Economic Crisis

Nearly Half Of New York City Lives In Or Near Poverty

Who said the recession was over? Coming off the news that New York City's homelessness population is at Great Depression levels, the Bloomberg administration released a report this weekend that nails that whole neo-Gilded-Age income disparity point in just a little bit deeper. In 2011, the populati ... More >>

Bank of America Slammed With Federal Lawsuit For "Doing the [Mortgage Fraud] Hustle"

In more long-awaited fallout from the mortgage crisis, Federal prosecutors today sued the Bank of America and Countrywide Financial for a scheme to defraud the government via a program called "The Hustle." Yes, they called it "The Hustle." Its purpose: allegedly to process home loans at high speed ... More >>

NYAG Eric Schniederman Announces First Fraud Task Force Target: J.P. Morgan Chase

Last January, President Obama announced in his State of the Union Address that a joint effort between state and federal authorities would aim to bring Wall Street's ass to court for civil fraud violations. Although the frustrated liberal base wanted jail time for the 2008 financial crisis, this lega ... More >>

Brother, Can You Spare a Dollar

Drinking With Rich People As The Recession Lifts

Hanging with the upper crust as the recession finally lifts

Drinking With Rich People As The Recession Lifts

Check out my hilarious new column about my week spent toasting wealthy folk who never even knew the recession hit, and who've been carrying on in a madcap manner like there's no yesterday. From a "Le Cercle Rive Droite de Grands Vins de Bordeaux" tasting with Countess LuAnn de Lesseps, Bonnie Fulle ... More >>

Putting A Face On Americans One Step Away From Foreclosures

Foreclosures rates are rising--and will continue to rise--across the US, and for the past few weeks, The Voice has been visiting homes that are about to, or have been, sold at foreclosure auctions, in an effort to put a face on the crisis and allow them to tell their story. A recent project by New ... More >>

Harvard Crimson OWS Editorial: Leave Poor Goldman Sachs Alone

Protesters from Occupy Harvard (it exists) tried to disrupt a Goldman Sachs recruiting event on campus. Not particularly unusual or surprising for an Occupy-related group, right? Not so fast. The Harvard Crimson is not impressed, as made clear in a staff editorial in today's issue. It reads in pa ... More >>

The East Village Comes in Third for the Most Chain Stores in New York City

Not a chain.​New Yorkers (most of them, it seems) profess a grand dislike of chain stores, especially when they have to wait in line to get their overpriced lattes from Starbucks! The good news for such people is this: According to the Center for an Urban Future's annual survey on chain stores ... More >>

Today in El Diario: Suicides Up When the Economy Tanks

​Broke people tend to kill themselves Suicides go up considerably during recessions, according to El Diario, the Spanish-language daily. The data, from a report published Thursday, also notes that fewer people kill themselves during economic booms. A Centers for Disease control report indic ... More >>

Economists Pronounce the Great Recession Over; Everyone Too Poor to Celebrate

​You may not have heard (maybe you've been too busy holed up counting all of your money...or, maybe, looking for a job?) but: The Recession Is Over. Like, more than a year ago over! According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, a group which has the dubious honor of pronouncing the st ... More >>

At Least the Recession Has Made People Think Twice About Reproducing All Willy-Nilly

​Hey, a benefit (we think) to this whole crappy mess of a Great Recession and jobless recovery: Maybe people are being convinced to let up on the kid-having, a little. Not that we mind the stroller set; we simply mind being surrounded and held captive and questioned by the stroller set about o ... More >>

Dr. Doom ("Nouriel Roubini"): 40% Chance of "Renewed Recession" for American Economy Is

​Nouriel Roubini -- who's basically living like a rap star after screaming about how utterly fucked the American economy was before it happened, watching it happen, and telling everyone how he told them so -- just made a headline tonight when he put the chances of a "renewed recession" for Ame ... More >>

It's Not You, It's the Recession

​New numbers out from Pew Research give us a handy excuse for whatever ills have befallen us over the past 30 months since the "Great Recession" began. If you were unemployed, took a pay cut, had your hours reduced, or involuntarily took to working part-time, you're in good -- or, at least, a ... More >>

In Dark Economic Times, Spam Flourishes

arndog/flickrForget pork belly... Crack open a can of Spam.​One man's recession is another man's golden age. Or, in this case, another company's. Forbes names five corporate entities that are thriving despite last year's economic downturn, one of which is Hormel Foods, maker of Spam.

