Do you have a confession to make about a purchase you shouldn't have made?

Whether it's the $600 treadmill you bought on a credit card, then used as a really expensive clothes hanger, or that collection of pricey handbags you just had to have, Spendster.org is the place to bare your frivolous soul.

With great professional power comes great professional responsibility. The ability to work well at your job is a must, but being able to continually conduct yourself in a professional manner is equally critical. One embarrassing miscue could send you packing in a hurry.

With the country perched on the edge of a deep recession, the national unemployment rate above 6% and nine straight months of a national net decline in jobs, the question is whether the U.S. labor market's fortunes are about to plunge even more steeply.

In the eyes of many experts, the answer is a bleak one. "Unfortunately, the worst is to come," says Robert Reich, a former U.S. Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton and a professor at the University of California at Berkeley. Reich argues that consumers have only begun to tighten their purse strings, which will shrink business markets and force employers to cut costs largely through payroll reductions. "We will see substantial layoffs in the coming months, and probably through 2009," he says.

I traveled through Midway Airport in Chicago on my trip to my niece's funeral last week. Already under stress, I experienced a miscommunication that offered a lesson for business writers.

When looking for a new job in tough economic times, everything you can use to your advantage should be part of your arsenal.

Networking is key to finding a new job, but there are steps you can take online in tandem with face-to-face networking to help land a new position. One important step is to create an online presence.

In these days of Web 2.0 and the idea that everyone should have a working understanding of the Internet, it's essential to create an online identity that any potential employer or human-resources professional can easily find, experts say.

The verdict is still out on who exactly won the Boeing Machinists strike of 2008, but it has nonetheless given a shot in the arm to a weakening organized labor movement in America.

“This is not a case where the union caved, even in these times with this type of job market and national pressure,’’ said Philip Dine, an expert on labor relations and author of “State of the Unions.’’ “This strike showed that labor can still hold its own.”

Style at a Walmart used to mean a clean cut on the side of a box so customers could get their products right from the case.

But the world's largest retailer has been working for years to improve its stores' appearance and, on Wednesday, unveiled its new design for remodeled stores—a look that ties each section of the store together with a fresh use of light and color.

A new study based on unpublished Internal Revenue Service data shows the rich are different when it comes to paying taxes: They hide more of their income.

The previously unreported study estimates that taxpayers whose true income was between $500,000 and $1 million a year understated their adjusted gross incomes by 21 percent overall in 2001, compared to an 8 percent underreporting rate for those earning $50,000 to $100,000 and even lower rates for those earning less. (The "net misreporting rate" as the IRS calls it, includes both underreported income and inflated deductions.)

Employers seeking to decrease interruptions may want to have their workers use instant messaging software, a new study suggests.

A recent study by researchers at Ohio State University and University of California, Irvine, found that workers who used instant messaging on the job reported less interruption than colleagues who did not.

The arguments continue to rage over the ambiguities in the RSS specifications. But the fact is: RSS is here to stay, and the current defined RSS 2.0 specification is likely going to be as good as it is going to get.

Attempts have been made to create "best practice" documents and specification clarifications. We felt it would be helpful to provide general guidelines for those constructing an RSS 2.0 feed.

In general, the following are guidelines for constructing an RSS feed. It is good to get into the habit of validating the RSS feed, either with software, or with an online validator.