Recession

Auto leasing deals abound these days, with offers that often seem too good to be true. How about a well-equipped Honda Accord for $250 a month with no down payment or any other drive-off fees? Or better yet, $199 a month for a Chevrolet Malibu? So, what's the catch? There isn't any if you know what you're getting into. There are always details. You need top-tier credit to qualify. You pay a penalty if you turn that Honda in with more than 36,000 miles. And the payment is not $250 a month because of that little matter of tax. It is more like $275, depending on where you live.

We knew it was bad, but news out from across the pond indicates that uncertainty in Europe might be slamming the economy there even more than had been thought. Revised data show that Britain's gross domestic product contracted more than previously believed in the first quarter, indicating that its economy not only entered a double-dip recession earlier this year, but that the drop was also deeper than expected. Britain's GDP fell by 0.3% in the first quarter, the Office for National Statistics said, and output in production industries fell by 0.4%.

J. Paul Reddam might not be the type of businessman for whom people suffering through the recession can bring themselves to root. Reddam, 56, is president of Anaheim-based CashCall, the mortgage refinancing and high-interest personal loan company who critics say has unfairly capitalized upon people's financial woes during the country's economic and employment crisis. But the Sunset Beach resident is also owner of Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another, who could provide horse racing with a huge shot in the arm Saturday with a victory in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico.

WASHINGTON - The Congressional Budget Office warned that the country could be thrown into a recession if Congress tries to reduce the nation's deficit quickly with a combination of budget cuts and higher taxes scheduled to take place at the end of the year. The nonpartisan budget office laid out the stark choices Tuesday over what has been called the coming fiscal cliff as congressional leaders square off in an expected partisan showdown from now through December. The office warned that the growth of the nation's gross domestic product - the value of goods and services produced - would slow to just 0.5% next year if Congress did nothing.

As warehouses go, there are few like Skechers USA Inc.'s new 1.82-million-square-foot distribution center. This warehouse is so big that it takes half a minute to drive from one end to the other at 60 miles per hour. The setup is so advanced that human hands will hardly touch the cargo as it is unpacked, categorized, stacked and prepared for delivery. The building is so green that it uses prevailing winds for ventilation instead of air conditioning. For its new North American operations warehouse, the nation's No. 2 footwear company chose the Inland Empire's Moreno Valley.

David Joyce marched his way to the front of the U.S. immigration line using his pocketbook, sinking half a million dollars into a Vermont ski resort. The British citizen had spent years in a futile effort to secure green cards for himself, his wife and their 9-year-old son so they could relocate to sunny Florida. Then, a fellow emigre tipped him off to a little-known federal program that helps foreigners gain permanent U.S. residency by investing in American businesses. Graphic: Number of investors' visas to U.S. "In six months, we had our green cards," said Joyce, 51. "Considering everything we've been through, this was easy.

On a recent Saturday night, Savannah Stern earned $300 to hang out for seven hours at a party in Santa Monica wearing nothing but a feather boa. The veteran of more than 350 hard-core pornography productions took the job to earn extra cash and to network. But the word at the 35th anniversary party for Hustler magazine was not heartening, especially among the roughly 75 other women working there. "At least five girls I haven't seen in a while came up to me and said, 'Savannah, are you working?

It was meant to be a joke. But the recession got the last laugh when more than 500 callers responded to an ad for a new bridal registry service offered by the 99 Cents Only Stores. Brides and their gift-hunting pals were invited to inquire about the registry's debut with a quick call to (213) LUCKY-99.

How come the trickle-down theory works so well for the recession? MARTY RICH Encino

As the bottom dropped out of the economy, The Times began publishing a series of "postcards" from the recession. Recently, we asked a handful of our correspondents for an update. Some have found light at the end of the tunnel; some are thankful to be stuck on hold; some are still in the dark. The one sure thing? There's no going back to the way things were before the collapse. Sweet home, and Alabama Kerry Madden A year ago I moved to Birmingham, Ala., to accept a full-time, tenure-track job as an assistant professor in creative writing — an offer I could not refuse in the midst of recession.

Harold A. "Red" Poling, a former Ford Motor Co. chairman and chief executive officer who helped lead the automaker through two recessions, has died. He was 86. Poling died Saturday at his home in Pacific Grove, on the Monterey Peninsula, the Dearborn, Mich.-based company announced. The cause was not given. As chairman and chief executive from 1990 to 1994, Poling led the company through a deep recession, when Ford's sales in North America and Europe plunged and losses totaled $9.64 billion in 1991 and 1992.

The collector car market, which slumped with the economy, is coming back along with the rest of the auto industry. But don't expect to pick up a classic Tucker or Duesenberg without ponying up money like a Facebook executive. Many of these cars are selling for well over $1 million. By one measure, the value of collectible cars has surged 33% since the depth of the recession in 2009. The Hagerty collector car blue-chip index - a Dow-like gauge that averages the values of 25 of the most sought-after collectible automobiles of the postwar era - climbed to $1.25 million from $940,000 in September 2009.

WASHINGTON — Without the unprecedented stimulus actions by the federal government triggered by the 2008 financial crisis, the Great Recession might still be going on, according to a study by Fitch Ratings. Those incentives, however, came with a price: accelerated budget deficits and rock-bottom interest rates that hurt savers, according to the credit rating company. Still, the $700-billion bailout fund, the $831-billion stimulus package and the Federal Reserve's near-zero interest rates, among other federal efforts, continue to spur the nation's economy, the study released Wednesday concludes.

WASHINGTON -- Men continue to take a bigger hit in their paychecks than women because of lingering effects of the Great Recession, according to a study by the Conference Board. Average wages for women remain lower than those for their male counterparts, by nearly 20%. But men's wages have been much slower to rebound from the effects of the recession, which had its most severe impact on male-dominated industries, such as construction, the study found. Although the recession technically ended in 2009, men's wage growth had rebounded to half the average rate of the previous decade by last year.

After an extended lull brought on by the economic downturn, commercial real estate developers are building again. Some of the activity involves the revival of projects that stopped during the recession, but many others are new from the ground up and mark the return of construction cranes to the Southern California skyline along with the injection of billions of dollars into the local economy. An intense demand for apartments is the biggest driver of development, as the improving economy supports the formation of new households.

When the bell rang at Cesar Chavez Elementary School signaling the start of recess Monday, a swarm of students rushed onto the blacktop and without instructions broke off into groups. Two girls jumped rope, a dozen or so third- and fourth-graders played handball and others kicked a soccer ball. Noticeably absent was the tug-of-war that typically arises when two students want to play with the same thing. Here, students use the game rock, paper, scissors to settle disputes.

After it happened, Megan Beza was consumed with figuring out why. Did her husband's struggle with painkillers play a role? His months of fruitless job-hunting? But with suicide, there are rarely tidy answers. What is known is that southern Nevada's unusually high suicide rate spiked with the recession, and Megan thinks that must explain, at least in part, what happened the morning of Oct. 25, 2010. John Beza had just returned from dropping off their 4-year-old son, Jacob, at preschool.

What happens when, in boom times, households run up substantial debt through mortgages, personal loans and credit cards? When the economy starts to slump, the recession is deeper and the eventual recovery is much weaker, according to the International Monetary Fund. In its new World Economic Outlook report , the IMF found that declines in economic activity aren't only caused by falling home prices and the resulting crunch on household wealth. Prerecession indebtedness often makes contractions “more severe and protracted.” In the five years before 2007, the ratio of household debt to income in advanced economies rose an average 39 percentage points a year to 138%.