Although the economy absolutely sucks for job hunters, the fierce competition has caused a counter-intuitive phenomenon: students are now paying to get unpaid summer internships!

Last week the Chicago Tribune uncovered the new trend and showed how companies such as Fast Track and University of Dreams are charging anywhere from $799 for a standard internship to $10,895 for an internship at the Washington Center in DC.

If you or your parents have the money to burn, by all means pay to work. However, this type of arrangement is just another example of money wasted on excessive schooling in an economy where most students remain heavily in debt long after flipping their tassel to the graduate side.

This weekend my wife and I were discussing this very topic. We know people with expensive graduate degrees in social work from Columbia University. These friends are now complaining they will need decades to pay off their debts. Some of them have even become pharmaceutical sales reps in hopes of paying off the debt and starting their desired career in social work.

Paying money for an unpaid internship creates the same problematic mindset. Don’t get sucked in. There are millions of people who are very successful in their career and they never paid for internships or went to expensive schools. Instead, they used common sense, worked their asses off, and got ahead by doing valuable things.

I don’t think these internship services are a “Fast Track” or “University of Dreams”. Rather, they are a fast track philosophy which leads to bankruptcy or the fulfillment of deadbeat dreams. If you want a fast track to success, find a job that pays you!

What do you think about paying for unpaid internships? Let us know in the comments below or click here to chat in our new Forum.

Last week, when I arrived in Palm Beach the media was focused on a business man Neal Jacobson, 49, who murdered his wife and two children at their McMansion in Wellington, FL.

Apparently, Jacobson was upside down in several properties and owed over $1 million in debts. Although his finances were a mess, it’s an incredibly illogical step to move from bad business to murder. Is this a cultural phenomenon brought on by peer pressure, or merely a few loony bins who flew over the cuckoo’s nest?

Last year the big trend was financial failures committing suicide. Newsweek reported:

Recent weeks have seen a spate of suicides by some of the most financially powerful people in the world. German billionaire industrialist Adolf Merckle lay down in front of a train after huge investment losses threatened his family’s business empire. Chicago real-estate mogul Steven Good shot and killed himself in the driver’s seat of his Jaguar after the property-auction business turned sour. René -Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet lost $1.4 billion to Bernie Madoff, went to work, took sleeping pills and slit his wrist.

Are the new wave of killers so self-absorbed they are more focused on deleting others rather than themselves? Obviously, all killing is bad. But there’s something more honorable about falling on your own sword.

I hope this is not the start of a new trend. Capitalism needs some better role models during these turbulent times.

The success of bankruptcy attorneys is inversely proportional to the success of the greater economy. While my friends in real estate and corporate law were rolling in the loot from 2004-2007, the bankruptcy attorneys were shopping at Dollar Tree (DLTR) and ordering from McDonald’s (MCD) Dollar Menu. Well, things hardly get that bad for lawyers, but you get the point.

Revenge has been sweet as a Dairy Queen Blizzard with all your favorite candies added to the blend. On Monday, the Associated Press reported that “U.S. consumers and businesses are filing for bankruptcy at a pace that made 2009 the seventh-worst year on record, with more than 1.4 million petitions submitted.” That’s a 32% increase year-over-year (YoY).

Bankruptcy attorneys in Arizona saw the biggest jump in business: 77% YoY. The next strongest bull markets were Wyoming (60% increase YoY), Nevada (59% increase YoY) and California (58% increase YoY). If you are an entrepreneur, figure out what bankruptcy attorneys need and head west! Who knows … you just may kick start the next economic expansion.

