A Few Choice Business Morsels to Chew On

The silver linings in this economic cloud have been few, seemingly non-existent. Instead, they've been replaced by news that at times may seem almost Kafkaesque.

For instance: Software giant Microsoft laid off 1,400 workers last month. Yesterday, the company acknowledged that -- oops! -- it actually overpaid severance to some of those workers. The unemployed workers found this out recently in a letter from Microsoft, which was sitting on cash reserves of $8.5 billion last month and is demanding repayment of the extra severance within 14 days.

Elsewhere yesterday, American Express has reached the point of paying its customers to go away.

AmEx has been hurt so badly by the ongoing crisis that it converted itself into a bank holding company so it could qualify for federal bailout funds.

Yesterday, the company said it would give certain cardholders $300 if they would close out their accounts by April. The company began issuing cards in recent years to less-than-stellar customers who have defaulted at alarming rates as the crisis has worsened, crippling the company.

Here's the Catch-22: AmEx is only making the offer to its worst customers, and they have to pay off their accounts in full to get the money.

Finally yesterday, there was more evidence of how far some companies will go to win business: Luxe home builder Toll Brothers said it will pick up six months' worth of mortgage payments, property taxes and insurance for certain buyers who use the firm's TBI Mortgage service. To qualify, you just have to lose your job within two years of closing.