Yeah. For the first time EVER. Wonderful. Great. Super.

This comes after all the money the government spent trying to get the U.S. OUT of the recession. This could make people question the value of the dollar and it could make foreign buyers of our debt a little nervous, causing them to think twice, and possibly not be willing to put their money out there for the U.S. anymore.

Hm. This SUPER SUCKS.

Read more about what exactly is going on with this. Everyone should be informed and understand all the political and economic goings on in this country. Educate yourself!

That's right! General Motors, as of today (Friday) has exited bankruptcy protection. They spent the night signing tons and tons of papers authorizing cash transfers, real estate transfers, and the transfers of technology and other property.

So, 61% of this new GM is owned by the U.S. government. And it's coming out of bankruptcy protection and into the insanely competitive auto market that's in a fantasticly terrible sales slump right now. Great.

And at a press conference today, GM CEO Fritz Henderson is expected to announce that GM will cut another 4,000 jobs, 450 of which will be top executives. Bummer. 

So... great they made it to the other side of Chapter 11... super sucks they're letting people go. 

MySpace is attempting to make itself more efficient. How? By cutting nearly 30% of its work force. The cuts equal approximately 420 people, bringing the MySpace US staff number down to 1,000.

This comes shortly after MySpace got their new CEO, Owen Van Natta. Van Natta said the staffing levels at MySpace were "bloated" and is now trying to remedy that. This would be Van Natta who was a former exec over at Facebook. Facebook currently has about 850 employees worldwide. So I suppose over 1,000 can be considered bloated... if that's the word you like to use there. 

Anyway, super sucks. 

General Motors has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today (Monday).

This is the 4th largest filing in US history. GM said it has $82.29 billion in assets and $172.81 billion in debt. Do that math... ah crap.

Anyway, for the full story CLICK HERE.

Oh yeah, people are definitely pissed off about this one!

AIG has received more than $170 BILLION in federal aid in regards to all the bailouts. 

And what are they doing? Paying out about $160 MILLION in bonuses to their executives. AIG says these bonuses are in the executives' contracts and they therefore must pay them. By Sunday. 

Austan Boolsbee, staff director of Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board said "I don't know why they would follow a policy that's really not sensible, is obviously going to ignite the ire of millions of people, and we've done exactly what we can to prevent this kind of this from happening again."

Yeah. This is BULL SHIT in my opinion. Granted, I completely understand that AIG has to pay their execs' bonuses if they are contractually obligated to do so, but I also believe that terms of the bailout money from the federal government should have included getting rid of those contractual clauses entitling the execs to said bonuses. This is crap and it's the fault of everyone involved. So yay for all the bailout money. Yay for executives getting their huge bonuses. Yay for continuing to exponentially increase the national debt so these already rich assholes can make even more. Thanks. 

In this crappy economy, even the giants are falling victim to money woes.

Let's just run down the list, shall we?

CitiGroup

Less than 2 years ago, shares of stock were worth $55.12. Yesterday? $1.02

March 2007, the company was valued at $300 billion. Yesterday? $5.6 billion

General Electric

Closed yesterday at it's LOWEST LEVEL since 1992, just $6.66 a share.

To put that into perspective, it's LESS than the cost of 1 compact flourescent flood light bulb.

General Motors

Shares of GM closed yesterday at $1.86, and how much does gas cost? In most cities around the country, about $1.90.

President of Yardeni Research, an investment research firm, Ed Yardeni said "The big surprise is that large companies that we thought were well-capitalized with abundant access to credit and that could access the global market, none of that is helping them. But a lot of these issues that we thought of a positive are turning back to bite them hard." Yeah, in the ass! This all sucks! Yardeni also said "The reality is that size doesn't seem to matter much."

Well, HAPPY FRIDAY! We're all faltering under the wonderful world of the shitty economy. Wonderful.

General Motors may not make it. GM has a plan, part of which includes a March 31st deadline to have agreements of concessions from debtholders and the United Auto Workers union... the agreements will show the government that GM can become viable again. GM also submitted a restructuring plan to the Treasury Department on February 17th.

What does the restructuring plan include? The lay off of 47,000 workers worldwide by the end of the year, and the shutting down of 5 US factories. Great. Sounds like a fantastic plan.

In regards to the implementation of their restructuring plan, GM said in their annual report "If we fail to do so for any reason, we would not be able to continue as a going concern and could potentially be forced to seek relief through a filing under the US Bankruptcy Code."

In its report, GM also said "There is no assurance that the global automobile market will recover or that it will not suffer a signifact further downturn."

Hopefully GM isn't headed for a bankruptcy filing... only time will tell.

By summer... super sucks. Another one bites the dust thanks to our fabulous economy. Real bummer... after almost 20 years, the last 6 Virgin Megastores are shutting down.