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Recession Briefing 10.27: Foreclosures Become Art

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

A photographer and an architect plan to freeze one of Detroit’s thousands of abandoned homes this winter, encasing it in ice to draw attention to foreclosures that have battered the region. (Associated Press)

House Democrats and the Obama administration are preparing to introduce major legislation that would empower the government to seize troubled firms other than banks that are deemed “too big to fail.” (Washington Post)

Star Trek as a model for recession-busting? Judy Howard Ellis writes that if joblessness in the U.S. hits 10 percent at the end of this year and hovers at 9.5 percent at the end of 2010, some Americans may be quoting Spock to get them through the economic night. (Politics Daily)

Empirical evidence is that if you’re graduating from college right now, you’re screwed. “A one percentage point increase in the national unemployment rate is associated with a 6 to 7 percent loss in initial wages. The annual wage loss declines over time, but is still statistically significant 15 years later.” (Matthew Yglesias/Think Progress)

The demand for passports in Britain has fallen by more than 10 per cent over the past two years as recession-hit citizens choose to “staycation” or put off expensive renewals. (Daily Mail)

“The U.K. needs a total change of direction,” to get out of the recession, writes Matthew Lynn. “It needs to do four things right away to get it back on the road to recovery.” (Bloomberg)

“If anything, ongoing economic problems are a sign that stimulus needs to be bolstered,” reads an editorial. “Deficits are a serious issue, but the immediate need for stimulus trumps the longer-term need for deficit reduction.” (New York Times)

In a survey of nearly 2,200 Americans about new fiscal habits last month, these were the Top 5 steps Americans said they were taking as a result of the great recession. (Christian Science Monitor)

Domestic violence has intensified during the recession. The National Domestic Violence Hotline saw a significant increase in calls in the third quarter of 2008. (NOW)

The financial meltdown that has caused seismic upheavals in many other corners of the economy hasn’t changed much about how colleges operate. (Chronicle of Higher Education)

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Tags: economy, financial crisis, foreclosures, jobs, real estate, recession, recovery, Wall Street