Posts under ‘AUSTERITY’

Companies nationwide have announced mandatory furloughs for their employees as a way to cut costs without cutting jobs. Now the folks over at Gannett Media are taking this concept to fun new heights with the debut of the “furcation” — vacation time during your furlough. Gannett staffers — who were notified of compulsory one-week/non-paid furloughs [...]

Although oil may be creeping back to the $90/barrel mark, it turns out that blood is actually a far more precious commodity. According to a story in the new issue of Fortune, when measured per liter, blood plasma is far more valuable than oil — coming in at a whopping $20 per liter, compared a [...]

A Brooklyn luxury condo project that failed to sell is being turned into a homeless shelters. It appears as if the Brooklyn Economic Development Corp is shelling out $90/night to the building’s Israeli developers to house each homeless person and provide them with basic services and some counseling to help them get back on their [...]

Sorry Jackie O. — apparently you can be too rich (though too thin remains up for debate). A recent get-together in Paris by tax-enforcement honchos from 30 countries was held in order to find ways to crack down on tax evasion and avoidance by the uber-wealthy. The meeting was organized by the Organization for Economic [...]

Back when Transracial used to cover mens fashion and travel for the New York Post, cool-chic Faye Penn edited much of our prose.  Now Penn is the woman behind our new favorite website – Brokelyn.com Just in time for the recession, the site shows users how to maximize New York’s most character-filled borrough on a [...]

Great Exuma is one of the Bahamas’ most remote — and hence serene — islands, which is why it is particularly dependent on tourism, especially American tourism. But the downturn up north has slashed the cash of potential travelers forcing Great Exuma’s swanky Four Seasons resort to shut its doors in May 26th. With a [...]

The bad news machine continues to hum along at full throttle over in the desert emirate of Dubai. As we reported some two months back, Dubai is both suffering from a lack of liquidity and clamping down on media outlets trying to report on its economic crisis. Now it appears as if the government is [...]

Finally some good news for the hard-up: Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is now offering free Viagra (along with 70 other medications) for folks who have lost their jobs. To qualify, folks must have been laid-off in 2009 and have been prescribed a Pfizer medication for the previous three months. Pfizer hopes the generosity will help keep [...]