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Crisis at a Glance!

It's time for another pulse-accelerating edition of, Crisis at a Glance! Where we package all the unnerving mainland economic news in one conveniently worrisome package! The economic cooling story that's getting the most play in the press this morning is Starbucks closing 600 unprofitable locations. It's enough to make you spit up your double-shot no-foam White Chocolate Mocha Grande. But the real news, if you want something actually fret about, is this. ADP, the giant payroll company, says private sector employers cut almost 80,000 jobs in June. That's four times what was expected. The reason this hasn't hurt Hawaii more is that we get so many visitors from affluent residents of West Coast cities. California unemployment is double ours but that's mostly inland in the central plains. Finally, remember that Wall Street con artist whose car was found on the Brooklyn Bridge? He left a note that said "suicide is painless" but U.S. Marshals didn't believe it. They were right. He's been caught -- in the remote province of Massachusetts. And so ends another edition of, Crisis at a Glance! No affiliated with Psoriasis in Your Pants.

Other Headlines:

MacFarms is being sold to Australians. The Big Island macadamia nut company is selling most of its assets to Buderim Ginger of Brisbane, which already owns the Australian mac nut company Agrimac. The deal could close as soon as early August. One Australian newspaper puts it this way: "Australia is on the brink of reclaiming its native nut."

U-S Bankruptcy Court in Honolulu counts 163 petitions for bankruptcy last month, the most since the bankruptcy law was tightened in 2005. Despite a surge in filings, Hawaii still has the one of the lowest per-capita bankruptcy filing rates in the nation.

Remember the West Coast dockworkers lockout of 2002? Later, management agreed to a contract with the ILWU. But that contract expired last night. But the two sides kept talking and apparently will be back at the bargaining table this morning in San Francisco.

On my blog this morning, you can read some thoughts about the relative quality of different jobs in a time of layoffs.

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