The Consumer Electronics Association reduces its forecast for Q4. Most retailers report a dismal November. Retailers Report a Crisis in All Aisles.

The face of the today’s venture capitalist: S.E.C. Charges a Venture Capitalist With Fraud. Venture Capitalists Hunker Down. Could VC be a Casualty of the Recession?

Bob Nardelli does not come across as a credible witness (not surprising his pervious performance at Home Depot - cashing in with more than $100M when the stock and company performance was fucking pathetic): Chrysler Under a Harsh Light at Hearing. The end is nigh: Chrysler Hires Bankruptcy Firm.

No shit, sherlock: Hedge Funds Need a Makeover. How about 3,000 fewer hedge funds, for starters?

Doug Kass seems reasonable, but I don’t quiet see this: Seabreeze’s Kass Calls the Bottom for Stocks. Consider it my Billy Ray Valentine pork-belly call.

Paging Rupert and Sam: Rocky Mountain News Is Put Up for Sale After Loss. World’s biggest loser: Bankrupt Bally In Sale Talks.

34 year high: Nonfarm payroll employment fell sharply (-533,000) in November and the unemployment rate rose from 6.5 to 6.7 percent. Stay strong people and get involved. Congress and free market won’t bail you out. You need to be active and hit the streets and make yourself heard to get you and this country back on our collective feet: 

Unemployment ticks up to 6.7%. 422,00 people left the labor force — had that not happened, we would have seen an even bigger unemployment rate.

Revisions downward are also big — September and October increased job losses by 199,000. We are now at nearly 2 million job losses for the year.

There’s a battle brewing between the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal. 35 years: Retail Sales Are Weakest in 35 Years. 39 years: Retail Sales Notch Biggest Drop in 39 Years.

What says the authoritative New York Post? With all this talk of 35 and 39 years, I swear if I see even one story about bell bottoms coming back, I will shoot my computer. 

Not much better elsewhere: German manufacturing orders die.

Why not: San Jose makes bid for $1 billion in economic stimulus dollars.

Sen. Shelby (R-AL) gets TKO’d by Compuware CEO. Wonder how much Shelby made from that deal. 

Kids, stop applying to MBA school. We need engineers, teachers, physicists, chemists … not more people dreaming about multi-million dollar signing bonuses from nationalized financial institutions.