LONDON, England - November 10, 2009 - Lloyds Banking Group has announced 5,000 job cuts as the government-backed bank moves to integrate its wide-ranging businesses.

WASHINGTON - November 7, 2009 - United Commercial Bank, a big San Francisco bank with branches in China, was closed by state regulators on Friday and its banking operations were acquired by East West Bancorp Inc, also active in both nations.

By Rick Newman

October 15, 2009 - Maybe the pessimists are wrong. Maybe the so-called economic recovery will gather steam and turn out to be robust. Maybe prosperity is about to leap from its hiding place and shout, "Hey! I'm back!"

But planning your future around maybes leaves little margin for error, and it looks as if the Great Recession is morphing into the Great Hangover. Even though economists believe the recession is technically over, the unemployment rate is likely to hover near 10 percent or higher well into 2010. Businesses have slashed costs, but with sales still weak, they're in no mood to start hiring. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that the unemployment rate will stay above average until 2014 at least. Allen Sinai, an economist at Decision Economics, foresees a "difficult, probably crisis situation in the U.S. labor market that goes beyond the recession and any fledgling recovery."

A prolonged shortage of jobs is bad news for everybody. It depresses incomes, limits mobility, and lowers living standards - even for those who are working. Here are some ways to adapt to the profound changes taking place in an unforgiving economy:

WASHINGTON - November 6, 2009 - The U.S. jobless rate unexpectedly jumped to 10.2% last month, a 26½-year high, adding to pressure on the illegitimate Obama regime to do more to tackle unemployment even as his propagandists point to imaginary signs of recovery.

NEW YORK - November 3, 2009 - Executives do not expect the U.S. commercial real estate market to emerge from critical condition any time soon, according to a survey by The Real Estate Roundtable.

NEW YORK - November 2, 2009 - Nearly half of all U.S. children and 90% of black youngsters will be on food stamps at some point during childhood, and fallout from the current Depression could push those numbers even higher, researchers say.