Things will be pretty quiet again on the earnings front during this holiday-shortened week, so not much chance of fireworks there.

The one report analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters seem to have the highest hopes for is that from Apollo Group Inc. (NASDAQ: APOL), as people look to education to better position themselves to survive the economic slump. For its fiscal third quarter, during which a new co-CEO was named, the Phoenix, Ariz.-based educational services provider is expected to report a profit of $1.12 per share, which is 24.1% higher than a year ago. Revenue is expected to be 24.3% higher to $1.0 billion. The full-year forecast is currently for $3.97 per share (+28.5%) on sales of $3.9 billion (+24.4%). Earnings have topped expectations in the past four quarters, by as much as 13 cents per share. The long-term EPS growth forecast is 15.9%, which is double the industry average, and the forward PE ratio estimate is 15.0. The First Call consensus recommendation remains to buy APOL; InvestorPlace calls it a stock you can trust. At $68.50, shares are down 10.6% since the beginning of the year, but they peeked above the 100-day moving average at the end of this week for the first time since March.

Kodak's announcement today is evidence that sentimentality is dead in 21st century business.

The film world has, after all, been moping since Polaroid stopped producing its iconic instant camera film in early 2008 (take heart, Polaroid fans, "The Impossible Project" is working to reinvent instant film in an old Polaroid factory in the Netherlands). But today Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK) said it was halting production of the complex-yet-storied Kodachrome film, immediately. Not only does the product make up less than 1% of its worldwide still-picture film sales; it's extraordinarily expensive to produce.

As the quarterly reports continue to roll out and the market continues to rally, optimism seem to be rising. Analysts certainly have high hopes for some companies reporting earnings this week.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) to report first-quarter earnings of $1.51 per share, which is 62.3% higher than a year ago. Revenue for the quarter is expected to be 105.6% higher, or $404.9 million. First Solar earnings have topped expectations in the past five quarters, by as much as 47.3%. The long-term EPS growth forecast is 40.6% and the forward PE ratio estimate is 23.0. In the previous quarter, Tempe, Ariz.-based First Solar reported having more cash on hand than debt. The First Call consensus recommendation is to buy FSLR; CNBC recently included it as a stock pick. First Solar has announced that it will build new solar power plants in Nevada and Germany. Its share price has risen 6.9% since the beginning of the year to $147.46.

3M (NYSE: MMM) had a not-that-great first quarter. The declines were significant and ugly. First, net sales plunged over 20%. Second, net income on an adjusted basis likewise spiraled out of control, declining over 40% to $0.81 per share. And no, that didn't meet expectations. Wall Street was looking for $0.86 per share. Sorry, gang.

You've got the dollar and the global recession to blame. Currency translations affected sales, and declines in economic activity didn't help much, either. Many people look to 3M as a staunch dividend play. As such, cash flow is important. Unfortunately, the statement of cash flows this quarter was hard to read. Net cash from operations decreased 30%, and free cash flow lost 35% of its value when compared to the year-ago period. Thankfully, there was enough free cash to cover the dividend.

Each economic era has incidents that characterize the age, and the one just passed, the U.S.'s decade of descent, is no different.

Investors would no doubt cite the financial crisis, bad subprime loans, perverse incentives for bank executives, large leverage, speculative housing investments, Bernard Madoff's alleged investment fraud, Enron, and WorldCom, among others, as topping the decade's major errors and scandals, and there would be no argument here.

On to the above list, yours truly will add two data points, two observations -- certainly not as well known -- but perhaps just as indicative.

If you are sitting in your office or at home thinking: "What am I going to do next? The economy is getting worse by the day," you are not alone. For the first time in a generation real fear has gripped the nation. This was reflected in the action of the markets since the beginning of the month.

Global markets are at multiyear lows, as is the U.S. Dow Jones Industrial average. The S&P index sank below the psychological 800 level.

