Do you thing we’re in a typical recession? If you answered yes, you would be wrong. According to data there is nothing typical about what going on. The world markets are very showing volatility never seen before. In a typical recession, stocks will go up about six months before the economy. But it looks like the economy might need to recover first. Every time a few bad reports come out the markets drop like a bad habit, then go back up the next day. We need good results from the economy to turn the markets around. We need good reports from just about every industry out there. Right now the Insurance Industry is getting hit pretty hard. People are losing their jobs, which means there losing their health care, life insurance and even car insurance. These are only a few insurance products I have listed; there are a lot more out there. Sooner or later people will start to seek out new insurance rates. Some will even look for car insurance reviews , life insurance reviews, and other products. So let’s hope for some go reports on the economy this week, we really need it.

Today on Wall Street might not be a good one. Now insurance giant American International Group is struggling with paying out over $100 million to the group that caused their problems. Some say that this group was due over $120 million. But AIG and the real owner, the U.S People are saying take it or leave it. I don’t think these people are due anything, they should’ve fired all of them, contracts or not. Another problem for AIG is that insurance advertising has really picked up on TV, online, and in the streets. Insurance companies are really pushing for our business. This makes for the outcome of the day very hard to predict. Then again who really knows what will happen anymore. The whole financial markets are in a global credit crisis, yes, still today. Think about it for a second, 3 of the 5 biggest investment banks are gone, 2 in one day last year. And now the world’s largest insurance company, AIG will be gone if they don’t turn themselves around soon. The Fed has left the interest rate at zero percent to stabilize the economy.

The new CEO for Yahoo Inc Carol Bartz is shaken things up within Yahoo. One of the major changes she’s making is forcing CFO Blake Jorgensen out. Now he’s not leaving just yet, they need to replace him first. Making changes with top officers of a company will either make their stock raise or sank. So hopeful Bartz knows what she doing here. I was reading that Bartz said “People here have impressed the hell out of me.” I’m guessing here, but I don’t think Jorgensen wasn’t one of them. With these major changes going on within upper management it just might be time to get back into Yahoo. After all their still a major player when it comes to search engines. So who knows what will happen next with Yahoo. I think their setting up for a sale to Microsoft, watch and see.

Today Starbucks Corp. released 1st quarter profits, which where down almost 70 percent. That’s a huge percent to be down, that’s almost bankruptcy, which I’m sure will happen in a few months. There’s no way Starbucks can continue to offer $4.00 cups of coffee and stay in business. Most of their customers are the ones losing their jobs. And most of the other people like me are heading to McDonalds for the same crap. Heck, I can’t even remember the last time I purchased a cup of coffee.

Anyway, Starbucks is closing another 300 hundred stores on top of their 600 already planed. Their stating that this will result in about 6000 retail jobs lost and about 700 office jobs. I read that this cut will save them about $500 million this year. Hopefully they will be able to transfer some of those employees across the street to their other store, you know what I mean, and it’s true.

Another big company to let die, I don’t think so. Citigroup expects me to pay my bill every month, why can’t they pay their own bills. I’m so sick and tired of company’s getting bailout on the American peoples backs. I really can careless if Citigroup goes under. What I do care about is how the American people’s money is spent. And I think that most Americans are feeling cheated by their own government, as I feel the same. We should stop handing out the money to these so-called “companies to big to die.” I would also like to know what the government has in their plans to help the average American out there. Because if we become to scared to spend what little money we have left no amount of money will save any company. So stop wasting our money and start making better choices with it.

I just read that Citigroup Inc. is cutting about 53,000 jobs in the next coming months. I really don’t have much to say about people losing their jobs besides it sucks. And it’s never good thing for the economy or the people losing their job. Citigroup is having huge problems because of their huge losses to the tone of $2.8 billion in just the third quarter. The problem with companies like Citigroup they just grow to big to fast. They then start taking on shady deals and have wild spending habits. No one ever knows who’s in charge and things start to get out of control. Getting the news that your job is being eliminated is never a good thing, but I say just keep your head up and move on. Most companies today only really care about the bottom line and really don’t care about their employees. So do yourself a favor and don’t bother looking back.

Now it’s the automakers asking the American people to keep them in business. General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC are asking Congress to approve the aid to get them alive. GM, the nation’s largest automaker posted a $2.5 billion quarterly loss. And now they feel they’re going to run of cash by the end of the year, cry me a river. The automakers first take avenge of us with their high prices for cars and now want us to loan them money. I’m so sick and tired of all these businesses running to the government asking for money. Why don’t they do what people around the country do, file for bankruptcy and reorganize themselves. This way the creditors will take ownership and they then could start with a fresh balance sheet. The problem is, when this happens a whole new management team comes in. These top guys don’t want to lose their high paying jobs, but would destroy our families in a heartbeat to save theirs. The rescue package was intended to help businesses get back on their feet and help stabilize the markets. And guess what, it’s not working. So what should be done next is let all these businesses fall apart and save the American people money. We’re heading for a recession, and in the end these businesses won’t make it. I say, stop handing out the money and lets move on. If these companies make it, great, if they don’t make it, to bad.

With the huge drop in oil prices over the last four months is somewhat a sign of relief. Today the price of a barrel of light sweet crude is down over 60 percent to just under $59. Although this is great, the only reason for the drop is because of the recession we’re in. The demand for gasoline and other crude products as also caused the drop. And that’s because there are no jobs and no one is spending what money they have. The only thing I wonder is will the price of oil skyrocket again once we pull through this recession. I truly feel it will, and then we’ll be right back we’re we started again. We need to take this time to create jobs by drilling for our own oil and stop depending on foreign oil. We need to get back to the times where we did everything on our own. If we don’t get back to producing our own crap we’ll never really get back on track.

I was just reading an article on Yahoo about does it matter who the next President of the United States will be. And for the most part in this article it states that it really doesn’t matter. If you really think about it, how far can the stock market really go down? With everything the Fed is doing right now the chances are we will see a recovery in 2009. Although Wall Street does likes Republican leaders, Demarcates feel stocks do better when they’re in office. Whoever becomes our next President I sure they will get all the credit for the turn around in Wall Street. After all, isn’t that what the President does, takes credit for everything good and passes the blame to others when things go bad.

If you didn’t already know this, U.S. stocks posted their best week in 34 years. This week seemed to have more ups than downs. And not just here in American, but around the world. It seems that the world markets are showing signs of stabilization. But don’t pack your luggage yet and take that huge family trip. There are still a lot of signs out there that are pointing to harder times and with a chance of a recession. We just had a really bad quarter that showed we’re in a shrinking economy. If we have an another quarter like the last one the country will be considered in a recession. And there’s a good chance it could go global. We as American need to get back to our spending habits. I don’t mean go crazing and charge things you can’t afford, just don’t hoard it. Make the right choice, and only buy things you can afford.