Nevin was just 16 years old when he walked into a Pittsburgh saloon and talked his way into a job — singing for tips. "The place was right next door to a house of burlesque, so my only audience was a bunch of grumpy old men who were waiting for the strippers to start dancing," he says. "My only pay was whatever money they threw on the stage, and the last thing they wanted to see was some 16-year-old kid singing love songs."

U.S Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and the Fed have to be miffed over their lack of traction in addressing the credit bubble.

Asian stocks slumped, sending the region's benchmark index to the lowest level in four years, as Japanese exports missed estimates and commodities prices tumbled, deepening concern the global economy is headed for recession, reports Bloomberg.

The economic crisis that has sent stock markets worldwide into freefall now looks almost certain to spark a major overhaul of the global financial system. To speak of freefall is no exaggeration. Both the U.S. and Japanese stock markets on October 15 suffered their biggest one-day losses since the crisis began.

Can we stop talking down the economy? I know 1% is not robust, but it's not recession either.

Warren Buffett, whose business and investment acumen has made him one of the world's wealthiest men, said in an interview published Sunday he believes the U.S. economy is already in a recession.

When I hear people talking about how bad this current so-called recession is, I often ask them: do you know what the definition of a recession is? Of course, the vast majority do not. How, then, can they say we're in a recession? Because the news media tell them we are, and because we have a Republican president.

President Bush issued a gloomy assessment of the American economy at a press conference today. Here's a selection from a New York Times article:

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank announced today the committee will hold a hearing on the economic, mortgage and housing rescue plan he announced last week.

Hospitals, schools and the assembly line at an airplane factory look like pretty good places to be with a recession looming and unemployment rising in America.

The just-released March jobs report was another bad news for the U.S. economy as it lost 80,000 jobs in March adding to growing fears of analysts and investors that the downward trend toward recession is increasing and that the U.S. Economy is moving toward recession.

California's economy to fare worse than the nation's.