Another example of a U.S. company taking names and kicking ass abroad--MasterCard. Pricelessly based in Purchase, NY, the credit and debit card processor saw more than double first quarter profit on increased usage outside the U.S. Meanwhile, CEO and President Robert Selander sees U.S. consumers shifting away from luxury purchases toward necessities like food and gasoline.

Too bad they didn't shift sooner: despite siphoning off billions in home equity dollars to pay off their credit cards, American "leverage addicts" are in peak card debt, with the first negative savings rate since the Great Depression.

More big profits are expected later this week, when Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. report first-quarter earnings. This as BP and Shell posted combined profits of $17 billion, on the heels of ConocoPhillips' 16 percent rise in net income. I tried filling up the car with a gallon of milk, now cheaper than gas, but it just ended up needing burping.

How could we get into our current economic pickle? The Financial Times offers a smart, tough perspective that blows the Efficient Market Hypothesis out of the water. On the outs, too, are legions of Wall Street jobs. According to Chicago-based employment researcher Challenger Gray & Christmas, announced layoffs in the financial services industry tripled to 153,105 nationwide in 2007 from 50,327 in 2006.

That means especially ill tidings for executive recruiters like Heidrick & Struggles, which depends on financial clients like Citigroup and Merrill Lynch for around one-third of its revenue--analysts see executive hiring declining and some corporations canceling searches for senior positions.

More optimistically, here are FierceWireless' top 15 picks for the wireless companies of tomorrow, based on "bright executive teams and the potential to advance the industry." Mark your early stock picks for the likes of Firetide, DeviceAnywhere and human-powered search engine ChaCha.

Jeff Heilman

4/30/08