Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said in a statement the loss of 533,000 jobs in November prompts the need for short-term funding for the auto industry, The New York Times reported. The lost jobs have been one of the greatest since 1974, The Guardian found. Ironically, Pelosi said the funds will most likely come from federal loans set aside to fund fuel-efficiency measures in the industry.

David T.

College and tuition prices rose more than 439 percent since 1982 while median family income only increased to about 147 percent, a new report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education revealed this week.

The report anticipates that rising college costs, even before the recession hit earlier this week, will double a family’s expenses from about 11 percent on average to 26 percent over the next 30 years, the New York Times reported, decreasing the ability for students to attend college.

Harvard’s endowment fell by 22 percent, making it lose $8 billion in a period of a few months.

That endowment funds more than 30 percent of Harvard’s budget, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

Additional coverage:
The Crimson, which reported the story a day earlier, includes the original letter from Harvard’s president addressing the situation.

David T.

Is the auto industry about to crash?

No, it did a long time ago, says Michael Moore.

Bailout updates: The U.S. officially entered a recession Monday, and bailout plans for the auto industry increased from the initial $25 billion demand. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson may ask for the second half of the bank bailout plan of $350 billion next week.

Bailout commentary: Michael Moore offers his own satire of the auto bailout.

Bailout possibilies: Moore’s blog suggests some interesting possibilities, such as the government buying all the common shares of General Motors for $3 billion. I say take that a step further and give every taxpayer his or her money back in stock! (We’re burning our money either way, right?)

Instead of just posting a comment here, tell your representative what you think. This government site puts you into direct communication with your representative after you select your state and enter your zipcode. Nifty!

David T.

We didn’t nearly spend as much as the average consumer’s $372 spree, a noticeable increase from last year. But we did get our Christmas presents for our family.

My little brother and I ended up going dutch on our presents, getting a gift for our parents and our brother and his wife together. We even made a truce not to buy each other presents.

But that’s not because we’re sweating bullets over our non-existent stock portfolios or non-existent jobs with looming layoffs. Gas is nearly half as expensive as it was since this summer, so why the concern?

Our father has always taught us to be stingy, but it was always implied. As of this year, my brother and I never made a truce to be thrifty, especially since we of all people knew what the other wanted. There seems to be a steady undercurrent sweeping our nation, though, even for those unaffected by layoffs and deflation. And that’s only hurting things.

-David T.

Read more at The New York Times and The Miami Herald for Black Friday sales.

David T.

Without selling their houses or condominiums, many cannot buy into retirement homes that require a payment of $100,000 to $500,000 just to move in. So they are scratching themselves off waiting lists, canceling plans with packing services and staying put, in houses that fit well 30 years ago, but over the years have become lonely, too large or too treacherous to navigate.

“It is part of the hidden problem of the recession,” said Larry Minnix, president of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging. “Every neighborhood, every family’s got them.”

Facilities that have watched their waiting lists wither and their occupancy rates fall in the last year are now scrambling to bring people through their doors. Some assisted-living centers have called in real estate agents to teach prospective residents about online advertising and how to clean and preen their homes for showings. Others have set up programs with banks to provide bridge loans to homeowners, or are discounting apartments and offering low-interest loans.

The Cedar Community, which provides a range of housing for the elderly in West Bend, Wis., has seen independent-living occupancy rates drop by 4 percent this year. There were so many people waiting for their homes to sell that the facility decided, in some cases, to let new residents pay month-to-month until they could unload their houses and use the proceeds on the facility’s entry deposit.

“We’ve never done that before,” said Tracey MacGregor, a spokeswoman at Cedar Community.

But for people like Ruth Scher, 85, selling their home is a critical first step before moving on, or moving anywhere. Ms. Scher put her two-bedroom condominium in Delray Beach, Fla., on the market last year, but no one has made an offer.

In the 34 years since she moved to South Florida, Ms. Scher’s husband has died, the siblings who moved south from New York to join her have died, and her friends have moved away. She is recovering from a fall that broke her clavicle and suffers from arthritis in one shoulder, and she says it is time to move back.

