The Atlantic has a good piece in its current issue called The Quiet Coup: How bankers took power, and how theyre impeding recovery , written by a former IMF official named Simon Johnson. He describes the U.S. as potentially an emerging banana republic, saying, [E]lite business interestsfinanciers, in the case of the U.S.played a central role in creating the crisis, making ever-larger gamb…

Read the whole article

In the two years since the real estate bubble burst and sent the broader economy into recession, local construction jobs are disappearing at a faster rate than any other local job sector – surpassing manufacturing as the region’s most rapid job loser.

Read the whole article

Exxon Mobil Corp. unseated Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in the 2009 Fortune 500 list, shrugging off the oil price bubble and weathering what the magazine called the worst year ever for the country’s largest publicly traded companies.

Read the whole article

developer has been chosen for the new Honeywell weapons plant in south Kansas City, capping a lengthy struggle to keep its 2,100 well-paid jobs in the area.A venture between Zimmer Real Estate Services of Kansas City and CenterPoint of Oak Brook, Ill., will develop the $500 million project, the federal General Services Administration is announcing today.Work sho…

Read the whole article

Frankly, wed sort of forgotten about the IPO litigation; the last time it crossed our radar screen was back in October , when word leaked of a possible settlement between a handful of banks and investors whod bet big and largely lost on several big technology IPOs about a decade ago.

developer has been chosen for the new Honeywell weapons plant in south Kansas City, capping a lengthy struggle to keep its 2,100 well-paid jobs in the area.A venture between Zimmer Real Estate Services of Kansas City and CenterPoint of Oak Brook, Ill., will develop the $500 million project, the federal General Services Administration is announcing today.Work sho…

Read the whole article

Until the commodity bubble burst last year, rising food prices were becoming a significant problem. It led to rioting in Indonesia, Senegal, Egypt and the Philippines as the cost of staples such as wheat and corn rose steeply.

Read the whole article

Those who oppose interest rate cuts seem to base their arguments on one of three ideas. First, rate cuts won’t work. Second, rate cuts will simply reignite earlier housing or stock market bubbles. Third, borrowers simply don’t deserve rate cuts. Some people seem to believe in all three of these ideas, an approach which, to my mind, is nonsensical.

Read the whole article

Cost-Conscious Companies Turn to Open-Source Software As the recession puts pressure on tech spending, many companies are turning to open-source software to handle more IT tasks

* EDITORIAL – Financial press: Obama tries to build confidence in his costly moves (Susan Mannella, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

President Barack Obama’s televised press conference Tuesday was an attempt to convince the public that his economic restoration program is well-conceived, working and worth supporting.

* QUESTOR: Plant Health has wilted but hold on for the sunshine (Garry White, Telegraph)

Until the commodity bubble burst last year, rising food prices were becoming a significant problem. It led to rioting in Indonesia, Senegal, Egypt and the Philippines as the cost of staples such as wheat and corn rose steeply.

While we all wait for better times, lets review some more of the lessons you should take away from this once-in-a-generation upheaval we call the Great Recession.