If you haven’t visited the Big Apple recently, New York’s street-food vendors are selling much more than hot dogs and pretzels these days. Without setting foot in a restaurant, you can have your pick of fancy cupcakes, chicken-Thai basil dumplings, vegan tacos and other culinary offerings.

New Yorkers may stand to benefit from an even greater selection of upscale street foods soon because the City Council will consider a proposal this fall to increase the current number of food vending permits from 3,100 to 25,000, says the New York Times.

Rising unemployment has struck white-collar workers as hard as anyone else, leading more white-collar workers with former six-figure salaries to try their hand as food-cart vendors. But they’re unwittingly clashing with more traditional hawkers of gyros and kebabs. Most of the veteran vendors are immigrants, and many have occupied a certain street corner for decades; in some cases, they’ve even handed down their location on a certain block to future generations within the same family.

The city’s Health Department charges $200 for a two-year street permit, which can be renewed indefinitely, but the city doesn’t regulate where vendors park their carts, aside from enforcing parking regulations and barring street-food vendors from certain streets. Because demand for a limited number of permits is so high, the black-market value of these permits can be as much as $15,000.

Upscale food merchants new to the street-vending scene have been cursed, had their lives threatened, seen their tires slashed and otherwise been told that they’re not welcome. This street-level bullying comes not just from other vendors, who view their presence as “an unfair advantage in a desperate economy,” but also by brick-and-mortar restaurants, according to the New York Times.

Although you might think that a hungry customer looking for lunch will still head for the hot dog stand instead of the cupcakes, many vendors see it differently, believing that if someone has $5 in their pocket, each of two vendors has a 50/50 shot at getting the customer.

What’s the solution — should the city step in and start assigning street-cart locations when permits are issued? Or should we leave it to the vendors themselves to duke it out in the kind of turf wars more commonly associated with drug lords?

When the world’s largest public corporation (and largest private U.S. employer) tinkers with its highly successful business model, it’s hard not to take notice.

According to Wal-Mart executives who recently concluded a shareholder meeting, a recession is no time for wimps.

And it’s no time to rest on one’s laurels, even if the laurels include hitting the $400 billion mark in sales for the first time during its last fiscal year, according to a New York Times story.

Sales have been robust for the retailing giant during this recession, but the company’s head honchos have set out to build long-lasting relationships with its new, more affluent customers. Many of them set foot inside a Wal-Mart for the first time during this recession seeking refuge from higher prices elsewhere, and Wal-Mart’s betting that the sea change in consumers’ attitudes about spending will be a permanent one.

The company’s retention strategies include a new store design and remodeled layout that would make shopping — and checkout — a more pleasant experience. This means wider, more easily navigated aisles with lower shelves, as well as expanded food and electronics departments, two product categories that are selling briskly. The most popular items, including groceries, pet supplies, health and beauty goods, and baby products, will be located closer together so customers don’t have to schlep all over the store. There’ll be fewer brands, and the take-out food and deli areas will be relocated closer to store entrances to accommodate customers who want to eat on the go.

While many smaller businesses have already closed or are struggling to stay afloat, Wal-Mart has leveraged its massive buying clout to deliver on its mantra of low prices. (“Save Money. Live Better.”)

What’s your take? Does this bode well for consumers?

Contrary to popular opinion, a recent MarketWatch story reports that so-called “sin” industries like tobacco companies, casinos and distillers haven’t been faring well in this recession. A few stock funds that espouse Catholic values, on the other hand, have done better.

It’s often been said that during tough economic times, liquor sales and gambling continue to thrive because consumers turn to them for cheap entertainment or escape from their problems.

For those non-investors out there, you may be surprised to learn there’s a mutual fund called The Vice Fund (VICEX), which invests solely in “sin” industry companies like those mentioned above. That fund posted a 42% loss ⎯ 4 percentage points worse than the S&P 500 ⎯ over the past 12 months, MarketWatch said.

Compare that performance to that of the Ave Maria mutual funds, which avoid investing in things that involve abortion or benefit Planned Parenthood; the family of funds as a whole handily bested both the Vice Fund and the S&P 500, a broadly-used stock market benchmark.

The Ave Maria Growth Fund, for example, earned 23% for its investors since its inception about six years ago, better than average losses of about 7% for the S&P 500 during the same period.

This recession seems to be busting a lot of conventional wisdom about what’s supposed to happen in an economic downturn.

Can you think of any products or services that are still thriving in this economy?

A story in the Wednesday issue of Tennessean reported that the bad economy is sending more people to the therapist’s couch. Anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia and other emotional problems are on the upswing as worries about job stability and bills take their toll.

According to a 2008 survey by The American Psychological Association, 80% of Americans say the economy is stressing them out. And that applies even to workers who still have jobs.

One Nashville therapist said it’s an opportunity to remind his clients that there’s more to their lives than what they do for a living and how much money they make.

Has the current recession caused you to do any soul-searching about your lifestyle, goals and priorities?

The recession is creating job losses across a wide swath of America and in every industry group. A recent New York Times story took a closer look at which demographic and ethnic groups (and states) are disproportionately feeling the pain of what’s been coined The Great Recession.

