25 Ways People & Companies Deal With Recession

To create this e-zine, I spend a lot of time on the Internet looking for stories to download into my private archive of more than 37,000 entries in 224 major categories. How much time do I spend on the Internet?

Day — Date — (Number of visits excluding e-mail)
Thu — 12-11-08 — (226)
Wed — 12-10-08 — (251)
Tue — 12-09-08 — (390)
Mon — 12-08-08 — (240)
Sun — 12-07-08 — ( 36)

The point is to find dots and try to connect them to each other and back to our businesses, careers and lifestyles.

One set connecting this week is the myriad ways people and companies are dealing with this horrifying recession—some positive, some painful and some downright illegal.

These are the stories that caught my eye; maybe some will catch yours and give you some ideas.

DEC. 4, 2008

1. Reserve Fund to Use Investors’ Cash to Defend Itself
The Reserve Primary Fund has presented its deeply frustrated shareholders with a stark choice. If they are patient, they might ultimately get back 98.5 cents for each dollar they had in the money market fund, which in September became only the second such fund to ever “break the buck,” or report a share price below a dollar. But if they continue to wage legal battles against the fund and its managers, the company will use investors' own money to defend itself against their accusations of mismanagement and deception.
—Diana B. Henriques, The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/business/05fund.html

DEC. 5, 2008

2. Robbers in Drag Hit Harry Winston’s in Paris for $105 Million
Armed robbers—some dressed as women—in Paris escaped with up to £70 million worth of jewellery in less than a minute in one Europe's biggest ever heists. As many as four masked men wielding sawn-off shotguns stormed into the exclusive Harry Winston jewellers in a high-speed raid described by detectives as "terrifyingly efficient."
—Ian Sparks, DailyMail.co.uk
http://tinyurl.com/6gopqe

3. Travelers in Switzerland Stay in a Cheap (Real Cheap!) Hotel
BEDS are on offer for just £6 a night at the world’s first zero-star hotel—based in a converted NUCLEAR BUNKER. But guests at the no-frills establishment will have to put up with hot water bottles rather than central heating. And they will be given a pair of EARPLUGS to help blot out the racket from the ventilation system. Standard beds at the austere Null Stern (No Star) hotel in Sevelen, near Zurich, Switzerland, are military-style bunks.