In the world of corporate America, middle managers are bearing the brunt of the economic crisis.

So says a study recently conducted by McKinsey examining how corporate directors, C-level executives, and middle managers feel the downturn has affected their professional roles and responsibilities.

Surely, the recent report from the Congressional Oversight Panel that banks have done little to address the toxic assets on their books, underscores a fundamental point:  The government bailout has mostly allowed the usual suspects to keep on conducting business as usual.

In fact, here's more evidence. A bunch of banks have come up with new and improved products and investments, and, while they don't have the potential to bring down the global economy, they sound pretty risky to me.

Just how safe is your company's data?

Seems that leaks of sensitive corporate information are at unnervingly high levels and the economic downturn may be partially to blame. According to a new study by Proofpoint, a Sunnyvale, Calif., email security consultant, 34% of survey respondents reported they had leaks of sensitive or embarrassing information in 2009, up from 23% the year before.  

Just in case you thought there was any significant relationship between executive pay and performance at banks receiving Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) money, a new study should put the nail in that particular delusion.

 It shows that, while absolute levels of compensation for CFOs (and CEOs) fell at some banks from 2006 to 2008, there was no measurable link between pay and changes in performance for the group as a whole.