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No, don't expect to see windmills and solar panels -- consumers are leaning toward a different kind of green this holiday season: cash. Rather than hit their credit cards, shoppers will only be spending money they have (and can see and touch). Seventy-one percent of consumers are looking to cash and debit cards as their primary form of payment for holiday shopping this year, which the National Retail Foundation pegs as the highest level since 2005.

This could be a problem for the retailers.

Sure, you'd think that the merchant fees on credit cards make cash more attractive to the sellers. But, Ellen Davis, a spokesperson for the NRF, says that most retailers have found they can talk credit card buyers into up-sells more easily. That leads to a bigger basket size and more revenue. Done successfully, it should comfortably absorb the impact of merchant fees. James Roberts, a marketing professor at Baylor University, adds that using plastic makes consumers more likely to buy at all, let alone more.

Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average set a new 2009 high, trading above 10,225. GDP growth came in at 3.5% for the third quarter.

However, what we are experiencing is a disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street. Last Friday, the Labor Department reported that unemployment is now above 10%. Consumer spending for September fell .5%, the biggest drop since December 2008.

The housing market is still mired in price declines during the third quarter. Prices declined in 80% of metro areas. Of the 153 metro areas surveyed, 123 still saw price declines, while 30 saw price increases. Overall, the national median price has fallen 11.2% from last year.

Let's look at specific towns and cities with the highest price declines and the highest price increases:

• Fort Myers, Florida tops the list with a 40% decline. Median home prices were $98,000.00
• Las Vegas, Nevada saw a 35% decline. Median home prices were $138,500.00
• On the up side, Cumberland Maryland saw a price increase of 19% Median home prices rose to $122,100.00
• Davenport, Iowa was next with a 14% increase. Median home prices were $115,600.00.

Why are stocks trading at record highs? Last week we had a dismal report on unemployment, rising to above 10%. Stocks should have opened weaker today. Wrong. Stocks surged to new highs with the Dow trading at 10,147 up 126 points. Why the sudden change ot trend? The catalyst came over the weekend when the G 20 agreed to keep stimulus packages in place for their respective economies. Traders interpreted this as a buy signal because it means that more money will be sloshing around the world stimulating business and increasing profits.

As expected, the popular home buyers tax credit has been extended. In fact, it is even more attractive.

OK, let's first look at the extension of the current program, which includes a maximum $8,000 credit for first-time home buyers (which is someone who hasn't owned a home in the past three years). The home must be a principal residence and the value may not exceed $800,000 (the credit is either 10% of the value of a home or $8,000, whichever is less). The credit is also refundable, which means that you can still get money even if you do not owe taxes.

Sotheby's (NYSE: BID) had a great night this week, tripling the performance of competitor Christie's (OTC: CRUPF). But, it didn't come soon enough to help the company's third quarter results.

The auction house suffered from the art market slump that was exacerbated by the global financial crisis, posting a net loss of $57.8 million (89 cents a share). This is worse than the $47 million loss (73 cents a share) it delivered a year earlier. Three analysts that Bloomberg surveyed expected a loss of 29 cents a share. Revenue was off 41% to $44.9 million for the quarter.

Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) has initiated a new Deed to Lease program in which homeowners facing foreclosure will be able to stay in their homes as renters.

During the first half of the year, Fannie Mae has acquired 57,000 homes through foreclosure. These are owners who do not qualify for mortgage restructuring. They must demonstrate that they could not pay their mortgage but can pay rent. The rents paid are lower than their previous mortgage payment.

After haggling since September the US Senate finally passed an extension for unemployed persons and extended the credit for first time home buyers.

The situation for unemployed persons is dire. Here are just a few facts about their current situation:

• We have 15 million unemployed vying for just three million available jobs.
• 200,000 persons lost their benefits since September
• 7000 persons a day are losing their benefits.
• More than 1/3 of the unemployed have been out or work for at least six months.

The National Bankruptcy Research Center reported that there were 135,914 bankruptcies in October, up 9%. One third of the bankruptcies were filed under Chapter 13. Chapter 13 requires that the court set up a five year repayment plan for debts owed.

In addition business bankruptcies were up 7% for the same period.The forecast is for 1.4 million bankruptcies in 2009, the highest since 2005. In that year Congress revamped the bankruptcy laws to make it more difficult to wipe out all of a person's debts. There was a rush of filings in the months just before the new law was enacted.

On December 31, the government subsidized health insurance under the COBRA program is set to expire.

What is COBRA? COBRA is a federal program that allows you to continue your health insurance after you leave a company. If you choose this option, you must pay your share and the company's share of your health insurance. For singles it averages about $400.00 and for families it averages $1050.00

Sorry to say that the jobs report for October is bleak. According to ADP National Employment, 203,000 jobs were lost.

Since the recession started, U.S. job losses have risen from 7.6 million to 15 million.

Here are the numbers by sectors:

We have a human disaster of enormous proportions. We have 15 million persons unemployed. Thousands are on the brink of losing their homes. As of this December, 1.7 million unemployed will exhaust their benefits. They may be homeless at this holiday time. Some 400,000 persons exhausted their benefits in the month of October.

Now, as reported in BusinessWeek, one lone economist, Katerina Alexandraki, is asking Wall Streeters to give their bonuses to the homeless and unemployed. She has set up a website, Bonus for Homes, and started a campaign to distribute the monies to low-income earners and the unemployed.

Wall Street is getting back to normal. How do we know that? One gauge: measuring Wall Street's health is the amount of bonuses bank employees receive.

Here are just a few numbers that reflect how Wall Street is doing:

• Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE GS) set aside $16.7 billion dollars for compensation in 2009, just a few dollars short of the record $16.9 billion set in 2007.
• Each employee at Goldman averages $527,192.00

Some of the jobs that have disappeared through this recession are gone forever, it seems. Even when the market turns, and even gains momentum, we could be stuck with a fairly weak employment market for a while. The recovery will take longer than we'd like, putting more distance between now and the top of the next market run. We've lost 7.2 million jobs since December 2007, and the predictions of some economists that we'll get them back by 2014 may actually seem optimistic.

Unemployment is at 9.8%, and it's expected to clear 10% early next year. Then, we have the specter of a jobless recovery with which to contend. "Full employment" is often considered to be an unemployment rate of 4% to 5%, but it could be a while before we get there. The last downturn, following the dotcom bust, resulted in a peak unemployment rate of 6.3% in 2003 ... and we're already well past that.

Why is the recovery going to be such a grind? Check out the four major reasons after the jump.

KaChing! KaChing!

It only makes sense to call a company a sound you like to hear. This is exactly what CEO and co-founder Andy Rachleff must have had in mind. His new company -- kaChing, of course -- is backed by Marc Andreesen (a name often associated with that sound) and Jeff Jordan, the CEO of OpenTable (NASDAQ: OPEN), two guys who usually do a solid job of backing winners. But, they've taken on a challenge by backing a company in the financial services industry.