Reuters - Housing and credit troubles took more of a toll on the U.S. economy as prices on pre-owned single-family homes tumbled in the third quarter and consumer confidence in November sank to a two-year low, reports on Tuesday showed.

Miner's bullishness lifts base metals (FT.com)
FT.com - Base metals prices regained ground on Monday, supported by a bullish outlook from Rio Tinto, the diversified mining company and in spite of persistent concerns about the US economy.
Please see at Tool #3 "Fill-In-the Blank Notices" in the jobholder Dismissal Toolkit (attached to the end of this book). You can usually lay off for the first instance of insubordination. This is a practice that protects you as a proprietor and supervisor. o Inform the jobholder you're her contact person for any more questions. Therefore, if the jobholder can find any way to sue you for improper lay off, he'll do it just to even the score. Seventh, you must only hire "good" workforce which you won't be dismissing anytime soon. o Decision: You can either informally counsel the jobholder or give him a warning. You know this is in direct violation of company policy. So how do you dismiss for misbehavior? So, you've decided to fire your difficult employee.

o Disobedience (not following minor directives from boss). This will normally make a litigation or a threat of one disappear right away. With most difficult employees, you'll have several legitimate reasons from which to pick. This looks unprofessional and a boss can do a better job of explaining the separation. These are legitimate grounds for separation, and I'll show you how to dismiss her for this.