Pink Slip Monday

Another day, another round of layoffs. Except on Monday the announcements seemed to go on all day, starting in Europe with Dutch consumer-electronics giant Philips cutting 6,000 jobs and spreading across the United States to the construction, pharmaceutical, telecom, and retail sectors. The New York Times calculates more than 75,000 jobs in the United States and around the world were eliminated by corporate bosses yesterday as the global economic outlook goes from bad to worse. The Guardian reckons it was closer to 80,000 job losses, "making it one of the bleakest days in recent memory." CNNMoney.com calls the extraordinary day of corporate gloom "Bloody Monday," adding this cheery bit of perspective: "More than 200,000 job cuts have been announced so far this year, according to company reports. Nearly 2.6 million jobs were lost over 2008, the highest yearly job-loss total since 1945."

The NYT says, the relatively hopeful measures of "furloughs, wage reductions, hiring freezes and shorter hours" are not doing the trick for struggling companies. As the recession bites harder, there's only one option left: mass layoffs. Yesterday, the cuts hardly discriminated by sector. There were 20,000 job layoffs at construction giant Caterpillar; 3,400 at Texas Instruments; a combined 13,000 at Dutch bank ING and at Philips; and 8,000 at Sprint Nextel. And Home Depot announced it will eliminate 7,000 jobs and shutter its Expo home-design centers.

And across the Atlantic, the economic crisis claimed its first heads of state yesterday, when Iceland's coalition government fell. "As personal savings have been wiped out and joblessness has soared, Icelanders—once among the world's wealthiest people—have taken to the streets in protest, banging pots and pans and throwing eggs and toilet paper at [Prime Minister Geir] Haarde and other parliamentary leaders," the Washington Post writes.

Back stateside, New Jersey-based drugmaker Wyeth, newly merged with Pfizer, may cut thousands of jobs, too, following the $68 billion tie-up announced on Monday, according to the NYT. But the deal brings a sliver of hope to an M&A-deprived Wall Street. "Analysts say the proposed Pfizer-Wyeth merger could lead to a spurt of takeovers in the pharmaceutical industry that could help struggling investment banks," the newspaper writes. But even that has a downside: a spate of mergers could "also cause pain for workers in the metropolitan area, which is to drug companies what Silicon Valley is to the technology industry." The Wall Street Journal has a somewhat hopeful postmerger analysis, noting the Pfizer-Wyeth deal "raised hopes that deal financing was back." But, it adds, "the $22.5 billion loan Pfizer negotiated doesn't mean credit has started flowing again." The lending syndicate, the newspaper writes, received some impressive safeguards. If, for example, Pfizer's sterling credit rating were to fall, it could walk away from their financing commitment. "In the past, sellers typically sought ironclad agreements that weren't contingent on bank financing or buyer credit ratings," the newspaper writes.

Just as Caterpillar and Home Depot, two companies most exposed to the collapse of the U.S. housing market, were announcing massive layoffs on Monday, there was a rare piece of good news for American home-sellers. In December, home sales rose by 6.5 percent, a surge not seen since the easy credit days of 2002. It's too early to call it a comeback, however. According to the WSJ, the unexpected buoyancy in the housing market can be attributed to strong sales of foreclosed homes. Few analysts saw much of any good news in the figures. While bargain hunters may be out in full force, particularly in the western half of the United States, where foreclosures have been plentiful, "the glut of foreclosed homes has pushed down prices, and distress sales now make up about half the market," the Washington Post writes.

There is further evidence that some businesses and sectors are indeed recession-proof, however. The first sector won't surprise you: fast food. McDonald's beat analysts' expectations with a 5 percent sales jump in the fourth quarter, "maintaining steady growth as other more upmarket rivals, from Starbucks to Denny's, have been reporting consistently falling sales," the FT writes. Sales for the fast food chain were particularly strong overseas. McDonalds CEO Jim Skinner announced plans "to invest $2.1 billion in capital to open about 1,000 new restaurants and reinvest in our existing locations," the BBC reports. The other company that seems to be getting a lift from the downturn is Netflix. The company said net income rose 45 percent in the last quarter as it added 718,000 customers, the Los Angeles Times reports. The big draw? Online video streaming, says CEO Reed Hastings.

And, finally, it seems even fallen Wall Street bosses succumb to buyer's remorse every now and then. Ousted Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain offered on Monday to repay Bank of America the $1.2 million he spent renovating his office last year, a bill that includes an $87,000 rug and a $35,000 commode, the NYT writes. Thain wasn't entirely contrite, though. He viewed the expenses as perfectly reasonable one year ago. But today, maybe not so. "Nonetheless," he wrote in a memo to his former charges, "they were a mistake in the light of the world we live in today. I will therefore reimburse the company for all of the costs incurred.”