With oil prices hitting a new record and GM's stock under $10 (last time it was there was when Ike was president), Wall Street officially went into bear market territory, with the Dow ending the day at 11,215.51. And that's just over 20% below the high of 14, 164.53 last October. An analyst told Bloomberg News, "Investor sentiment is clearly miserable right now."......

Somehow, in spite of the faltering economy, brokerage firms say second quarter apartment sale prices were about the same or maybe even slightly higher than in the first quarter--though sales were down 22% versus 2007's second quarter. The NY Times noticed, "Strong luxury sales and faltering studio sales had the perverse effect of catapulting the median price — the price of the apartment exactly in the middle of all sale prices — to a record.......

Oil prices hit a new high, at close to $143/barrel today (but ended over $140/barrel), and the Dow fell 106 points to close at 11,346.41. The NY Times reported the Dow Jones Industrial Average "flirted with bear market territory" when it fell 120 points--"The bear peeked out of its cave on Friday. And then it retreated." The Dow Jones is close to a bear market, because it's down 20% (the "threshold for a so-called bear......

Photograph of trader Al Young sitting as the bad news keeps coming by /Richard Drew/AP The Dow plummeted 358 points to end at 11,453, after bad news about brokerages and the ever increasing price of oil. Bloomberg News summed it up this way:U.S. stocks tumbled, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its worst June since the Great Depression, as record oil prices, credit-market writedowns and a slowing economy threatened to extend a yearlong......

American Airlines is cutting five American and 37 American Eagle flights from LaGuardia airport starting in September, as part of the airline's attempt to control costs in the wake of rising fuel prices. American will also be cutting dozens of American and American Eagle flights at its hubs in Chicago and Dallas-Fort Worth. Among the cutbacks is the termination of American Eagle operations in Albany, prompting Governor David Paterson to ask the airline to "take......

Forget emailing resumes – if you want to compete in today’s tough job market, you’ve got to be willing to sacrifice a little dignity. Or in Joshua Persky’s case, a lot of dignity: The unemployed financial engineer is trying to land a job by standing on Park Avenue wearing a big sign reading “Experienced MIT Graduate for Hire.” Wait – it gets more depressing; Persky needs a job fast so he can afford an apartment......

Today the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by 11 Brooklyn property owners and tenants whose homes and businesses would be razed to make way for the $4 billion Atlantic Yards project. Coincidentally, today marks the third anniversary of the Supreme Court’s narrow 5-4 ruling in the case of Kelo v. City of New London, which affirmed the government’s power to use eminent domain to accommodate private development. The plaintiffs vowed to file their......

Today, it's expected that Citigroup will start firing around 10% of its investment banking group, which has 65,000 employees. It's probably that entire trading desks in New York and other cities will be eliminated. Dealbook explains the bank is moving "aggressively to complete the 2,000 layoffs that it announced last March," and these 2,000 layoffs are "on top of about 4,200 announced in January." The Wall Street Journal offered this fact: "Citigroup, which has more......

White collar perp walk time: WNBC is reporting that the FBI arrested former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers Ralph Cioffi Jr. and Matthew Tannin this morning. Why? Because they allegedly reassured investors the hedge fund was a-okay "before the funds lost more than $1.5 billion in value." The WSJ's Law Blog breaks it down: On April 22, 2007, Tannin emailed Cioffi, fearing "the market for complex bond securities was 'toast.'" Then "Cioffi and a......

Since the cost of a barrel of oil jumped $11 on Friday, helping the stock market drop 400 points, gas stations in the area made sure to raise their prices, too. The Post reports that many stations were charging $4.50/gallon or more! While the AAA says national average for gas has gone over $4/gallon for the first time this weekend, many gas stations in the area have been near or above that for a few......

Photograph of the New York Stock Exchange trading floor AP Yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average took a 400-point-drop bath, prompted by rising oil prices and higher unemployment numbers, and stirred up more recession fears. Just Thursday, growing inventories of oil and decreased demand led investors and the public to think that perhaps our long national love-hate affair with oil had reached an amicable reconciliation. But then the oil prices rose to $138/barrel--an $11......

Not only are rich people selling their diamonds, dropping their personal trainers, and worrying about telling their spouses to stop spending money because of the economy (at least, that's what a NY Times Styles section article says!), they are forced to advertise their multi-million dollar homes using a chalkboard--with euro conversion--on the street!......

With oil prices rising higher and higher (they rose above $135/barrel yesterday), American Airlines says, starting June 15, it will charge passengers $15 for the first checked bag. A few months ago, American and other airlines followed United in charging $25 for a second checked bag and since these fees are one-way only, if you're bringing two checked bags, that's another $80 you'll have to add to your airline ticket. It is likely other airlines......

It may be Fleet Week, but the U.S. Navy is not the only one in the city dropping anchors this week. WCBS-TV veteran anchor Jim Rosenfield is the latest victim of the CBS local news cutbacks here in New York. Rosenfield joined the station in 2005 when he jumped ship from WNBC where he was one of Sue Simmons “anchor husbands” on Live at Five. It's been almost a year since he and Dana Tyler......

Today the Post looks at how the turbulent economy is affecting the lifestyle of one family of four on the Upper East Side, and, surprise surprise, reports that it’s not really such a big deal for some people. Sure, their cost of living expenses have risen by $1,000 a month compared to this time last year, but Mr. and Mrs. Gary Foodim aren’t sweating it – they vacationed at Disney World last year and there's......

