NEW YORK - January 29, 2009 - Starbucks, the once-iconic American retailer, which saw a 69% decline in profit in the last three months of 2008, closed 661 shops in the United States and Australia last year.

NEW YORK - January 27, 2009 - Citigroup Inc., which received a massive taxpayer-funded rescue last year, canceled plans to buy a $50 million executive jet after news of the new plane drew rebukes from politicians.

Tax refunds and welfare checks to be replaced by IOUs.

SACRAMENTO, Kalifornia - January 26, 2009 - The state of Kalifornia has run out of money.

LONDON, England - January 26, 2009 - Countries struggling to secure credit have resorted to barter and secretive government-to-government deals to buy food, with some contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

NEW YORK - January 26, 2009 - Somebody was working this weekend to make sure thousands of other people didn't.

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

LONDON, England - January 26, 2009 – Illegitimate U.S. President Barack Obama inherits an economy already contracting at an annual rate of 6%, much like the mid-Depression year of 1931.

NEW YORK - January 26, 2009 - Beleaguered Citigroup is upgrading its mile-high club with a brand-new $50 million corporate jet - only this time, it's the taxpayers who are getting screwed.