There’s news this morning that productivity in the U.S. fell by nine tenths percent, the largest amount in a year. One reading of this — American companies are going to have to hire more people because they’ve gotten what they can from existing employees.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has renewed his faith in the U.S. economy. At an event last night, he said the odds we’re heading into a new recession are “very low.”

What does it take to live to 100? Well the journal Aging has just published the results of a study of adults aged 95 to 107 to find out their secrets. Aside from good genes — the surveyed centenarians were also optimistic, easygoing, laughed more, and didn’t bottle up their emotions. Researchers say those traits played an important role in longevity. Along the same lines, I got this aging advice from a friend who is still kicking well into her 90’s: Never hold a grudge.

A guy who writes for a blog called the Ocracoke Island Journal, is on his e-reader going through War and Peace — as one does — and he spots sentences like: “Captain Tushin…sat down by a bonfire the soldiers had NOOKed on the road,” and also: “NOOK in all hearts the flame of virtue.” Didn’t sound like Tolstoy to him. Yes, he’s using a NOOK reader. Turns out the company that prepared the text had swapped the word “Nook” for every instance of “Kindle” through the over-zealous use of find-and-replace. We’ll check every “kindle and cranny” to see if the competition gets revenge.

And finally, the History Channel has Pawn Stars, A&E has Storage Wars, and now Spike TV is introducing it’s own TV show that reflects our economic downturn. The show is called “World’s Worst Tenants” and will act out crazy-but-true stories of foreclosures and evictions.