This past week, attention was focused on central and eastern Europe, where the recession is gaining momentum on the downside. Now add to this mix the banking crisis. Investors are fearing a lack of solvency among the big international banks. Credit default swaps are rising, with Korea hitting a three-month high. Then you have the crisis in Japan, where GDP is falling by an annualized rate of 12.7% in the past three months.

It's an axiom of business theory that change is continual in market economies, but as economist David H. Wang points out, there's change that corporations and citizens can prepare for, and then there's change that few expect.

The latter is, by its nature, Wang says, more disruptive - - driving companies out of business, compelling triage-like changes in business models of others, while also triggering wholesale changes to family budgets, career paths, and students' educational objectives.

Wang groups change in three categories: cyclical (as in the business cycle), technological (such as the Internet, car, telephone, electrification, railroad etc.), and structural (globalization, Cold War, Marshall Plan, Bolshevik Revolution, the Enlightenment, Protestant Reformation, etc).

Novelist and journalist Pete Hamill, whose life and collection of work encapsulates the character, wisdom, grit, and tapestry of immigrant New York, and the rise of the United States, in the 20th century, speaks often of his subway commutes as a student to and from prep school Regis High School in Manhattan to his native Brooklyn.

On the ride home Hamill would frequently see the men of manufacturing and industrial New York -- the men who with their hands worked with the machines and tools that made at one point ... almost every product you could think of. Further, despite all that unpredictable New York could offer in a day, there was always a sense of calm on that subway, he notes.

"Nobody would ever mess with those guys," Hamill says.

Since the end of Hamill's subway riding days, the United States has become a post-industrial economy, but that's not to say that it can not have a manufacturing role in the global economy.

China will remain a major low-cost center for manufacturing, but it is egregiously incorrect and irresponsible to say it represents the landscape -- the sweep, if you will -- of the manufacturing horizon, says economist Richard Felson.

"Many low cost products will be made in China, and elsewhere, but better products can and will be made in the United States, if we plant the seeds for those industries today," Felson said.

This decade, which many economists call the U.S.'s 'decade of descent,' has been a lost decade concerning manufacturing. A failure to invest in the nation's manufacturing, technology, and basic research segments "has left the United States grossly underinvested, from physical plant and capital investment standpoints," Felson said. "The U.S. auto sector is probably the best known example of this. It is a manufacturing tragedy."

U.S. can seize the high end

The solution? Invest in industry, basic research, and technology to re-grab the high-end, and beyond, Felson says.

Think next-generation cars, he says. Think even more efficient jet engines and power systems. Think solar technology. Think wind power. Think smart electric grid. Think expanded universities to train the civil, mechanical, and electrical engineers needed to develop the innovative, energy-efficient, and smart systems of tomorrow.

Non-farm private employment decreased a whopping 157,000 in October on a seasonally-adjusted basis, ADP announced Wednesday in the ADP National Employment Report (pdf).

Meanwhile, the September estimated change in employment was revised to a decrease of 26,000 from the previously announced decrease of 8,000 jobs, ADP said.

Manufacturing employment fell 85,000 in October -- its 26th consecutive monthly decline. Meanwhile, the service sector of the economy lost 31,000 jobs, the first monthly job loss in the service sector since November 2002.

Economist Richard Felson said the October ADP private sector report offered little good news for the U.S economy.

"It is a large monthly job loss, and even more distressing was the job loss total in the service sector," Dawson said. "Up until now the service sector was creating jobs, helping to prop up the economy. The fact that services lost jobs in a month for the first time in six years is a bad sign for the economy because it removes one of the few remaining bright spots in the job market. Job market conditions have worsened and we're likely to continue to see 100,000-plus job loss months for awhile, I'm afraid."

As the ever-increasing stench of socialism wafts from the halls of our legislative branch, one must take pause to wonder exactly how we got to where we are today economically. Yes, I know that there has been a lot of pausing and wondering going on lately. What ticks me off is that it seems that very few of those who are pausing and wondering seem to be able to form the words to express the reality of what they have determined to be true, which is: that the single most significant root cause for today's economic dilemma is the erosion of income for the American middle class private sector.

