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Recession Briefing 12.17: Months at the Museum

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

Admissions at the majority of art museums in the U.S. have been holding steady through the recession — and many are dramatically on the rise. Two-thirds of museums surveyed have experienced a clear increase in visitor numbers over the past three years. (Art Newspaper)

Businesses don’t expect American consumers to return to their spendthrift ways anytime soon. They see consumers emerging from the punishing downturn with a new mind-set: careful, practical, more socially conscious and embarrassed by flashy shows of wealth. (Wall Street Journal)

Despite an official unemployment rate of 27 percent, the real jobs problem in Detroit may be affecting half of the working-age population, thousands of whom either can’t find a job or are working fewer hours than they want. (Detroit News)

The Federal Reserve said on Wednesday that it was still wary of raising interest rates because it believed the economy remained fragile but took steps to wind down emergency lending programs. (New York Times)

The number of newly laid off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week. The Labor Department said Thursday that the number of new jobless claims rose to 480,000. (Associated Press)

There are those who fondly wish that the United States would start taxing its bankers’ bonuses at 50 percent, following the United Kingdom’s decision last week. Too bad it will never happen, writes Heidi Moore. (The Big Money)

The recession in Ohio’s steel towns wasn’t a black hole at the end of a sustained boom, or downgrading from Target to Wal-Mart or cutting out $3 drinks at Starbucks. It was a confrontation with survival. (Washington Post)

Doing their parts this year, Generations X and Y — consumers age 18-44 — assisted in the economic recovery of the nation by continuing to splurge on certain types of purchases. Categories that topped the list of splurges for the younger generation were apparel, travel/vacation, shoes and movies at the theatre. (MediaPost)

Today the U.S. finds itself headed for a reprise of 1937 with hawks calling for the immediate exit from both loose fiscal and monetary policy even amid high unemployment, writes Mikka Pineda. Though past is not prologue, learning from past mistakes can make a considerable difference. (Forbes)

Updated census figures substantially revised some earlier ones, reflecting the effects of the recession and stricter border control. The projections showed the U.S. population crossing 400 million just after 2050, more than a decade later than earlier forecasts. (Wall Street Journal)

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Tags: budgets, Fed, fiscal policy, Generation X, jobs, museums, spending, The Unemployed Life