Welcome to Finance World

Last Sunday, I reviewed the major credit cards that give you cash rebates once a year, linked to your spending.

Readers were quick to suggest some great deals I missed.

The no-fee Citi Enrich MasterCard provides 1 per cent cash back on all your spending. The maximum rebate is $250 a year.

With a no-fee Canadian Tire Cash Advantage MasterCard, you also get 1 per cent cash back on all spending. But on all purchases at Canadian Tire stores and gas bars and Mark’s Work Wearhouse, you get a rebate of 2 per cent.

This week, I want to talk about credit cards that give you discounts on life’s essentials – such as groceries, gas and new cars.

When it comes to groceries, the no-fee President’s Choice Financial MasterCard provides 10 points for each dollar spent on the card.

Once you get 20,000 points, you can redeem them for $20 in free groceries at participating supermarkets where PC products are sold. That’s a 1 per cent rebate on all your spending.

Laurentian Bank has a no-fee Visa Black Reward Me card. You get one point for each dollar spent, which you can redeem for gift cheques at 30 participating merchants. For example, with 2,600 points (or $2,600 in spending), you can get a $20 Starbucks card. With 3,250 points (or $3,250 in spending), you can get a $25 card for M&M Meat Shops.

Gasoline discounts are a big draw ever since prices hit $1 a litre. With Laurentian Bank’s Visa Black Reward Me, you can get a $25 Esso card with $3,250 in spending.

Canadian Tire has a no-fee Gas Advantage MasterCard, which gives a discount of 10 cents a litre at company gas bars if you spend $2,000 or more in a billing cycle.

That 10-cent-a-litre gas discount used to be available with more than $1,000 in monthly spending until July 1, 2008. That’s when the rules were changed.

Now you get eight cents a litre off gas if you charge more than $1,000 (and less than $2,000) to your card in a billing cycle, five cents a litre with $500+ monthly purchases and two cents a litre with purchases of up to $500 (instant pay day loan).

To save money on a new car — specifically, a GM vehicle – check out the no-fee GM Visa card offered by TD Bank.

This card gives you 3 per cent in earnings. For example, if you spend $2,000 each month, you will contribute $60 a month toward the purchase price or lease down payment on a GM car or truck, up to $720 a year.

The no-fee Citi Driver’s Edge Platinum MasterCard has a lower benefit level, but more flexibility. You get 2 per cent cash rebates on any new or used car, truck, motorcycle, motor home or all-terrain vehicle you buy or lease in Canada up to $5,000.

You may be confused about which credit card to get. How do you compare rewards, interest rates, annual fees and insurance benefits (such as trip interruption coverage or collision damage waivers on rented vehicles)?

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada has an online Credit Card Interactive Tool at www.moneytools.ca, a good place to go to start your comparisons. (There are also links to the credit card companies’ websites.)

Next week, we’ll check out a product marketed heavily by many card issuers. Is credit balance insurance worth buying?

Clarification: BMO’s Premium Cashback Reward option on its Mosaik MasterCard provides a 3 per cent rebate at Shell gas stations (not 2 per cent, as I wrote last week).

Ellen Roseman’s column appears Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. eroseman@thestar.ca

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HONG KONG — Nomura Holdings Inc., Japan’s largest brokerage, said Monday that it has agreed to buy the Asian operations of bankrupt U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The deal includes Lehman’s businesses in Japan and Australia.

Nomura called the deal "a once-in-a-generation opportunity" for the Japanese brokerage house. The deal includes Leh-

man’s 3,000 employees in Asia, including its biggest regional offices in Japan and Hong Kong.

"It will significantly extend our reach in Asia. We see immediate strategic benefits, delivering the scale and scope to realize our vision to be a world-class investment bank," Kenichi Watanabe, Nomura’s chief executive, said in a statement.

The deal was valued at around $225 million, one person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. Nomura did not give the value of the acquisition.

Meanwhile, Nomura also was close to clinching a deal for Lehman’s Europe businesses, another person familiar with the matter said. Nomura’s statement made no mention of the European operations.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Premier Dalton McGuinty is shuffling his cabinet this afternoon to underscore the importance of attracting business and new investment to battered Ontario, which has shorn more than 200,000 manufacturing and forestry jobs in the past few years.