“It’s lonesome,” Ms. Scher said. “So many other people have passed away or moved away. It’s very lonely. The children would love me to come up and I would love to, but I just can’t sell.”

Ms. Scher hoped to move to a retirement community in Cornwall, N.Y., where she has friends. But in the year her home sat on the market, she could not even find a broker willing to sell the property, she said. She finally de-listed her condominium.

“They tell you, ‘We’re sorry, we can’t get any people to come and look,’ ” Ms. Scher said. “If I can’t sell here, I can’t go nowhere.”

There is no way to say how many older Americans are in similar straits, as no statistics track how many of America’s 4.27 million unsold homes are owned by people 65 or older. But industry groups and administrators at retirement homes call the problem a growing one, which worsened as the financial crisis spread from real estate to lending markets. It has been felt worst in regions hit hardest by the housing bust.

“It remains to be seen whether we have a short-term stress, or whether we’re facing a crisis,” said Mr. Minnix, of the Association of Homes and Services for the Aging. “We’re into brand new territory here. It is deeper and potentially broader.”

Across the country, occupancy rates for independent and assisted-living facilities have fallen slightly in the last year, by about 2 percent through the middle of 2008, according to the National Investment Center for the Seniors Housing and Care Industry.

But the problem is playing out acutely in hard-hit areas like Florida, where the vacancy rate at some facilities is up 20 percent to 30 percent over last year, said Paul Williams, director of government relations for the Assisted Living Federation of America. At Luther Manor, a retiree community in Milwaukee, the number of residents moving into independent living has dropped 20 percent this year. In southern Ohio, 65 percent of the people who visited the Bristol Village retirement community this year said they could not buy a unit because their homes were still hanging around their necks.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — As the faltering economy forces companies to cut back, employee perks are among the first things to go. And along with free coffee in the break room, the next thing your employer might axe is its contribution to your retirement savings plan.

About 84% of companies in the U.S. offered employees a 401(k) match as of last year according to Watson Wyatt, a benefits consulting firm.

But for cash strapped companies, reducing or eliminating the retirement contribution may be one way to cut back on costs during hard economic times.

Frontier Airlines already announced that it was suspending its matching contributions to 401(k) plans earlier this year. Struggling automakers General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) and Ford (F, Fortune 500), as well as Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group (DTG) and real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield also announced they would no longer be offering employer matches.

“[In a slowing economy] it’s reasonable to assume that some employers will reduce or even eliminate the 401(k) match,” said Frank Boucher, of Boucher Financial Planning Services in Reston, Va.

Any well-drafted 401(k) plan allows the employer discretion to change the company’s matching policy at any time, Boucher said.

Some businesses cut their matches during the last recession eight years ago. Energy company El Paso (EP, Fortune 500), aerospace and defense company Textron (TXT, Fortune 500), Charles Schwab (SCHW, Fortune 500) and Prudential Securities, are just a few of the firms that temporarily suspended their 401(k) matching policies and later reinstated them when economic conditions improved.

None of those companies said they had any plans to do so again.

Whether that cost saving measure will catch on has yet to be determined. Just 2% of companies reduced their employer 401(k) or 403(b) matches this year, and only an additional 4% said they plan to do so in the next 12 months, according to a survey by Watson Wyatt in October.

But going forward, some experts say the trend could spread as more companies look to cut costs.

“I do believe we will see reductions,” said Tim Maurer, director of financial planning at the Financial Consulate. “Most business owners — and individuals — are just starting to feel the impact of this recession,” he said.

For workers who do get their 401(k) match cut, that does not mean they should also stop contributing, experts say.

Even without the contribution from your company, there is still an advantage to socking money in a 401(k), and that’s the tax savings — your contributions come with an immediate tax deduction as well as tax-deferred growth.

“By all means continue to contribute to the plan,” said Boucher. In addition to the tax savings, this is also an opportunity to buy securities at low prices, he said. “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”

But that does not mean employees should bulk up their contributions to compensate for their employer. Instead, individuals should also aim to build up some cash reserves to cover a few months to a year of living expenses in anticipation of layoffs or other financial hardship, Boucher said.