In her successful attempt to appeal to working class primary voters, Senator Hillary Clinton has been catching heat from Wall Street. The Sun notes that yesterday, her camp dawdled for 24 hours before correcting reports that she had asked an audience in Indiana: “Why don’t we hold these Wall Street money-grubbers responsible for their role in this recession?” The quote angered some in the financial industry; after all they're not money-grubbers, they're money-hoarders. Clinton's team......

Mayor Bloomberg presented a $59.1 billion budget for the 2009 fiscal year, with spending essentially remaining flat (the increase is just 0.1%). While he said the faltering economy means we should all "pray Wall Street does well" given the "scary" reality, Bloomberg did say the city could afford a property tax rebate and property tax rate cut. The new budget would, as the NY Times puts it, "virtually halt the growth in city spending for......

Unnamed sources are telling the Jersey Star-Ledger that Bruce Ratner, principal owner of the New Jersey Nets, has secretly met with the owners of the New Jersey Devils and Newark mayor Cory Booker to discuss selling the Nets and moving them to Newark. If true, it would signal the end of Ratner’s troubled bid to relocate the Nets to downtown Brooklyn, where he is trying to build a controversial $4 billion stadium, residential, office and......

Photograph of traders and specialists on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor by David Karp/AP The Federal Reserve lowered the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 2%, giving this explanation:Recent information indicates that economic activity remains weak. Household and business spending has been subdued and labor markets have softened further. Financial markets remain under considerable stress, and tight credit conditions and the deepening housing contraction are likely to weigh on economic......

Photograph of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke (left) testifying before the Senate Banking Committee by Susan Walsh/AP New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geither told lawmakers today, "What we were observing in U.S. and global financial markets was similar to the classic pattern in financial crises," as Federal Reserve officials defended why they helped JP Morgan rescue Bear Stearns from collapse. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee, "Given the exceptional......

The Manhattan real estate market was more expensive than ever during the first quarter according to reports from real estate brokerages. There were "record" highs for Manhattan, in sharp contrast to what the rest of the nation's housing market is going through. However, there are some mitigating factors: Though the median prices of apartments has risen to $917,000 from $840,000, that's because three times as many apartments over $10 million sold during this first quarter,......

Photograph of Bear Stearns' headquarters (center) and JP Morgan (right) by Mark Lennihan/AP With JP Morgan now offering $1.2 billion for troubled Bear Stearns, it's expected the deal will close on April 8. JP Morgan needed 50% of Bear Stearns shareholder approval, and the new $10/share price would give them 45% yes votes (5% is expected from bondholders); an analyst told USA Today the revised deal "virtually guarantees a yes vote at $10 per......

Photograph of Bear Stearns by Mark Lennihan/AP The NY Times reports "JPMorgan Chase was in talks on Sunday night for a deal that would quintuple its offer for Bear Stearns...in an effort to pacify angry Bear shareholders." Over a week ago, JP Morgan had agreed to pay $2/share for Bear Stearns stock, for a total payout of $236 million, but the new talks would raise the price to $10/share, making it a billion-dollar deal.......

Two bombshell articles in the Times today may mark a turning point for Bruce Ratner’s plans to build a Nets arena at the Atlantic Yards. Now that Ratner is backpedaling from his initial plans to build 8 million square feet of office space and apartments – some of it for low-income residents – community activists are worried that Ratner will sell off the rest of the site to other developers, replacing Frank Gehry’s comprehensive design......

Photograph, above, from Triborough on Flickr; graphic, below, from the NY Times Developer Bruce Ratner has turned gloomy about his $4 billion project to turn the MTA Atlantic rail yards in downtown Brooklyn into a sports arena, office and residential complex designed by Frank Gehry. In an exclusive interview with the Times, he expressed confidence that construction on the Barclays arena would start by the end of the year. But the "centerpiece" office tower......

Although the stock markets didn't tank yesterday (the Dow was up 21 points), it was a volatile day as Wall Street reacted to the bargain basement sale of Bear Stearns to JP Morgan. Naturally, this means the first lawsuit has been filed on behalf of shareholders who claim the investment bank "made false statement about the firm's financial condition." The employees are feeling the brunt of the pain: Besides their Bear Stearns stock plummeting in......

Photograph of newspaper distributor in London by Sang Tan/AP This is going to be a tough morning on Wall Street. World financial markets fell and are falling after yesterday's news that JP Morgan had purchased Bear Stearns for $2 a share, a grand price of $236 million for a company valued at $3.54 billion on Friday. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index fell 3.7%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 5.25%. Currnetly, London's FTSE 100 has......

Photograph of Bush speaking to the Economic Club of New York by Mary Altaffer/AP Update: President Bush gave his speech at the Ecomonic Club - here's his opening:First of all, in a free market, there's going to be good times and bad times. That's how markets work. There will be ups and downs. And after 52 consecutive months of job growth, which is a record, our economy obviously is going through a tough time.......

Mayor Bloomberg let his feelings about H.R. 5140, the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, which was signed into legislation by President Bush on Wednesday, be known. Mayor Bloomberg said the government "is spending money it doesn't have," and "I suppose it won't hurt the economy, but it's in many senses like giving a drink to an alcoholic." But don't worry, Americans - singles with incomes of under $75,000 and couples with combined incomes of under......

In her State of the City address, City Council Speaker Quinn said that the Council would do its own belt-tightening given expectations the economy will slow. Still, she mentioned, per the Sun, "tax cuts, improved transportation, more pay for teachers, and affordable housing," saying, "Getting leaner does not have to mean getting meaner." Some of the proposals: suspending the city sales tax for one week; offering $300 rebate to renters; offering "bonuses of up to......