Sandra Pupatello moves from economic development to a new international trade and investment ministry.

Her old duties will be taken up by Michael Bryant, who moves from aboriginal affairs and remains House leader.

Labour Minister Brad Duguid succeeds Bryant at the always challenging aboriginal affairs ministry.

Duguid will be replaced by Tourism Minister Peter Fonseca.

The new tourism minister will be Monique Smith, whose responsibilities as revenue minister will be taken over by Finance Minister Dwight Duncan.

Lieutenant Governor David Onley will swear in McGuinty’s revamped cabinet at 3:30 p.m.

It’s unusual to have a cabinet shuffle just days before a new legislative session, suggesting the premier is highlighting the urgency of Ontario’s sagging economy.

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Thompson Coburn LLP on Tuesday gave St. Louis the verdict it wanted.

The law firm agreed to keep its 595 jobs downtown instead of moving to Clayton in return for about $700,000 in tax abatements and incentives from the city.

Thompson Coburn will even get its name on U.S. Bank tower.

For the city, the retention of the high-profile law firm is a reaffirming win in a year where it suffered the loss of 850 jobs with the closing of Macy’s division headquarters and was jilted by Centene Corp.

The decision to stay downtown was a tough one for Thompson Coburn because it received a number of very competitive proposals over the last two years, Thompson Coburn chairman Tom Minogue said at a news conference. One of the locations the firm had considered was Brown Shoe Co.’s planned mixed-use development at 8300 Maryland Avenue in Clayton.

"We are confident that we made the right choice for us," he said. "We wanted to be where all our people wanted to be."

Although the city was successful in convincing Thompson Coburn to stay downtown, Armstrong Teasdale LLP, currently located at One Metropolitan Square, 211 North Broadway, is considering moving to Centene Corp’s planned headquarters building in Clayton.

A.J. Chivetta, a partner involved in the firm’s relocation efforts, could not be reached for comment.

The city is still feeling the sting of losing Centene back to Clayton. The medical plan administration firm in September announced that it was going to move its headquarters to downtown as part of the Ballpark Village development. But in July, the company pulled out of the deal after it, the city and the developers could not hammer out an agreement.

Clayton offered up to $22 million in tax incentives over 20 years to lure Centene back.

Thompson Coburn employs more lawyers than any other firm in St. Louis and generates $1.2 million a year in taxes for city services, Mayor Francis Slay said.

City officials have been aggressive in their attempts to keep jobs from leaving downtown — especially high-paying ones such as lawyers, who add to the city coffers by way of the 1 percent wage tax.

Keeping a firm of Thompson Coburn’s size downtown "is good for the city’s image and for our economy and our business," Slay said.

Thompson Coburn agreed to sign a 12-year lease at the U.S. Bank tower, located at Seventh Street and Washington Avenue. The firm will remodel its existing 240,000 square feet.

The $700,000 in incentives include abatements of personal property, construction material sales taxes and about $400,000 in forgivable loans and training funds, said Barbara Geisman, the deputy mayor for development.

As part of the agreement, U.S. Bank will donate its current 360-space garage to the Missouri Development Finance Board. An additional garage, which will contain another 360 parking spaces plus a floor of retail space, will be built in the plaza space in back of the building. The Missouri Development Finance Board will run both garages. The estimated $15 million in construction costs will be financed by revenue from both garages, Geisman said.

"This was a substantial gain for the city of St. Louis in the long run," said Robert Lewis, president of Economic Strategies, a St. Louis real estate and economic development consulting firm. By keeping Thompson Coburn with its large number of employees and high wages, the city can make up its costs within about two years, he estimated.

"It (the deal) helps a big firm with ample prestige located in a very important building stay in the city without hurting the city’s budget," he said."

"It’s not a huge amount of money," agreed Don Phares, professor emeritus of economics and public policy at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

More importantly, he said, is the city’s image.

"If they (Thompson Coburn) left, it would indicate that downtown St. Louis is no longer the place to do business," Phares said explaining such a decision could influence other firms to leave. "Keeping them there may be a sign to other firms that being in the city is a desirable place to be."

gappleson@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8331

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Just because consumer stocks are staging the biggest rally in five years doesn't mean the economy is about to recover.

