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.

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.

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.

The recession is only over if you ask the right people. While some sectors are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, consumers remain concerned. It may be tempting to listen to the experts over the average Joe, but the former don't control 70% of the U.S. economy. So, as long as people are worried abou unemployment (which continues to rise), the levels of debt they carry and whether they're at risk of foreclosure, the recession will live on in the hearts of those who write checks and swipe credit cards.

Family offices are quite active in the hedge fund space, according to Preqin, with the average family office in North America allocating 14% of its assets to this class.

Core CPI also rose .2% The core index excludes food and energy.

There were price increases in used cars and trucks, apparel and medical care. Energy prices climbed .8% in September.

Good news! President Obama is calling for a $250 payment to seniors.

This news comes on the eve of an announcement by the Social Security Administration stating that there will be no "cost of living" this year. By law, increases in Social Security payments are tied to the cost of living, or COLA. Since there is no inflation this year, there will be no increase in Social Security benefits. This would be the first year since 1975 with no increase.