans are back at work. Without giving a price tag, Obama proposed a package of new spending for highway, bridge and other infrastructure projects, deeper tax breaks for small businesses and tax incentives to encourage people to make their homes more energy efficient.

The head of Britain's biggest bank has warned we could soon be heading into a second recession. Michael Geoghegan of HSBC said he had delayed expansion plans because he fears the upturn could be short lived. The chief executive said the economy could follow a W-shaped trajectory, with the rebound going into reverse and growth retreating into the red. 'Is this a V recovery or a W?' he said in an interview with the Financial Times. 'It's the latter.' Mr Geoghegan's words carry weight because of the global reach of his bank and its track record on identifying economic turning...

Workers in Alaska avoid chill of recession By Cameron Dueck in Tuktoyaktuk, Canada Published: September 3 2009 20:57 | Last updated: September 3 2009 20:57 A caribou stands in front of a refinery in Alaska’s North Slope, where unemployment is lower than elsewhere because of the surging oil industry First it was The Deadliest Catch, then The Ice Truckers and now even Jesse James is a Dead Man has ventured north. Americans cannot get enough reality television coverage of their hardworking Arctic neighbours. While the recession may mean those in the south have more time to watch TV, the Arctic...

In tough times, auto companies will cover your payment if you lose your job. Believe it or not, this is not a new sales tactic... NOTE: The author of this comic requests that you visit his web site and please refrain from copying the cartoon within this thread. Thank you!

Southern States Poach Businesses Amid Downturn By ANSLEY HAMAN When NCR Corp. started looking late last summer to move from its hometown of Dayton, Ohio, economic development agencies in the South pulled out all the stops in a bid to lure the 125-year-old company best known as a cash-register manufacturer. Georgia quickly offered more than $100 million in tax and training incentives. State officials connected NCR with six Georgia research universities willing to license new technologies and train workers. View Full Image Bloomberg News NCR and other companies are moving operations to the South. A Volkswagen plant is seen under...

Robert Shiller recently warned homeowners that it could be a long time before the housing market turned up again, noting that Japan's housing bust took place over 15 years. That seems hard to fathom here, especially considering everything the government's doing to re-inflate the market. But there are certainly similarities. This chart, via the Pragmatic Capitalist, overlays the 10 city Case-Shiller index with Japanese condo prices, when they had their boom. As you can see, the cycle has an eerily familiar look and feel.

Although there have been signs that the economy is improving, employers still appear to be focused on cost-cutting. Payroll firm ADP reported Wednesday that companies in the U.S. cut an estimated 532,000 workers from payrolls last month. ADP also revised higher its estimate of cuts in April to 545,000 from the previous estimate of 491,000.

Downturn bottomed out, Trichet signals By Chris Giles and Daniel Pimlott in London and Ralph Atkins in Frankfurt Published: May 11 2009 14:35 | Last updated: May 11 2009 20:36 Jean-Claude Trichet signalled on Monday that the global downturn had bottomed out with some large economies already able to put the recession behind them and look forward to renewed growth. OECD composite leading indicatorsThe European Central Bank president’s comments on Monday in Basel, Switzerland, had added weight because he was speaking on behalf of the world’s leading central bankers, not just for the eurozone. His remarks came as the Organisation...

U.S. stock futures drop as DuPont, Merck cut view By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch Last update: 7:54 a.m. EDT April 21, 2009 LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stock futures on Tuesday dropped as blue chips DuPont, Merck and Caterpillar cut their 2009 profit or sales estimates in a largely bleak wave of earnings reports. After early gains, S&P 500 futures fell 6.3 points to 826.60 and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 7.5 points to 1,306.00. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 65 points. Worries over Bank of America's outlook and the banking sector more generally drove a retreat in U.S. stocks...

Federal budget worrywarts (myself included) have been fretting for years about the arrival of the Dread Fiscal Year 2017, when Social Security was projected to start becoming a drag on federal finances. Well, no need to worry about 2017 any more. Thanks to the worst economic downturn since the 1930s, the moment of reckoning is already almost here: According to both the budget proposed by the White House in February and projections issued by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in March, Social Security benefits ($659 billion, according to the CBO) will exceed payroll taxes ($653 billion) in fiscal 2009 for...

The recession has spread from Wall Street to Sesame Street. The home of Elmo and Oscar the Grouch announced on Wednesday that it would eliminate a fifth of its 355-strong workforce as market turmoil ate into its income and assets.