As Lowe's Cos., Wendy's International Inc. and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. led a 7.6 percent advance in consumer stocks this month, the extra yield bond investors demanded to own the industry's debt rose to 2.5 percentage points over U.S. Treasuries. Every time bondholders sought that much compensation to guard against default, shares of retailers, restaurants, and hotels slumped an average 16 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Standard Life Investments, Harvard University's endowment and hedge fund Appaloosa Management LP, which manage almost $300 billion, are avoiding the shares as Americans rein in spending to cope with the highest unemployment rate in four years and faster inflation. Profits at consumer discretionary companies are forecast to be the worst since 2001, Bloomberg data show.

“It's a rally that we think will inevitably roll over,'' said Andrew Milligan, the Edinburgh-based head of global strategy at Standard Life Investments, which oversees about $242 billion. “Investor confidence has started to ease back and earnings numbers have generally been negative. The credit side just reinforces our downbeat views.''

Stocks Versus Bonds

Consumer shares have risen almost four times as fast as the Standard & Poor's 500 Index in August, sending the S&P 500 Consumer Discretionary Index toward its biggest monthly advance since an 8.9 percent increase in October 2003. A 22 percent drop in oil since its July peak and speculation the Federal Reserve will hold off raising interest rates after seven cuts in the past year improved prospects Americans will spend more. Consumer stocks in the MSCI World Index are up 1.8 percent this month.

Futures on the S&P 500 lost 0.4 percent at 11:14 a.m. in London as oil's climb above $115 a barrel sent retailers lower.

This month's gains in consumer stocks coincided with an increase in the difference between yields of U.S. retailers' bonds and those of government debt to 2.47 percentage points as investors demanded more protection against the likelihood of default, according to data from New York-based Merrill Lynch & Co.

When the gap exceeded 245 basis points in 2000, 2002, 2005 and March of this year, the consumer discretionary gauge lost an average of 16 percent over the same span, the data show. A basis point is equal to 0.01 percentage point.

Shares of Mooresville, North Carolina-based Lowe's, the world's second-largest home-improvement retailer, surged 22 percent this month as the extra yield investors demanded to own the company's 5.6 percent bond due in 2012 widened 23 basis points over U.S. Treasuries.

`Voting With Bondholders'

That's more than three times the average increase of A- rated corporate bonds over the same period, Merrill's data show.

The premium on Wendy's 7 percent bond due in 2025 climbed as much as 33 basis points above U.S. government debt this month, almost triple the gain in spreads of similar BB-rated debt. The Dublin, Ohio-based hamburger chain's stock added 16 percent.

The disparity between the stock and bond markets comes as analysts are forecasting the industry's biggest full-year profit decline since the last recession in 2001. Earnings at S&P 500 consumer-discretionary companies will drop 22.9 percent this year, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

“I would be inclined to vote with the bondholders,'' said Jack Ablin, who oversees $65 billion as chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago. “They're sensing there's still credit deterioration going on in the group.''

Earnings Plummet

Lowe's, Wendy's and Starwood, the White Plains, New York- based company that runs the Westin, St. Regis and W hotels, all reported lower earnings for the second quarter. Industry profits have dropped 54 percent on average, the highest on record for Bloomberg data that started in 2001.

LPL Financial's Jeffrey Kleintop expects consumer stocks will continue to do well as profits decline less than analysts estimate. More than 91 percent of the S&P 500 retailers that have reported second-quarter results so far topped Wall Street's consensus forecast, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

“The outlook isn't rosy, but certainly better than what had been priced into those stocks,'' Kleintop, the Boston-based chief market strategist at LPL, which oversees $273 billion, said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

Fed Rate Cuts

Consumer stocks in the U.S., where the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate to 2 percent from 5.25 percent in the past year, are outperforming the rest of the world. The MSCI Brazil Consumer Discretionary Index lost 9.8 percent in August, while retailers, automakers and electronics makers in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 2.3 percent.

