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Top 10 Halloween Costumes For The Financial Crisis
1. AIG ExecutiveYou'll need a fluffy robe and a respectable manicure.
Accessories:
--Spa slippers
--Clay facial mask
--Fluffy slippers
--AIG "Hi My Name Is..." sticker badge
2. Cowboy CapitalismDress up in a business suit but with a cowboy hat and boots. Sport a black eye.
Accessories:
--Adult beverage in a brown bag
3. Dow Jones Industrial AveragePaint a large piece of cardboard with a downward plunging arrow and write "DJIA" across your chest.
Accessories:
--A teddy bear
--A case of the shakes
4. Fannie Mae and Freddie MacA guy and a gal dress up as drunken sailors in the style of Raggedy Ann and Andy.
Accessories:
--Bottles of booze
--Toy houses
5. Financial BailoutGear up in red and gold as the Hammer and Sickle Superhero. You'll need: a headband, tights and a cape.
Accessories:
--A bucket labeled $700 billion and stuffed with cash.
6. Golden ParachutePut on a jumpsuit (preferably gold). Then spray-paint a trash bag gold and attach parachute strings.
Accessories:
--Affix giant dollar sign to chest
--Safety goggles or golden superhero mask, depending on taste
--Play money tucked into belt and pockets.
7. Lehman CEO Dick FuldClimb into your Skeletor costume. Put on a golden parachute.
Accessories:
--"Blame the Shorts" button
--Golden handcuffs
8. Mortgage-Backed SecurityStrap a small, plastic child's play house on your back.
Accessories:
--Wrap two bike chains across your chest
--Makeup to turn face black and blue
9. Treasury Secretary Hank PaulsonGet a sharp looking suit, bald cap, rimless spectacles.
Accessories:
--Toy bazooka
--Assistant Secretary Neel Kashkari "mini me" doll.
10. Underwater MortgageMake a diorama of a house with a hole in the bottom for your head. Paint fish and furniture floating in the windows. Wear a snorkel and diving mask
Accessories:
--Life preserver labeled "foreclosure relief plan"
Jobless Could Hit 4 Million - Predicts Bank Adviser
In a dire outlook, Monetary Policy Committee member David Blanchflower also said the recession could be deeper and longer than the Bank previously predicted.
He added that the Government needed to tackle the soaring numbers of young people out of work by raising the school leaving age sooner and pushing more people into higher education.
Doom and gloom: The Bank of England's predictions that UK output would tumble 3.5 per cent could prove 'too optimistic'.Speaking at a Westminster conference, Mr Blanchflower called for the Treasury to launch a near-£90billion fiscal stimulus, including tax cuts and investment in new schools and hospitals. This would help create 750,000 new jobs, he said.
'This is not about people being lazy,' he added. 'There aren't jobs. In six months this is going to be the biggest issue in every MP's constituency.'
David Blanchflower says the recession could be deeper and longer than initially expected..Mr Blanchflower has proved one of the most prescient members of the MPC, calling for interest rate cuts a year before the rest of the committee.
Last summer he forecast unemployment would hit two million by Christmas - a prediction that was fulfilled in January.
Last month the Bank of England predicted UK output would tumble 3.5 per cent this year, before recovering 1.2 per cent in 2010.
But this is likely to prove too optimistic, Mr Blanchflower said yesterday. As a result, predictions that jobless ranks will peak at three million are also likely to be too rosy.
'(With) any forecast of unemployment and output, the likelihood in a recession is we have undercooked it,' he told MPs. A surge in unemployment to four million would mean the total surpassing the heights reached in the deep recession of the 1980s, when joblessness peaked at nearly 3.3million.
Mr Blanchflower's fiscal stimulus plan includes 'large cuts' in income taxes and national insurance contributions for the lowpaid and young people.
In a paper co-written with David Bell of the University of Stirling, he said the Treasury should plough billions into construction projects by health authorities, universities and housing associations.
The raising of the education leaving age to 18 should be brought forward to this year to prevent legions of school leavers seeking jobs when there are few available.
This summer more than 600,000 people will leave schools and universities and embark on a desperate search for work. Already 40 per cent of the unemployed are under 25.
Mr Blanchflower said young people's entire lives would be affected if they were unable to find work now.
Carmaker Honda is asking its workers to accept a pay cut for at least a year to ensure the survival of its UK factories.
The Japanese firm is sending letters to 3,600 workers at its Swindon plant stressing the dire state of car manufacturing.
The letters do not state the size of the cut, but a similar arrangement at Toyota has seen both working hours and pay cut by 10 per cent at its two UK plants.
The average wage for lineworkers is around £22,000. The Unite union said negotiations were yet to be held on the issue.
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Global Economy Set To Shrink, India Loses Half A Million Jobs
While the global economy is likely to grow at least 5 percentage points below potential in 2009, world trade is on track to record its largest decline in 80 years - with the sharpest losses in East Asia.
World Bank forecasts show that global industrial production by the middle of 2009 could be as much as 15 percent lower than levels in 2008, it said in a paper for next Saturday's meeting of the Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank governors.

Developing countries face a financing shortfall of $270-700 billion this year, as private sector creditors shun emerging markets, and only one quarter of the most vulnerable countries have the resources to prevent a rise in poverty.
The paper said that 94 out of 116 developing countries have experienced a slowdown in economic growth. Of these countries, 43 have high levels of poverty.
To date, the most affected sectors are those that were the most dynamic, typically urban-based exporters, construction, mining, and manufacturing.
For example, 'more than half a million jobs have been lost in the last three months of 2008 in India, including in gems and jewellery, autos and textiles,' the paper noted.
Many of the world's poorest countries are becoming ever more dependent on development assistance as their exports and fiscal revenues decline because of the crisis.
Noting that donors are already behind by around $39 billion on their commitments to increase aid made at the Gleneagles Summit in 2005, the bank said: 'the concern now is that aid flows will become more volatile as some countries cut their aid budgets while others reaffirm aid commitments, at least for this year.'
The World Bank said that international financial institutions cannot by themselves currently cover the shortfall-that includes public and private debt and trade deficits-for these 129 countries, even at the lower end of the range.
A solution will require governments, multilateral institutions, and the private sector. Only one quarter of vulnerable developing countries have the ability to finance measures to blunt the economic downturn, such as job-creation or safety net programs.
'We need to react in real time to a growing crisis that is hurting people in developing countries,' said World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick.
'This global crisis needs a global solution and preventing an economic catastrophe in developing countries is important for global efforts to overcome this crisis.

