Good day for: Teamwork, after the CEO of a Boston hospital avoided sweeping layoffs by taking a 10 percent pay cut, and asking department heads and doctors to make sacrifices, too. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center CEO Paul Levy then opened the facility's books to employees to show how dire the financial crunch was and asked for ideas to trim costs. The savings helped Levy reduce the number of employees laid off from 600 to 70. (BusinessWeek)
Bad day for: Borrowing, as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned that federal budget deficits were growing so large that they threaten the nation's financial stability. "Cuts in spending or increases in taxes will be necessary to stabilize the fiscal situation," Bernanke said. The warning dragged down U.S. stocks on Wednesday. (Bloomberg)
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