To maintain the advantage, U.S. retailers will have to defy an unemployment rate that rose to 5.7 percent last month and the fastest inflation in 17 years. The economy, buffeted by the biggest U.S. housing slump since the Great Depression and more than $500 billion in bank losses, may grow 0.45 percent next quarter, or about a third the annual rate of 1.2 percent forecast this quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“You only have so many dollars or francs or euros in your pocket,'' said Robert Weissenstein, who helps oversee $1.3 trillion as chief investment officer at Credit Suisse Private Bank. It's difficult to turn bullish “as long as you get mixed to negatively biased jobs data,'' he said from Tucson, Arizona.

Harvard Endowment

Harvard's $34.9 billion endowment, the biggest of any university, sold its holdings in 79 of 92 consumer companies including Lowe's, Wendy's and Starwood, during the second quarter, the Boston-based college fund's filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission compiled by Bloomberg show.

Appaloosa, the Chatham, New Jersey-based hedge-fund firm run by former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. bond trader David Tepper, held 10.4 percent less in consumer stocks at the end of the second quarter, partly after selling its 175,000 share stake in Starwood, filings compiled by Bloomberg show. Appaloosa, which owned equities valued at $3.1 billion as of June 30 and also invests in bonds, has posted average annual returns of about 25 percent in its Palomino Fund since the beginning of 1995.

“The corporate bond market has sold off first, fastest, and then equities follow after,'' said Standard Life's Milligan. “What the credit markets are telling us is that we need to still be cautious.''

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While Congress and the Bush administration are focusing on bailing out struggling homeowners and financial companies, another group of federal officials are going after the people who helped propel the country into the mortgage crisis.

The FBI’s Mortgage Fraud Task Force, which works with federal, state and local law enforcement officials across the United States, has ramped up its work. Its targets: mortgage brokers, lenders, appraisers and professionals who defraud homeowners and bankers.

A federal grand jury is looking into three large players in the housing market - Countrywide Financial, IndyMac and New Century Financial - the Los Angeles Times reported last week. All three succumbed to the mortgage meltdown. The paper said that investigators are also looking into whether Countrywide founder Angelo Mozilo gave mortgage deals to powerful friends and politicians, including members of Congress.

In recent weeks, law enforcement officials have descended on those suspected of fraud. This month alone, mortgage professionals in Maryland, Florida, Washington and elsewhere have been charged with bilking lenders and homeowners out of millions of dollars.

These charges come on the heels of the U.S. Justice Department’s roundup of more than 400 people - accused of inflicting more than $1 billion in losses - who were caught up in the latest nationwide sweep named Operation Malicious Mortgage.

"Mortgage fraud and related securities fraud pose a significant threat to our economy, to the stability of our nation’s housing market and to the peace of mind of millions of American homeowners," Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip said in June.

Mortgage schemes come in many flavors, but the most common by far are conducted by industry insiders. Some 80% of all fraud losses involve collaboration or collusion by professionals, which is known as "fraud for profit," according to the FBI.

Often the schemes involve inflated appraisals, falsified documents and fake buyers. The crooks take as much equity as they can out of a house before they stop making mortgage payments, usually leaving the lender stuck with the property.

In Las Vegas earlier this month, five people pleaded guilty in a scheme that cost banks $17 million. They were involved in recruiting people to pose as homebuyers, falsifying loan applications and then defaulting on mortgages. Six more people are awaiting trial in the case.

In other schemes, professionals steal people’s identities and credit histories to qualify for loans. Sometimes, the sham involves flipping a house from buyer to buyer, inflating its value, before abandoning it.

In some cases, industry insiders claim to help delinquent borrowers save their homes from foreclosure, but actually take the title of the home, strip out the equity and then desert it.

In mid-July, law enforcement officials charged a 36-year-old Maryland man with defrauding homeowners facing foreclosure. In the case, the man conspired with the owners and employees of the Metropolitan Money Store to dupe struggling borrowers, telling them they could keep their homes and repair their credit if they turned over the title of their houses. Instead, the FBI charges, they stripped the homes of their equity and let them fall into foreclosure. Nine defendants face a variety of charges, including mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. He is looking at a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and $1 million fine.

The other type of fraud, known as "fraud for housing," involves a borrower falsifying his income or employment to qualify for the loan.

