Press File PhotoCrowds of shoppers clog the aisles at Toys R Us by Centerpointe Mall in Grand Rapids during Black Friday 2007.

GRAND RAPIDS -- November is beginning to feel like one long Black Friday with super sales and doorbusters.

But the best deals are yet to come.

Retailers are offering even steeper discounts for the day after Thanksgiving. They have no choice if they are going to pull in shoppers, who are worried about tightening credit, massive layoffs and shrinking retirement funds.

"Customers are being more aggressive in how they shop sales," said Frank Guglielmi, Meijer Inc. spokesman.

"It's all about planning. We heard from customers that they are being much more strategic," Guglielmi said.

DETROIT -- Embattled automakers might find some valuable ammunition to support their plea for federal aid in a University of Michigan forecast that paints a grim picture for Michigan and auto sales.

Michigan's jobless rate will jump above 10 percent next year and stay there through 2010 for the first time since the severe recession of the early 1980s, U-M economists George Fulton and Joan Crary said Friday in releasing their annual prediction for the state.

U.S. auto sales will fall from 13.3 million vehicles this year to 12.2 million next year, the lowest level since 1982, the economists said.

AP PhotoThe General Motors headquarters is seen in Detroit, Friday. GM and Chrysler will have to cut travel, turn off lights and shut down everything they possibly can to preserve cash and stay alive, industry analysts say, until Congress revisits whether they should get government loans. With no hope of getting credit elsewhere and auto sales at a 25-year low, both automakers are struggling to make their money last until early next year.

DETROIT -- When Chrysler was near death and awaiting a government bailout in 1979, then-CEO Lee Iacocca ordered drastic spending cuts and required all checks above $1,000 to be approved by a senior vice president.

Chrysler LLC and General Motors Corp. need to follow the same playbook now, industry analysts and management professors say, as they try to outlast the debate in Washington over whether they will get billions in government loans.

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. may sell its fleet of five corporate jets after top executives of the three Detroit automakers were harshly criticized by members of Congress this week for their travel expenses.

In a statement issued Friday, Ford said it is exploring all options for the fleet, which it said has been reduced from nine in 2005.

"Ford's top priority is to continue making progress on our transformation plan, and we do not want anything to distract us," spokesman Mark Truby said in a statement. "We are exploring all cost-effective solutions for our air travel."

Stocks fluctuated throughout most of trading Friday, as fresh concerns over the stability of the financial sector prevented the market from establishing any sustainable gains. But stocks moved sharply higher in the final half hour after the report on Geithner.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 21.23, or 5.51 percent, to 406.54.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by about 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 2.37 billion shares.

Courtesy PhotoThis 32-inch Sony Bravia TV is among the items up for bids.

GRAND RAPIDS -- If you are looking for a deal on high-end electronics, you do not have to wait until Black Friday.

Inventory from the defunct Classic Stereo & Video goes on the auction block Wednesday.

Large flat-screen televisions, stereos, theater systems will be sold to the highest bidder in an online auction run by Repocast.com, a division of Miedema Auctioneering in Byron Township.

WASHINGTON -- Federal regulators on Friday issued their first approval of a new kind of bank charter intended to increase the "pool of potential buyers" of failed banks.

The Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said the new charter is intended for private investors interested in bidding on troubled banks that have been taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Under the new mechanism, regulators grant preliminary approval of a national bank charter to an investor group, which is then able to bid on failed banks. Regulators must then grant final approval if the FDIC approves the bid, the OCC said.

NEW YORK -- Wall Street fluctuated Friday, with investors taking a breather from the heavy selling of recent days. Energy, utility and technology stocks showed some advances, but bank stocks declined sharply.

Stocks struggled to take a direction in early trading, then moved cautiously higher midday, but pulled back later in the afternoon in another erratic session that has become the norm on Wall Street.

Some advancement was expected following two days of steep declines. On Thursday, the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 6.7 percent to its lowest close since April 1997, while the Dow Jones industrial average fell 445 points, or 5.6 percent, to its lowest finish since March 2003.

NEW YORK -- Stocks are down, down, down. But student interest in economics appears to be trending upward.