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Wondering what retailers are downsizing or have passed to that special retailer place in the sky? Here is a nice complete (recently updated) list from About.com of total closings over the past few years:

2,639   General Motors

960      Blockbuster

789      Chrysler

567      Circuit City²

461      KB Toys

450      Movie Gallery (Game Crazy, Hollywood Video)

365      Ritz Camera

273      Starbucks³

287      Goody’s

265      Jones Apparel Group (2009 & 2010)

240      Waldenbooks

191      Zale Corporation⁴

175      Van Heusen

163      Ann Taylor⁵ (by 2010)

161      InkStop

160     Family Dollar

150      Popeye’s (AFC Enterprises)

135      S&K Famous Brands Inc.

130      Advance America

129      Boater’s World

125      F.Y.E. (Trans World Entertainment)

121      Eddie Bauer

118      Office Depot⁶

117      Rite Aid⁷

104      Finlay Enterprises

102   Payless Shoes

100      Albertsons

100      Charming Shoppes⁸

100      Gap, Inc.

98        Club Libby Lu (Saks)

85       NextCen Brands (Great American Cookies, MagieMoo’s, Marble Slab Creamery, Pretzelmaker)

84     Samsonite

81     Saab Dealerships

77       Game Stop⁹

75       J. Jill

75       Signet Jewelers

70      Famous Footwear (Brown Shoe Co.)

60        Arby’s

60       Collective Brands

60        Dominos

59       Advance Auto Parts

59       Ruby Tuesday

58       Gottschalks¹⁰

56      Smith & Hawken

50        B Dalton

50       Pacific Sunwear

50       Select Comfort

50       Supervalu

50       New York & Co. (over the next five years)

48       Home Depot¹¹ (Expo, YardBIRDS, Design Center, HDBath)

48     Ultra

46       Anchor Blue

45       Cato

44       Check ‘n Go

43        Destination Maternity ¹²

40       Justice

40       Kirkland’s

40       Tween Brands (Limited Two, Justince)

38       Bruno’s

34       Bachrach

32       Big 10 Tires

31       Pier One

30       Jo-Ann Stores

29      Basha’s Supermarket

29       Ruehl (Abercrombie & Fitch)

28         Kmart

28       Yankee Candle

26       Cost Plus

25       Chico’s FAS

25       Dress Barn

25       Finish Line

25       Fred’s

25         Luby’s

24       Blue Tulip Gift Shops

24       Cashland

24       Foot Locker

24       Sears

23       Sportsman’s Warehouse

22        AFC Enterprises

21       Papa John’s

21       ZGallerie

20        Baja Fresh Mexican Grill

20       Man Alive (Finish Line)

20       Oneida Ltd.

20       Pumpkin Patch

20     Wendy’s

20       Wet Seal

19       Snyder’s Drug Stores, Inc.

18       Black Angus

18        O’Reilly Automotive

16       Filene’s Basement

16       Iridesse (Tiffany & Co.)

16        Men’s Wearhouse

16     Shoe Carnival

16       Talbot’s

16     Williams-Sonoma

15       Tim Horton’s

15     West Marine

14       Whataburger

13       OfficeMax

13       Stein Mart²

12       Bealls

12       Kira Plastinina

11       99 Cent Only Stores

11       Better Bedding Shops, Inc.

11       Jimmy’Z (Aeropostale)

11       Macy’s³

11       Pamida

10        Holcomb’s Education Resource

10     Bassett Home Furnishings

10        Dollar General

10        E&J’s Shoes

10     P.F. Chang’s Pei Wei Restaurants

10     U.S. Cellular

9       California Herbal Relief Center

9       Rally’s

8         Active Ride Shop

8         Dillard’s

7          Auto Nation

7         Damon’s

7         Flying J’s

8         MarineMax

7       Penn Traffic (P&C Foods, BiLO)

7         Plunkett Furniture

7         Sweetbay Supermarkets

6         Denny’s⁴

6         Destination Maternity⁵

6       Music City Record Distributors

6          Pulix⁶

6         Rex Appliance & Electronics

6       Whole Foods

6       Winn Dixie

5         Borders

5         Krispy Kreme⁷

5         Mark Shale

5         Stock Building Supply

5         Target⁸

4         Albertson’s

4         Applebees

4         Coach⁹

4         Girl Scout Stores

4         Red Robin Gourmet Burgers

4         Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops

4          Jagmania

4         Jennifer Convertibles

4         Lucky Grocery Stores

4       Sacino & Sons

3         Blockbuster

3        Bulgari

3         Dollar Tree

3         Food World

3         Good’s Furniture & Flooring

3          Guess

3         Hawaiian Telecom 3          High Point Coffee

3          Jamba Juice

3         Lane Bryant¹⁰

3         P&C Food Markets

3         Virgin Records

2          A.C. Moore

2         Bailey Banks & Biddle

2         Belk

2         Bob Evans¹¹

2       Checker Auto Parts

2         Costco Home Stores

2         Dunkin Donuts

2         Hacketts

2          Homer’s Music and Gifts

2         Hypnoses

