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Recession Briefing: Workers Liberated from Cubicles!

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

Two years of the Great Recession have done more to liberate workers from their offices than a decade of stressed-out employees pleading to telecommute. Dilberts worldwide are losing their cubes. (Global Post)

Even when the U.S. labor market finally starts adding more workers than it loses, many of the unemployed will find that the types of jobs they once had simply don’t exist anymore. (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street firms aren’t the only banks that had a banner year. The Federal Reserve made record profits in 2009, as its unconventional efforts to prop up the economy created a windfall for the government. (Washington Post)

According to Henry Blodget’s analysis, following the gains of 2009 stocks are currently 30% overvalued, putting them into “bubble” territory. (Business Insider)

Faced with massive deficits, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has released a new budget plan that would force 200,000 children off low-cost medical insurance, end in-home care for 350,000 infirm and elderly citizens and slash income assistance to hundreds of thousands more. (Reuters)

“If the U.S. keeps running huge deficits, sooner or later the country will start flirting with bankruptcy,” writes Gideon Rachman. “Oddly, it might be best if the crisis came sooner rather than later.” (Financial Times)

Home buyers who take out federally insured home loans will soon find their mortgage brokers can’t select appraisers, part of an effort to ensure appraisers aren’t pressured to inflate home values. (USA Today)

The Obama administration is aiming to hit banks with a fee to recoup losses associated with the government’s bailout of financial firms and the auto industry, administration officials say. (Wall Street Journal)

The global recession has taken a bite out of Super Bowl ads as prices fell for just the second time in the game’s history. A 30-second commercial during next month’s Super Bowl on CBS are now selling for between 2.5 million dollars and 2.8 million dollars — down from $3 million last year. (Agence France Presse)

Andrew Ross Sorkin’s Too Big Too Fail presents a number of truly remarkable incidents from the financial crisis, but one stands out: even as it was taking a massive government bailout, AIG evidently had over $14 billion in bonds stashed in its “unofficial vaults.” (Naked Capitalism)

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Tags: health, jobs, politics, real estate, The Working World, Wall Street