The financial crisis has made "the dismal science" more relevant and immediate to many high school and college students, and they are suddenly paying closer attention in class.

"Now we can actually see the examples while they happen, instead of relying on history. It's been the most engaging class ever," said New York University junior George Schwartz, who dropped macroeconomics the first time he took it, but is so fascinated this time that he has decided to major in economics.

HOUSTON -- Only four months after peaking at an unheard of $4.11 a gallon, the national average price for gasoline tumbled below $2 Friday, its lowest point in more than three years. Yet the global economic contrast between then and now could not be more stark.

On March 9, 2005, the last time gasoline cost less than $2, the Dow Jones industrial average closed at 10,805.63. The Dow on Thursday slumped 445 points to 7,552.29, its lowest finish since March 2003.

There is little joy for consumers wading through an economy that is almost certainly in recession, with thousands of jobs being lost and mortgage foreclosures continuing to rise to record levels.

OMAHA, Neb. -- Billionaire investor Warren Buffett says U.S. automakers need a new business model to better compete, whether it takes bankruptcy or a government bailout to achieve.

Buffett also says he would never serve as U.S. Treasury Secretary. The Berkshire Hathaway Inc. CEO is a member of President-elect Obama's Transition Economic Advisory Board.

Buffett says any automaker bailout package should include a business solution, and be negotiated by the president, not Congress. Buffett spoke to Fox Business News in an interview scheduled to air Friday afternoon.

Buffett says the government should insist top executives at Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC invest a significant percentage of their own net worths in the Detroit-based companies, ensuring both executives and taxpayers would share in any profits or losses.

Damian Dovarganes | The Associated PressCar detail specialist Larry Palmer, cleans off fingerprints from a Rolls-Royce Motor Cars' Phantom Drophead Coupe, a four seat convertible, at the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008.

LOS ANGELES, California -- With the U.S. all but certainly in a recession and many skittish consumers hesitant to buy even a Honda Accord, it would seem the last thing anyone would need is a $400,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom.

But sales of many high-end luxury cars are bucking the trend of plummeting car sales, and their makers and industry watchers at the Los Angeles Auto Show this week are confident that they will weather the industry downturn just fine.

Models in spaghetti-strap dresses circled Maserati's display at the show, which opens to the public today, while Italian executives in fine suits talked up the Ferrari California and subdued Britons bragged that the Lotus Evora is so exquisite "it goes beyond the sense of touch."

NEW YORK -- Citigroup Inc. shares extended their precipitous slide Friday, after an initial lift from a report that said the banking giant was considering a sale to rebuild investor confidence.

The New York-based bank is scheduled to hold a board meeting Friday to discuss whether to sell all or part of itself, the Wall Street Journal reported.

But as no hard news emerged from the company about that possibility, Citigroup's shares tumbled below $4 a share to their lowest level in more than 15 years, continuing a sharp, week-long plunge that could not be stemmed by Saudi investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's decision Thursday to raise his stake in the company to 5 percent from less than 4 percent.

ATLANTA (AP) -- Nine days after announcing new overseas routes for 2009, Delta Air Lines Inc., the world's biggest carrier, said in a regulatory filing Friday it plans to reduce future domestic and international capacity because demand for seats has slowed amid the global financial crisis.

The Atlanta-based airline did not provide specifics, but did say it would give more details about its outlook in early December.

Spokeswoman Betsy Talton said Delta still plans to add starting next spring the 15 new international routes it announced Nov. 12, but the company will continue to monitor performance.

PITTSBURGH -- Boeing Co. says it will likely lay off more workers next year as it cuts costs in a slowing economy.

The news comes after Boeing said it planned to lay off 800 workers at a facility in Wichita, Kan., due partly to the delay of a U.S. Air Force tanker replacement program.

A Boeing executive wrote in a memo to workers Thursday that the aerospace company expects to reduce its overall work force in 2009.

In the memo, Senior Vice President of Human Resources Rick Stephens says the employment decline could exceed Boeing's average annual attrition rate of 4 to 5 percent, and that it will include a mix of attrition, hiring freezes and layoffs.

The Chicago-based company had more than 164,000 employees at the end of October.