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Recession Briefing: Economist Blames Foreigners for Financial Meltdown

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

NBC’s late night fiasco has become the perfect allegory for the Great Recession. And just as with the financial meltdown, it looks like this fiasco will end with the same corporate screw-ups still in their jobs, no real change, and everything back to more or less where it was when the whole thing started. (New York/Daily Intel)

Bank robberies plunged nearly 20% last year to their lowest point in at least a decade even as Americans grappled with a deep recession and widespread unemployment. (USA Today)

Much of the fault of the financial crisis has been heaped on Wall Streeters, unscrupulous mortgage lenders and weak regulators. But in a new research paper, economist Ricardo Caballero says there is another major group of contributors to America’s monetary mess who are not getting the blame they deserve: foreigners. (Time)

The economic downturn resulted in 75 million fewer rides New York City’s MTA rails, buses and bridges in the first 10 months of 2009 as opposed to 2008, costing the agency $100 million in lost fare and toll revenue, a new state report shows. (New York Post)

“Why does Wall Street make the big bucks?” asks Robert Samuelson. “Is it possible that what Wall Street does is three times more valuable to society than other well-paid occupations? That’s hard to believe.” (Washington Post)

Among the country’s 25.8 million married couples with children under 18, about 6 percent of husbands were unemployed in 2009, compared with 3 percent in 2007. The proportion of jobless wives and mothers also doubled to 4 percent from 2 percent in 2007. (Reuters)

In December 2008, 22.9 percent of the unemployed had been out of work for at least 27 weeks. A year later, that portion rose to 39.8 percent. That translates to having about 4 percent of the total civilian work force categorized as long-term unemployed. (New York Times/Economix)

“What we’re experiencing bears no resemblance to a post-1980 recession — either in cause or consequence,” writes Peter Atwater. “What we’re dealing with is the accumulation of almost 80 years of debt-funded growth — across the consumer, corporations, and governments.” (Minyanville)

Editorial: Inconclusive sparring at hearings will not fulfill the mandate Congress gave the panel to investigate the causes of the financial crisis. The commission must uncover what bankers, investors, government officials and other people in positions of power, past and present, would prefer not to say about the crash and the bailouts. (New York Times)

Divisions are emerging among large investment banks over the Obama administration’s bank tax, with one industry lobby exploring legal action even as some companies urge caution in the face of growing political backlash. (Financial Times)

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Tags: financial crisis, jobs, television, transportation