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Recession Briefing: Super Bowl Still in Recession

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

It appears the scale of the Super Bowl party scene hasn’t fully recovered from the recession. Frank Supovitz, an NFL senior vice president, said there are more events this year than in 2009 but that celebratory spending likely won’t return to its peak of two or three years ago. (Dallas Morning News)

The U.S. unemployment rate unexpectedly declined in January, but the economy continued to shed jobs and revisions painted a bleaker picture for 2009, casting doubt over the labor market’s strength. The unemployment rate, calculated using a household survey, fell to 9.7% last month from an unrevised 10% in December. (Wall Street Journal)

Some homeowners who may well be eligible for the Federal loan modification program have been denied because their troubles were not deemed “permanent.” The cases all occurred before Treasury explicitly barred such denials in December. Despite the change in guidelines, however, those homeowners are still in limbo. (ProPublica)

The recession has battered the U.S. economy, but the lobbying industry is humming along in the nation’s capital, even for companies that have shed thousands of jobs in the past year. (USA Today)

Across England and Wales, 134,142 people went bankrupt, took out an Individual Voluntary Arrangement or Debt Relief Order in 2009. This dwarfs the previous record of 107,288 personal insolvencies from 2006. (Daily Mail)

One of Alberto Giacometti’s best-loved bronzes broke the world record price for a work of art at auction, selling for $104.3 million (with fees) on Wednesday night. Could this be a signifier of the end of the recession? (True/Slant)

Esther Cepeda  writes about how she adopted recession-orphaned chihuahuas. “There are literally thousands of ‘gently used’ pets out there looking for a safe, warm home in exchange for unconditional love.” (Huffington Post)

For most people, housing costs are the biggest monthly expense — and a particular drag when you’re unemployed. So where can you live in America for cheap today? According to Reis Inc., which tracks the rental market, the lowest average rent for an apartment can be found in Wichita, KS ($516), Oklahoma City ($543), Tulsa, OK ($577), Knoxville, TN ($587) and Chattanooga, TN ($619). (CNN/Money)

Green business activity did not go away amid the harsh economic environment. It survived — and even thrived. In some cases, such as with energy efficiency, the recession provided a stimulus, as the need to cut operating costs in order to maintain competitiveness became ever more valued by executives, their boards and their shareholders. (State of Green Business)

“We need to get beyond the amusing political theater of the recent Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission hearings,” write William Cohan. “We need to hear the nitty-gritty of what caused the crisis from the people who know why things happened the way they did but haven’t yet been asked to speak up by someone with subpoena power.” (New York Times/Opinionator)

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