In the first quarter of this year the amount of people on the verge of losing their homes grew by 24 per cent, according to data released Thursday.

Yahoo! reported a collapse in its first-quarter profits by 78 per cent as advertisers reign in on spending amig the economic crisis. The search giant also stated it would cut its workforce by 700 or 5% of its workforce.

Caterpillar reported its first quarterly loss in 17 years on Tuesday, amid plunging sales and the cost of laying off thousands of workers.

Apples’s latest quarter earnings this week, revealead the loss of 1,600 full-time Apple Store employees.

Friday, Ford MOtor Co. reported a steep $1.4 Billion loss for this year’s first quarter, compared with a profit a year ago. The posted loss was “justified” by a decrease in sales and unfavourable foreign exchange in light of an “extremely difficult” business... Read More

General Motors announced Monday it will cut 21,000 jobs and phase out its Pontiac brand by 2010 as a part of a restructuring plan.

The U.S. economy has contracted 6.1 per cent in the first quarter as the U.S. Commerce Department’s latest report unveiled on Wednesday.

U.S. President Barack Obama announced that America’s third-largest automaker, Chrysler, will file for bankruptcy. The automaker will continue to operate and merge with Italian car maker Fiat.

The credit card giant MasterCard Incorporated (MA) announced Friday that its first quarter profits fell 18 per cent on a year on year basis, but that they were still on track to beat analyst estimates.

The Washington Post Co., reported Friday a first-quarter net loss of $19.5 Friday as earnings came in below Wall street’s estimates.

The oil giant Chevron Corporation (CVX) announced Firday that its first-quarter profit collapsed 64% from the previous year, mainly due to heavily decreased oil and gas prices.

April auto sales in the US released Friday, unveiled a continuing decline as the economic crisis continues to take its toll on the auto industry.

Car makers post sales drops

Toyota Motor sales drop 41 per cent

Nissan Motor sales drop 38 per cent

Ford Motor sales drop 32... Read More

Occupancy at Hawai’i hotels sank to a more than two-decade low in March, with about one-third of all hotel rooms empty, according to the latest monthly survey of visitor accommodations reports The Honolulu Advertiser.

The private sector in the United States shed 491,000 jobs in the month of April, according to the latest ADP Employer Services survey results released on Wednesday.

The U.S. Labor Department on Friday announced that non-farm jobs decreased by 539,000 in April bringing the unemployment rate up to 8.9%, the highest since late 1983. Private sector unemployment rose by 611,000 jobs.

U.S. home prices fell the most on record in the first quarter from the previous year, as banks flooded the market with foreclosed properties and short sales.

The number of U.S. households under foreclosure spiked 32 per cent in April compared with April 2008, reaching a record for the second consecutive month. 342,000 households received at least one foreclosure filing notice in April, according to RealtyTrac, Inc.

The US economy contracted 5.7 per cent during the first quarter as the recession continues to bite. The latest readings released Friday, by the US Commerce Department updated the figure on GDP to slightly less than 6.1 per cent annualized decline which had been previously estimated last month.<... Read More

After months of back and forth and huge amounts of uncertainty, the future for GM appears to be heading towards bankruptcy. The mammoth car marker is expected to file for bankruptcy on Monday.

The ADP private sector jobs report for May released Wednesday, showed 532,000 jobs shed during the month of May, after a revised 491,000 job loss in April.

The unemployment rate in the US has soared from 8.9 percent in April to 9.4 per cent in May, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the US Labor Department.

US foreclosure filings reached 321,480 properties in May and may reach 1.8 million by the first half of the year, according to RealtyTrac Inc. latest report Wednesday.

The US saw its household wealth lose $1.33 trillion in the first three months of the year as the recession took its toll on stock portfolios and home values.

Homes values dropped 2.4% to $17.9 trillion and stock holdings collapsed 5.8% to $5.2 trillion.

Household net worth dropped ... Read More

Six Flags, Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Saturday morning. The company operates 20 amusement parks throughout the United States.

The Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing, comes as the company “needs to reorganize and shed $1.8 billion ... Read More

Billionaire George Soros says the worst of the global financial crisis is over. The 78-year-old American has been a big commentator on the developments leading up to the global financial crisis, already back in November 2007, when he issued a warning about the credit crunch as well as in January... Read More

The social networking site MySpace has plans to lay off 300 of its 450 international employees, the company said Tuesday morning. The company is stepping up its efforts to cut costs with 700 of it’s 1,800 total employees being laid off.

Bernard Madoff, who defrauded investors out of billions of dollars, has been sent to prison for the rest of his life.

467,000 people lost their job in June according to the latest figures released Thursday, by the U.S. Labor Department, leaving a total of 14.7 million people without a job in June.

Credit card and home-equity delinquencies have soared to record levels as Americans struggle to cope with decreasing income, household wealth and collapsing investments, the American Bankers Association said on Tuesday.

Southwest Airlines announced Tuesday a 2.1 per cent drop in air traffic, measured in revenue passenger miles or RPMs, for the month of June. RPMs dropped to 6.7 billion over a 6.9 billion a year earlier.