Bank Pays Workers to Take 5-Year Vacation

(NEWSER) - Already-downsized companies seeking to cut costs further will likely increase temporary layoffs this summer, hoping the season will ease the pain of a missed paycheck, Fortune reports. A recent poll found that 44% of US companies are considering or have already implemented furloughs. But some institutions and employees are getting creative about the possibilities; furcation, anyone? More»

Demonstrators from all over Spain to begin march to capital today

(NEWSER) - Rocked by 20%-plus unemployment and drastic cuts to social services, some 40,000 protesters took to the streets yesterday. The protests, in Madrid and around Spain, are leaderless, growing out of Facebook and other social networking sites, and riven by frustration with a deep recession and Eurozone demands for austerity. "We are all against bankers, money, and capital—and against corruption and the misuse of public money. That's why we're angry," a male demonstrator told the BBC . Marches are also scheduled to begin today all over Spain, with protestors from cities like Seville and Valencia kicking off a month-long march to Madrid to show their anger. More»

But is she really Marie Antoinette?

(NEWSER) - Michelle Obama is taking some of the harshest criticism she's endured to date as first lady over her vacation to Spain with friends and daughter Sasha. (The White House defends it as a "private" trip.)

• Megan McArdle, the Atlantic : "It's really quite unbelievably politically stupid. When we're in the middle of the worst recession in living memory, it's not a good idea to take a luxury vacation that most of your countrymen could never possibly afford in the best of times, at considerable taxpayer expense for the security, in a foreign country."

Figures spark renewed fears that feds are at a loss

(NEWSER) - The US bank lending rate has fallen its fastest in history, sparking renewed fears that the government hasn't done enough to prop up the economy and that America's troubles are far from over. Lending has plummeted $100 billion just since January, which amounts to a 16% annualized drop. Some $740 billion of bank credit has evaporated since the credit crisis began, a record drop of 10%, reports the Telegraph . More»

Americans stay home or scale back vacation plans

(NEWSER) - The weak economy is taking a toll on Americans' plans for holiday travel, forcing cash-strapped would-be vacationers to alter trips or abandon them altogether. A recent poll found that, of those who planned to travel more than 100 miles for the holidays, a third said they had been forced to abandon plans because of financial concerns, while 35% of the remaining travelers said they were changing their plans to cut costs—driving instead of flying, or traveling to a closer destination. More»