>North Carolina unemployment hits 8.7%
> http://www.wral.com/business/story/4385151/

I guess I should feel fortunate that it's "only" 7.6% here.

And the job cuts continue to be announced on an almost daily basis. When Microsoft lays off thousands of workers -- the first layoffs in its history -- you know it's gotten bad. And that's just the companies that are still in business. The Circuit City workforce was around 30,000, for example.

And STILL the greed continues at the upper levels. The only good business news I read this week was that John Thain, the former head of Merrill Lynch, got his sorry butt fired. One of the last straws was awarding huge year end bonuses just days before Merrill's acquisition by Bank of America took effect, despite continued losses in the billions. (That is under investigation by the state of New York). He didn't help himself by having his office renovated to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars and by failing to inform the head of B of A personally of unexpectedly large fourth quarter losses, instead going skiing at a vacation home in Colorado. The B of A guy (Lewis?) made sure to come by in person to fire Thain this week, a meeting that took 15 minutes. Good riddance.