What other businesses call austerity, Google calls Business as Usual. In the current economic downturn, the behemoth has slowed hiring down to a mere “tens of offers” a week. Nor does it have any plans to cut back on the lavish perks it rewards its employees. And while executives of other businesses are climbing out on ledges, at least one Google leader says that reining in expenditures “is actually more fun.” And, after Google was pressured to back away from its advertising pact with Yahoo under threat of antitrust action by the Justice Department, that same executive had this to say:

Q. Will Google think differently about deals after this incident?

A. Probably not. I think that this was a unique situation.

The person answering the question is Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s chief executive. In short, if he and his company are worried about the economy, you wouldn’t know it from the interview conducted by New York Times reporter Miguel Helft in Google at 10: Searching Its Own Soul on the occasion of the company’s tenth birthday.

Read the interview in full.

RC