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Recession Briefing: Crazy for Coupons

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

Coupon use has risen every quarter since the end of 2008, making 2009 the first year of rising coupon use since 1992. Last year, 3.5 billion coupons were redeemed, according to Inmar, a coupon processor that handles about half of the market and publishes figures extrapolated from its own volume. (New York Times)

When you’ve flooded the economy with trillions of dollars, mopping up is no easy task. That’s the reality the Federal Reserve is confronting as it starts to explain how it will undo the aggressive growth-supporting steps that were put in place when the economy was in its deep dive — and begins to be clearer about when that may happen. (Washington Post)

When 22 recently unemployed workers agreed to be filmed baring their souls about what it was like to lose his job, they didn’t expect millions to see their confessions in the George Clooney film Up in the Air. A year later, many of these recession victims have new jobs. (Reuters)

Employers are getting hit with a massive tax hike at a time when they can least afford it. Companies in at least 35 states will have to fork over more in unemployment insurance taxes this year, according to the National Association of State Workforce Agencies. (CNN/Money)

Some experts believe a European bailout of Greece may be needed to prevent a continental conflagration. A growing chorus of voices is predicting a less dramatic, but potentially more corrosive, outcome: a years-long grind of fiscal pain that neither plunges Greece into default nor restores its finances to health. (Associated Press)

The nearly 80 million Baby Boomers phasing into retirement will set in motion a dynamic that — if not addressed by Congress — could result in the next generation getting fewer benefits. (CNBC)

The recession is proving to be a boom for one sector: scams. You might think the scamsters would have fewer tempting targets, what with potential victims having less money due to lay-offs, pared work hours and falling home values. But authorities report an upsurge in reports of ploys targeting those who are least able to cope. (Forbes)

A new report authored by the ABA Presidential Initiative Commission on Diversity found that some unfortunate realities in the legal industry were exacerbated by the financial downturn. The recession is drying up monies for diversity initiatives at firms and creating downsizing and cutbacks that may disproportionately and negatively affect lawyer diversity. (Business Insider Law Review)

Senate Democrats missed their self-imposed deadline for bringing a jobs bill to the floor Monday, and they’re hoping that the weekend’s epic snowstorm will give them some cover. Senate votes were pushed back to today on account of the storm, but it seems unlikely that Democrats would have been ready to proceed Monday, anyway. (Politico)

“While there is now, finally, a great deal of talk among the politicians and in the news media about unemployment, there is still almost a willful refusal to focus on just who is suffering the most from joblessness and underemployment,” writes Bob Herbert. (New York Times)

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Tags: baby boom, business, economy, jobs, movies, scams, taxes