“If you’re in your 20s or 30s and you have 10% of your income going into a 401(k) that’s probably enough,” he said. “I would be more concerned about having some immediate cash in my pocket so if I do lose my job I can cover expenses without going into debt.”

In addition to 401(k) contributions, Maurer recommends putting money in a Roth IRA. Those under the age of 50 can make a maximum annual contribution of $5,000, which is not deductible but still grows tax-free and incurs no taxes when withdrawn at retirement. To qualify for a Roth, you must not exceed certain income limits.

“A Roth IRA becomes even more attractive when your match goes away,” Maurer said. These retirement accounts let individuals withdraw money at any time with no taxes or penalties, and that can be especially handy during tough economic times such as these.

“This may be a time to prefer to have a little more liquidity than you normally would,” Maurer said.

NEW YORK (Fortune) — Last week, the Paris-based International Energy Agency released its World Energy Outlook 2008 – a 578-page book full of future supply, demand, and price estimates which this year also included an eagerly-awaited study of 800 of the world’s largest oil fields.

Here’s the executive summary: Buy oil stocks.

Considering that the price of oil has plummeted from $147 a barrel in early July to below $50 and that the global economic slowdown is putting a major damper on demand, that might not seem like such a good idea. But as the IEA study makes clear, the long-term supply and demand picture for oil continues to favor higher prices. Maybe much higher.

The report estimates that energy demand will grow 1.6% a year on average through 2030, for a total increase of 45%. To meet that demand, daily oil production will need to rise from today’s level of 85 million barrels to 106 million barrels. The study found high and rising depletion rates at existing oil fields that will make it increasingly hard for new supplies to keep pace. So, the IEA says, the world needs to invest some $26 trillion over the next couple of decades in infrastructure and exploration.

“Given what we know about the decline rates, just to stay flat [in global oil production] we’d have to add the equivalent of four Saudi Arabias between now and 2030,” said Matt Simmons, chairman of Houston energy investment bank Simmons & Co. International and author of Twilight in the Desert, the 2005 book that argues that even oil-rich Saudi Arabia’s petroleum production might have peaked. “It’s a very, very scary study. It’s hard to argue with the data and it’s ghastly what the data says.”

Over the next seven years, the IEA predicts that the price of oil will average $100 a barrel, and rise to more than $110 by 2030. “The era of cheap oil is over,” Nobuo Tanaka, the IEA executive director, told reporters at a press conference in London.

If Tanaka is right, the vicious sell-off in the equity markets over the past couple of months makes this a historically good entry point for investors looking to grab oil-industry bargains.

One stock to look at is National Oilwell Varco (NOV, Fortune 500), which has fallen 80% from its 52-week high. The Houston company sells drilling rig equipment, provides tools, and offers supply chain services to oil exploration companies around the world. NOV estimates that more than 90% of the mobile offshore rigs and more than half of onshore rigs built in the past two decades use components it manufactured.

If you can get past National Oilwell Varco’s somewhat goofy name, the stock is extremely attractive at the current price. Not only does it trade at less than four times its earnings for the past twelve months, but NOV’s market cap of $7.5 billion is less than its $12.3 billion in sales over the past four quarters – giving it an inviting price-to-sales ratio of 0.6. It’s also on solid financial ground. The $1.76 billion in cash on its books exceeds its $1.5 billion in long-term debt.

Unlike its stock, the company’s business has continued to thrive this fall. In the third quarter, National Oilwell Varco’s sales increased 40% over the previous year. New orders worth $2.4 billion brought its total order backlog to a record $11.8 billion. Even if a few contracts get canceled, the company has pretty solid earnings prospects for the next couple of years.

If the IEA’s vision of the future is close to accurate, NOV should be a big winner over the long run.

Experts expect some variety, though: India seems immune while Russia may suffer.

David T.

In a recent post on the New York Real Estate Times website, Larry Dunn points to new data which shows apartment building sales have dropped over 36% in 2008. The median price of buildings also dropped 11% to about 3.3 million dollars.

This is good news for the New York City renter. There is a direct correlation between building prices and rent prices. The lower the cost of sale of a building, the less rent is need to cover expenses and make a profit.