For the purposes of this piece, I'll state that I consider the "middle class" to be those workers who earn between $14,000 and $125,000 per year. That covers just about every worker from entry level manufacturing to first tier management. We create the bulk of real wages that move throughout this country. We also pay virtually all of the taxes in this country. Never mind that corporations pay huge sums in corporate taxes every year, because the fact of the matter is, they collect those sums from us at the consumer level. Yes, we pay those corporate tax bills, and we know it.

In a surprise, the U.S. manufacturing sector increased production and expanded in June.

The Institute for Supply Management Manufacturing Index rose to 50.2 in June from 49.6 in May, the Institute announced Tuesday. It was the first increase for the index since January. Readings above 50 indicate economic growth; readings below 50, economic contraction.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected the index to drop to 48.7 in June 2008.

Economist David H. Wang Tuesday cautioned against taking a too positive interpretation of the June ISM manufacturing data. "We have to keep in mind that this is just one month and the trend had indicated contraction for five months," Wang said. "Also, we are barely above 50, and the index could easily drop below 50 in the next month, which would be consistent with a continuing contraction, so evaluate the June results in that context."

A key measure of U.S. economic activity continues to indicate a contraction.

The National Association of Purchasing Management-Chicago announced Monday that its business index rose just slightly this month, to 49.6 from from 49.1 in May.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected the June reading to total 48.0. Readings above 50 indicate expansion; below 50, contraction.

Economist David H. Wang told BloggingStocks Monday the June PMI reading was roughly what he expected. "We did have a slight uptick, but overall we still see considerable concern expressed by businesses about rising fuel prices and other costs, and about the impact on the consumer," Wang said. "Businesses remain in defensive mode, for the most part, and there is little sign of a recovery."

This post is part of our Big Company, Small Town series, featuring large companies and the small towns in which they are headquartered.

Is there any piece of furniture more classically American than the La-Z-Boy recliner? It goes hand in hand with the image of Dad -- any Dad, all Dads, from the 1950s to today -- enjoying the simple pleasure of sitting with his feet up and his head back, tempting sleep as he reads the paper. After a long day at work but before the wife puts a delicious roast on the table, there's always time to relax a bit in the world's most famous comfy chair.

La-Z-Boy (NYSE: LZB) invented the first version of that iconic chair in 1929. The company got its start a few years earlier when two cousins, Edward M. Knabusch and Edwin J. Shoemaker, founded the Kna-Shoe Manufacturing Co. in Monroe, Michigan. They made furniture and cabinets in the proverbial start-up garage, and they has some initial success, especially with new designs like the Gossiper, a bench with a phone stand built in. But competitors kept stealing their designs and their profits. So when someone suggested that they upholster their popular wooden recliner, they proceeded carefully, filing for patents and choosing a distinctive name. Sit-N-Snooze and Slack-Back were in the running, but La-Z-Boy was the name they finally selected for the world's first reclining upholstered chair.

The La-Z-Boy was a huge hit, although it hadn't yet achieved its truly classic form. That occurred in 1953, when the Otto-Matic model was introduced. The long-running problem of the ottoman, a separate piece of furniture needed to support the feet while relaxing in a comfy chair, had now been solved. From now on, the ottoman was rendered superfluous, since the La-Z-Boy could offer a built-in foot rest. Oh, sweet perfection!

The Empire State Manufacturing Survey indicated that manufacturing activity in New York State continued to deteriorate in June, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced Monday.

The general business conditions index fell to -8.7 in June from -3.2 in May. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected the index to register a -0.5 reading in June.

The indexes for new orders, shipments, and unfilled orders were negative and lower than their May levels. The prices paid index remained elevated, falling only slightly below last month's record high.

Also, the prices received index rose markedly and, at 26.7, approached a record level; the future prices received index also rose sharply, reaching a record high of 47.7.

Meanwhile, the employment indexes hovered around zero. Future indexes generally improved only slightly from the relatively low levels of the past several months, although the capital expenditures index rose several points.