While acknowledging that the feds can’t turn a blind eye to mortgage fraud, industry observers question how effective their efforts will be at stemming such crimes. Some say the problem is just too widespread, while others maintain the key to stopping mortgage fraud lies in closer monitoring of the lenders and other professionals.

"The deterrent will come through better regulation and underwriting standards," said Todd Foster, a former federal prosecutor and FBI agent who is now a defense attorney in Tampa. "I’m not sure these prosecutions will have as great an effect as that."

Law enforcement agencies started ramping up their investigations into mortgage fraud earlier this decade after seeing a spike in banks filing reports of suspected criminal activity. In 2004, they formed a mortgage fraud task force with local and state officials and, within 16 months, had charged more than 300 people with crimes ranging from doctoring loan documents to inflating property appraisals.

There are now 42 regional mortgage fraud task forces nationwide charged with rooting out criminal activity in the housing market, with many of them created after the sector starting imploding last year. One of the most recent was a squad in Southern California, a hotspot for mortgage schemes, which was assembled in June.

"We don’t know the depth of the problem," said Sharon Ormsby, the FBI’s section chief of financial crimes. "We are trying to be diligent and target those subjects who will do their communities the most harm."

The FBI has 180 agents devoted to the sector. They are juggling more than 1,400 investigations, double the caseload it had three years ago. It is also probing 22 corporations for subprime-related schemes.

Law enforcement officials have been busy in recent months. In the first four months of the year, the FBI obtained 189 indictments and 122 convictions, on top of 321 indictments and 260 convictions last year. The top markets for mortgage fraud include Florida, Georgia, Michigan, California and Illinois.

The housing market’s collapse doesn’t spell the end of mortgage fraud, Ormsby said. Foreclosure scams will likely increase, for instance.

"The market, whether up or down, doesn’t affect fraud," she said. Nowadays, the criminals "just need to be more creative."

Clamping down on mortgage fraud is tough, says Patricia McCoy, law professor at the University of Connecticut. Since the players are often small, law enforcement has to go after "many small fish in many different towns" nationwide, she said.

While many blame the regulators for being too lax during the housing boom, McCoy said officials could have ramped up their efforts earlier too. It might have encouraged lenders to increase their oversight.

"If the FBI had been much more serious about mortgage fraud, they might have gotten the lenders to be serious about taking fraud prevention measures, she said. 

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Australian job-vacancy advertisements declined by the most in almost two years in June, adding to signs employers will pare hiring as economic growth slows.

Jobs advertised in newspapers and on the Internet fell 3 percent from May to an average of 262,075 a week, the biggest drop since November 2006, according to an Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. report released in Melbourne today.

The central bank raised interest rates to a 12-year high in March to engineer a slowdown in the economy and cool inflation that is running at the fastest pace in almost two decades. Governor Glenn Stevens left borrowing costs unchanged for a fourth month last week, saying there are “tentative signs'' the jobs market is easing and domestic demand is moderating.

“This report is consistent with a softening in the labor market,'' said Sally Auld, co-head of economics at ANZ Bank in Melbourne. “Employment growth should ease modestly over the next six months.''

The Australian dollar traded at 96.17 U.S. cents at 11:35 a.m. in Sydney from 96.20 cents before the report was released. The two-year government bond yield fell to 6.74 percent from 6.82 percent on July 4.

Employers cut 19,700 workers in May, ending a record 18 months of job gains, the government reported on June 12.

Economy Slows

Other figures suggest the economy's expansion is losing momentum after the central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to 7.25 percent in March.

The construction industry contracted for a fourth month in June as rising borrowing costs reduced demand for houses and factories, the Australian Industry Group said today.

Qantas Airways Ltd., Australia's largest carrier, said in June that it will slash services to Japan, shift other Asian routes to low-cost unit Jetstar and cut jobs in response to surging fuel costs.

The number of jobs advertised in newspapers fell 3.5 percent in June, today's report showed. Vacancies on the Internet declined 2.9 percent.

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US Airways Group Inc (LCC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Thursday it will reduce its work force by 1,700, or about 5 percent, and will cut more capacity than planned and introduce new fees as the airline industry battles record fuel prices and a weakening economy.