The Winners
• Renters, who had no equity to lose in real estate or the ability to take on risky mortgages
• Retirees who rely on Social Security income rather than personal investments
• Young families, who stand to benefit if their investments in the current, depressed stock market normalize in coming years

The Losers
• Day laborers and other workers who found work plentiful during the now-extinguished housing boom
• Hotel and retail employees and others without a college degree (most families cut back first on travel and shopping when money’s tight)
• Men, who tend to make up most of the workforce in troubled industries like manufacturing and construction
• Homeowners, who have seen real estate values plunge
• Investors, many of whom lost as much as half the value of their retirement funds or other investments
• Latinos, more so than any other ethnic group; the national unemployment rate now stands at 7.1%, compared to 11% for the U.S. Latino population
• El Centro, California, ground zero of the recession with an unemployment rate of 22.6%; this southern California agricultural town normally depends on Mexicans for picking the crops
• Michigan, North Carolina, Rhode Island and other states that rely heavily on manufacturing jobs
• Wall Street, where thousands of jobs will fall by the wayside
• The currently wealthy, who will pay higher taxes under Obama’s plan to bring more income equity to lower- and middle-income families

Can you think of other groups who are uniquely positioned to benefit or lose big in this recession?

The economic downturn has succeeded in curtailing yet another ingrained American pastime ⎯ having children.

The Los Angeles Times recently reported that an increasing number of middle-class American families are deciding to postpone starting a family, or adding to their family, due to the economic crisis.

Baby boom and bust cycles do typically overlap the nation’s economic health; economic downturns often precipitate a drop in the U.S. fertility rate.

While there are still those who prefer that Mother Nature decide when they’ll make the celebratory announcement, young couples who may be saddled with new student loan debt and low starting salaries may have trouble taking care of themselves, let alone a new baby. For couples like these, the decision to delay parenthood until the economy improves is one that could ensure that parenthood, when it comes, will be more enjoyable and less stressful.

If you’re a parent, did you consider your own personal finances, or the general economic climate, before deciding to have children?

New York real estate developer and reality-TV star Donald Trump is hoping to persuade a court that the current recession should let him defer repayment of $334 million for a construction loan that was due November 7.

Before the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, Trump broke ground on the 92-story Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago. The tower, which will contain 339 hotel rooms and 485 condominiums, will be the country’s second-tallest building, after Chicago’s Sears Tower, when it’s completed next year. To finance the project, Trump secured a $640 million construction loan in 2005 from a group of lenders headed by Deutsche Bank AG. In his lawsuit filed against Deutsche Bank, Trump seeks to extend the loan indefinitely because the economic crisis is a “once-in-a-lifetime credit tsunami.”

Trump is relying on a “force majeure” clause in the loan agreement that would allow him, as the borrower, to delay completion of the skyscraper if riots, floods, strikes or “any other event or circumstance not within the reasonable control of the borrower” create obstacles. According to a New York Times story, Trump said the current economic downturn is not within his control as a borrower and that he should thus be able to defer payment of the loan until some time after the financial crisis ends.

Deutsche Bank claims Trump owes it $40 million that he personally guaranteed and is seeking to have Trump’s lawsuit dismissed.

If there’s one bottom line the sub-prime mortgage crisis has hopefully taught us, it’s that both lenders and borrowers alike must accept responsibility for their actions.

Do you think Trump’s “financial crisis” argument holds water? If so, what’s the difference between his circumstances and those of millions of squeezed homeowners who can no longer afford to pay their mortgage loans?

While we can’t confirm that Pope Benedict XVI is busy clipping coupons and hoarding pennies these days, his staff might be. Or at least they’re likely to be a lot more budget conscious than in the past.

Word from the Vatican is that those who work there (both the laity — non-religious personnel — and priests) have begun to use time cards to clock in and out of work.

So that’s where we are now: Priests and religious aids who work at the Vatican have been issued swipe cards. Some will say that it’s a good thing to promote the meritocracy of the Catholic Church: You know, reward those who work longer hours and do their jobs more effectively than others. That’s certainly good business, but do the words “business” and “Vatican” seem like they should go together?

Maybe in these tough economic times, nothing should surprise us anymore.

As the recession appears more global than local, most of us have made abrupt lifestyle changes in response to high prices and the uncertainties raised by the global liquidity crisis.

OPEC members announced they would meet November 18 to discuss cutting output. The oil cartel’s president, Chakib Khelil, said OPEC was “very likely” to cut oil production, Bloomberg reported. Most members of the cartel want to see prices remain in the $80 to $100 a barrel range. Iran and Venezuela, it’s been said, would like to see production cuts so as to raise prices while Saudi Arabia has resisted doing so. OPEC controls about 40% of the world’s oil output.

So, come November, will they be kicking us when we’re down?

One has to wonder what Henry Ford would think if he were around today. When it was introduced on October 1, 1908, the Model T was affordable ($825) and was soon mass-produced; Americans weren’t just buying an automobile, they were buying freedom and independence. Today, the gas-powered, internal combustion engine may be approaching the end of its useful life, and continued dependence on oil to run our cars, and much of our country, seems more like a ball-and-chain than freedom.

What does energy independence mean to you?