On the Jobless Front in NYC: Now You Can See How Poorly Your Own Neighborhood is Doing

One Depression-era approach to dealing with the unemployed.Those of you who insist on leavening your holiday happiness with doses of grim reality can now check out a new neighborhood-by-neighborhood breakdown of unemployment in New York City, courtesy of the Fiscal Policy Institute. The FPI clai ... More >>

The Great Recession in Need of a Bailout

We've Bailed out the Banks. When Do We Go After the Crooks Behind our Financial Collapse?

Fannie Mae Auction of Screwed S. Bronxites' Apartments Cancelled

Foreclosed apartments in 19 South Bronx buildings that were going to be sold off in an online auction next week were saved today. The city announced that Fannie Mae canceled the auction. Financed by Deutshe Bank, the Ocelot Capital Group -- a real estate firm that was started by wealthy Wall Stree ... More >>

MOOD SWINGS

Next to Normal now on Broadway

Report Shows What Actual Liberals Think of Obama's Plan

People are talking about (and, from what the polls say, generally approving of) Obama's Tuesday night speech. Conservatives think the President's program is just a liberal wish list. But is it? A real liberal think tank, the Drum Major Institute, has gone through Obama's program, from stimuli to ba ... More >>

As Economy Tanks, Rightbloggers Say Obama is Just Trying to Scare Us

Job losses are accelerating. Big companies on both sides of the Atlantic -- including carmakers who are not part of the Big Three, and insurers -- are posting big losses. Banks are closing. Etc. All this you know. To stop the bleeding, President Obama last week pushed hard for a giant stimulus p ... More >>

Nissan crashes; hedge funds lick chops; incoming Israel govt. may take 'harder line'

Harkavy Plans are moving apace to purposely set up a "toxic bank" full of poisonous assets to further bail out those banks that had greedily and recklessly accumulated them. Call it Shitibank. And give it the naming rights to the new baseball stadium for the New York Mets, taking the moniker awa ... More >>

What Cooked the World's Economy?

It wasn't your overdue mortgage.

Recession's Mostly In Your Head, Says Columnist

Lousy Economy Good News for Economics Teachers

Daily Flog: For the recession, some remedial English lessons

Henry Paulson ends bailouts, saying, 'Mission accomplished!'

Most Extreme Recession Special Ever

Happy Anniversary, Black Tuesday! You're 79 and still kicking!

Daily Flog: Saudia Arabia bails out homeowners while we still haven't

Daily Flog: It's so bad that capitalists plan to help proles

When Wall Street Coughs, Business Schools Scramble

How educators are dealing with the crash of '08

Release the news hounds!

Daily Flog: Future heads toward a sharp loss; robot monkeys mesmerized by TV

Daily Flog: California, here we go; crisis also sweeps through Asia

Daily Flog: Fuld shares his unbelievable pain with Congress

We Save Wall Street!

Daily Flog: Wall Street's little piggies don't want to go mark-to-market; meanwhile, more huffing and puffing

Anthony Weiner: GOP Got It "Off Their Chest," Will Deal on Bailout

Bush Bailout? Rightbloggers Say OK -- Fight Hackers, Sandra Bernhard Instead!

Mayor On MTP: Taxes to Preserve Our "Future"

Daily Blog: Shock and awe; you just lost at Monopoly; Al Jazeera talks to a Jewish banker

Daily Flog: Wall Street's broken brokers go for broke; McCain's lie is buried by meltdown news

Daily Flog: Bailing out the planet's investors; a swift boot to Olbermann

Andrew Cuomo and Fannie and Freddie

How the youngest Housing and Urban Development secretary in history gave birth to the mortgage crisis

Manhattan DA: Sub-prime Double Standard is 'Un-American'

The State Of the Union Ignores the State of Sub-prime

"Frosty the Goldman" and Other Odes to Subprime Profiteers