After poring over NY State data, the NY Times suggests that "courtrooms are now seeing the delayed result of the country’s economic collapse... New York’s judges are wading into these types of cases by the tens of thousands, according to the new statistics, cases involving not only bad debts and soured deals, but also filings that are indirect but still jarring measures of economic stresses, like charges of violence in families torn apart by lost jobs and homes in jeopardy." Chief judge Jonathan Lippman said, "Society’s problems come to us. We are the emergency room for society.” And another judge, who has seen many credit cases, said of the future, "I would describe it as a train wreck and I think it’s going to get worse for the next couple of years.” more ›

Recent data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows how badly the restaurant industry is being battered by the recession. Eateries and bars shed jobs for five consecutive months through November, which is the longest stretch of downsizing since the government began tracking the info in 1990. 66,500 jobs have been lost since July, and George Prassas at the Labor Department tells the Wall Street Journal that the extended decline is "definitely something different than what the food-service industry's used to." To personalize the article (and bum everybody out), the Journal tells the sad story of one unemployed waitress on Long Island:

Dawnmarie Capuano, with 14 years of experience as a waitress, hostess and restaurant manager, was earning as much as $200 a night in tips between two jobs at an Italian restaurant and a pub. more ›

The Times went around fretfully asking experts and 'men on the street' whether the economic downturn is going to lead to higher crime. The consensus? Well, it couldn't hurt to get renter's insurance, and hide those iPod earbuds as you stroll home through your increasingly blighted neighborhood. While this isn't an exact science, the article does draw some persuasive parallels between today's meltdown and the crime explosion that followed the 1987 Wall Street crash, as well as the fiscal crisis of the 1970s that made New York a “hell on earth,” as former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton puts it. (He blames the high crime in those days on the city's decision to lay of thousands of cops.) Today budget cuts have left the NYPD with about 4,000 fewer officers then in 2000, and the department has been asked to cut another 2.5% of its budget. Mya Bee, a filmmaker in Bed Stuy, predicts, "When you can’t use your credit cards, it will get worse. When that happens, all hell will break loose." more ›

The Federal Reserve Board may be sending distress signals about a “prolonged and severe economic downturn,” but ultrarich individuals like hedge fund manager Lee Tachman aren’t sweating it; the 38-year-old Tachman just spent $50,000 on a four day vacation to Miami with three of his bros. According to a ‘Happy Monday’ article in the Times, Tachman’s crew rolled with a “private jet, helicopter, Hummer limousine, Ferraris and Lamborghinis; stayed in V.I.P. rooms at Casa Casuarina, the South Beach hotel that was formerly Gianni Versace’s mansion; and played 'extreme adventure paintball' with former agents of the DEA.” more ›

Has the Super-real estate market finally encountered economic kryptonite? Manhattan's housing market has seemed utterly impervious to any hint of real estate meltdown, even as other boroughs have suffered mortgage foreclosures at four times the national average. But one can't pass a Chase bank branch or a Duane Reade before coming across yet another building going up or being retro-fitted as luxury condos. The New York Times has an article today indicating that the gilded age of upper-crust real estate may be losing its luster. more ›

New York City's Department of Finance is projecting that real estate values in the city will remain nearly flat this fiscal (ending September) year. More precisely, it expects only a 1.4% increase in property values, versus an 18% climb this past year. more ›