2         Jewel-Osco

2       Kragen Auto Parts

2         L’Oreal Paris

2          MarBeck Appliance Parts

2          Morton’s

2          Natuzzi Americas

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When will the SEC start regulating game shows masquerading as investment advisory? This weekend, CIT Group (CIT) filed Chapter 11. Merely four weeks ago, Mad Money host and TheStreet.com (Nasdaq: TSCM) founder Jim Cramer said he would buy CIT (“Citi and CIT are Primed for Upside“). This type of incredibly speculative advice is as radioactive to the general investing public as a post nuclear explosion site:

As you can see in the chart above, Cramer recommended to buy CIT at the exact top. Thus, if “In Cramer You Trust” (like the CNBC commercials tell you to do), you are probably going to have lost 90+% of your investment by the open on Monday.

When Jim reads this he will probably email me again and ask me to remove the post and apologize to him. I suggest his remaining viewers email him and ask him to remove his stock picks from Mad Money and TheStreet.com as well as apologize. If Cramer was an honest guy and didn’t pathologically believe his own spin, he would add himself to his Wall of Shame. Unfortunately, if you now attempt to manifest the mission of his new book “Getting Back to Even”, you need to find multiple investments in which you can double your money. Vegas, anyone?

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Sam Zell, chairperson of the board for Equity Group Investments, did an interesting interview with Bloomberg Television about the outlook for the commercial real-estate market, the recession, the Tribune bankruptcy, and the Cubs.

Here are some highlights from the interview:

On government intervention in the financial system:

“The government intervention in the financial system has effectively slowed the liquidation of distressed assets and the result is that with government funding, the desire and the need to liquidate the assets is dramatically different.”

On the recession:

“This is a demand recession and I suggest to you that as the economy improves, it’s very likely that these buildings that are currently suffering vacancies will be full. That’s the good news. The bad is, they’ll be full at thirty percent lower rates.”

On the Tribune Company bankruptcy:

“I think that with some reasonable luck I think it’ll be out sometime by the end of the first quarter. I’ve been involved in a lot of bankruptcies in my life. Most of the time as the buyer of the debt, as opposed to the debtor in possession. Bankruptcies, by definition, are very frustrating. And they will continue to be.”

On looking back at the purchase of the Tribune Company:

DEIRDRE BOLTON: Can we ask you if you regret this decision? Is this the worst business decision you ever made?

SAM ZELL: It’s certainly the most amount of money I’ve ever loss in a single deal. But the answer is -

BOLTON: So if you could turn back time….

ZELL: If you could. It’s like maybe I should have married somebody else.

On the Cubs

BOLTON: Don’t know if we can go from motorcycles to baseball, but what happens to the Cubs?

ZELL: Well, on the 27 of this month, which is tomorrow, yesterday, it closed? I did not even know. Ten days ago it went into kind of an automatic mode, and then it just followed a series of events. The answer is, I’m very happy for the Ricketts family. I think the team should be owned by somebody who is local, somebody who is really passionate about baseball. I happen to be local. I’m not passionate about baseball, so I wish them all of the best of luck. And maybe we’ll break the 101 year curse.

Looking for a monthly analysis of the real estate markets, click here to get your free copy of our new October Premium Newsletter now!

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Although the Chicago Cubs baseball team filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday, Harry Caray is smiling from the grave. The Cubs are now safe from Tribune creditors tarnishing the storied baseball franchise while collecting debts from the crumbling newspaper empire.

Upon first glance, the news is confusing because bankruptcy is normally reserved for failed businesses. However, in this rare case the legal protection is helping expedite a sale of the Cubs for a league record $845 million. That’s a pretty 14.2% compounded annual appreciation since Tribune purchased the Cubs from Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. in 1981.

Now that one of America’s iconic sports franchises has been excused from its parent company’s intervention, Harry Caray can get back to singing his eternal rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”