If last year was the worst of it, we survived its best punch and are still fighting. With [businesses] like us, it’s not about the exact unemployment rate – it’s about how many people are worried about losing their jobs. And the latter has definitely come down.
Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz • Describing his decision to completely kill his $840,000 salary in 2009 – and knock executive pay by 10% or more – to prevent major layoffs. Katz plans to slowly revert back once the recession dies down – except he’ll cut his only salary by 15%. Awesome. • source
10.2%the level of unemployment for October; that’s up significantly from the 9.8% mark in September, as well as much higher than the 9.9% level economists predicted source
In the best of times you would have seen a situation where other lenders would certainly have been willing to consider getting into this business. In the current environment, given the constraints on credit generally, there’s not enough capacity out there.
Pryor Cashman bankruptcy group law partner Mark Jacobs • Discussing the shape of the market that CIT specializes in. The company, which is well-known for lending to small businesses, already dried up much of its lending due to the credit crunch and the company’s own financial woes. While the CIT says it will continue operating normally as it works its way through Chapter 11, businesses concerned about dealing with a bankrupt company have few other places to turn. In other words, a company that few people have heard of has huge amounts of power over businesses you go to every day. And that company just went bankrupt. Oh CIT. • source