Retail therapy: It's the answer for almost any problem. Girlfriend broke up with you? Didn't get that promotion? Buy yourself something pretty. People like to shop, especially for high-status items, when they're feeling down. But parting with cash is also a painful process, so what gives? In a new paper in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, researchers Niro Sivanathan of the London Business School and Nathan Pettit of Cornell University describe how they think people resolve this conflict. more ›

Citing delays in fixing the deficit, Los Angeles' financial outlook was downgraded from stable to negative by a major Wall Street financial credit service today, finds the LA Times. This comes at city leaders try to figure out how to fill in a $212-million budget gap with an expected $484-million one expected next fiscal year. Moody’s Investors Service's downgrade could mean the lowering of the city's credit rating, which would increase the cost of borrowing money for the city. Fitch Ratings downgraded the city last November and the other major credit rating agency, Standard & Poor's, has not made any public decisions. more ›

Jonathan Jarvis, a master's candidate at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, kept it more than a little bit real with "The Crisis of Credit Visualized." This 11-minute animation is just one part of Jarvis's thesis. May his grad school debt vanish with great haste. more ›

More details are coming out about Ervin Lupoe, who is suspected of killing himself after shooting his five children and wife at their Wilmington neighborhood home. He was at least one month behind in mortgage payments, owed the IRS $15,000 and had thousands of dollars out on credit, reports the Associated Press. more ›

The credit crunch is hitting the state, the LA Times via a letter they obtained addressed to Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. "The state of California is the biggest of several governments nationwide that are being locked out of the bond market by the global credit crunch. If the state is unable to access the cash, administration officials say, payments to schools and other government entities could quickly be suspended and state employees could be laid off," the Times Reported. more ›

Steve Jobs is a very smart and powerful businessman. So did he purposely bite his tongue last week when he announced a $200 iPhone price cut -- just two months after launching the product? Was it a plot to steer additional hype toward the iPhone so the new iPods wouldn't steal all the thunder? Did he plan all along to offer store credit to those who shelled out $600 for an iPhone? Was Master... more ›