Here’s a quick list of depressing economic links gathered from about two weeks of websurfing, just in time for all of you with a case of the Mondays:

• The social news “Digglike” site at Netscape is moving. It was spearheaded by Jason Calacanis who moved on from AOL to found Mahalo. While I never really got into using it, a spokesperson from AOL says that it wasn’t the concept of the site but its location at that URL. Other changes are afoot at AOL however – rumors persist of a “massive round of layoffs”.
• Layoffs at Earthlink which derailed San Francisco’s WiFi plans. Yesterday I read that WiFi on the CalTrain is likely going to die too. I’m particularly miffed about both of these WiFi deaths.
• The housing collapse impacting the economy at large – most notably the “shop-happy American consumer” is finally happening. It seems to be finally affecting the employment market. I can hardly wait for some politician to remind us that our patriotic duty is to get out and buy crap to prop up the economy.
• In addition to previous layoff annoucements at Earthlink, Countrywide annouced a layoff of 12,000 people and is reportedly lining up a second bailout. Call me naive, but did that first $2 billion basically vanish into thin air?
• The editorial in this week’s SF Weekly ponders a dollar crash. The dollar continues to lose value just sitting there.
• GigaOM wonders if a decline in ad revenue is bad news for startups. I say keep an eye on the big folks, Yahoo! and Google. If either of them report a decline watch out below.
• Marc Andreessen seems to have shifted his blog focus from how to run a startup to the credit crisis, home ownership, and its effects on banks and hedge funds.
• Folks pulling money out of a troubled British Bank. I’m keeping an eye on Washington Mutual (for purely selfish reasons). They’re starting to reduce headcount.

We’ll see if this stream of troubling news continues to point down, but every layoff or person underwater on their mortgage means one more individual who won’t be getting an iPhone or cares in the slightest about Kijjigi, Uhulu, or Yahookie.

Still, there’s a silver lining. The startups that bootstrap, practice frugality, and are being careful with their VC money will benefit no matter what happens.

Plus at the end of this, maybe some of us can pick up a cheap house with a 15 year fixed and a hefty down payment.

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Posted In: General, Technology

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