The airline will reduce its fourth-quarter domestic mainline capacity by 6 to 8 percent, having previously planned a 2 to 4 percent cut.

For 2009, US Airways plans to cut domestic mainline capacity 7 to 9 percent from 2008 levels.

The airline will also return 10 aircraft to leasing companies and cancel deliveries of two aircraft.

US Airways said its new fees will include the introduction of a $15 service fee for a first checked bag for many customers from July 9.

“Our industry is profoundly challenged by the dramatic increase in fuel prices, and we must write a new playbook for running a profitable airline in this new and challenging environment,” said US Airways chief executive Doug Parker in a statement.

US Airways said its fuel expense will be about $1.9 billion more in 2008 than it was last year.

VEGAS FLIGHTS CUT 

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Rising food and energy costs are still trickling through the economy, complicating the outlook for inflation, Boston Federal Reserve President Eric Rosengren said on Tuesday.

The central bank still expects prices to trend down as the economy softens, but it is less confident in this outlook because of simmering commodity costs, Rosengren said in a speech in Cape Cod.

“The effects of significant increases in food and energy prices are still feeding through the economy, as are the impacts of appropriately aggressive monetary and fiscal policy responses to the recent financial turmoil,” he said.

The United States has been struggling with twin crises in the housing and financial sectors, developments that have forced the Fed to cut interest rates sharply since September.

Investors now believe the central bank will leave benchmark rates on hold at their current 2 percent level. Tough talk on inflation from a string of Fed officials have also prompted the markets to begin pricing in an eventual rate hike, as early as October.

The economy has barely sputtered forward in the last two quarters. Last week, the government reported a jump in the unemployment rate from 5.1 percent to 5.5 percent, the biggest one-month rise in 22 years.

At the same time, oil prices have reached a record high near $139 a barrel and the average cost of gasoline nationally has surpassed $4 a gallon for the first time. These trends should slow growth, but also put upward pressure on prices.

DON’T BLAME THE BUCK 

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LAURIE NICKLE

Age: 37

Job: Laid-off assembly line worker at truck plant

How long at GM? 4.5 years

Why are you at the blockade? Because GM wants to shut the truck plant after they agreed to give us a new model.

Are you angry, and if so, at whom? Yes. At GM and at the government because they’re taking away our paycheques and, up until now, the government hasn’t done anything to help us.

What’s next for you? I guess I’m going to have to start searching for a job soon. Either looking for a job or going back to school.

STEVE HIENSTRA

Age: 30

Job: Assembly line worker at GM Oshawa truck plant

How long at GM? Almost four years

Why are you at the blockade? I’m losing my job and I’m trying to fight for it and save it.

Are you angry, and if so, at whom? Yeah, I’m angry. Two weeks ago, we agreed to a contract and, two weeks later, they (GM) backed out on us.

What’s next for you? It all depends if they’re able to keep the truck plant. If not: retraining.

JIM BEDFORD

Age: 69

Job: Retired assembly line worker

How long at GM? 25 years before retirement

Why are you at the blockade? I have to support the guys I used to work with and I’m afraid they might try to take away my pension.

What’s next for you? All I can do is see what the union does and take it day by day.

KATHIE FOWLIE

Age: 55

Job: Assembly line worker at car plant

How long at GM? 25 years

Why are you at the blockade? I want to make a statement to our government because they need to step up to the plate and lower the taxes on gas so people can drive whatever vehicle they want.

What’s next for you? What’s next for me is to be here to support this union in any action and any struggle and try to find jobs for our people.

TED LAWRENCE

Age: 42

Job: Assembly line worker at car plant

How long at GM? 23 years

Why are you at the blockade? Because GM lied to us with the bargaining.

Are you angry, and if so, at whom? I’m angry for the community because GM let us down because they lied. We don’t teach our kids to lie, so how can we respect our employer if they lie to us.

What’s next for you? We just keep plugging on.

M. VANDEN HEUVEL

Age: 35

Job: Assembly line worker in car plant

How long at GM? Six years

Why are you at the blockade? I need my job. I’m a single person with a car and a mortgage and I need to keep my job.

Are you angry, and if so, at whom? I’m mad at the company and the government.

What’s next for you? The unemployment line.

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