Under the gun to return to profits, General Motors Corp. (GM) announced dramatic job cuts and dialed back pay to its white-collar workforce.

With $17.4 billion owed to the U.S. government amid falling auto sales, General Motors Corp. (GM) and Chrysler LLC may be forced into bankruptcy to reassure loan repayment.

The once booming business of private equity faces an uncertain future. What’s not uncertain, however, is that many private equity deals are imploding from the weight of leveraged debt and greed. Inevitable bankruptcies will result in higher unemployment and a deeper recession.

Do you remember Lloyds of London? It used to be the world’s biggest insurance underwriter. The way it worked was that rich individuals were allowed to keep all their money invested in their favorite stocks and shares, but they could also earn a second income from those assets by pledging that same wealth to underwrite commercial insurance risks, which were sliced and diced by syndicates on behalf of their members.