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Recession Briefing: Greece Who? California Is Much Worse

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

Jamie Dimon, chairman of JP Morgan Chase, has warned  investors should be more worried about the risk of default of the state of California than of Greece’s current debt woes. (Telegraph)

Millions of Americans are now deeply underwater on their mortgages. If you’re among them, you need to stop living in a dream world and give serious thought to walking away from the debt. (Wall Street Journal)

The long-term unemployed — those out of work more than six months — make up 40 percent of people collecting unemployment. “These people, when you look at their unemployment rate, it’s just off the charts,” says Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute. “It’s very different from earlier patterns that we’ve seen in recessions.” (CBS)

Taken together, three reports from last week indicate we’ve got a long way to go to get out of this economic mess, and we may  actually be losing a little ground. (Washington Post)

Americans spent more in January than expected but growth of their income was weak, while a gauge of inflationary pressure within the slowly recovering economy rose at a slower rate. (Wall Street Journal)

Financial stress for small business owners abounds these days. Here six of them talk about the current environment and what you need to do to start your own business today. (USA Today)

America’s total debt load is on pace to top $13 trillion this year, and $22 trillion by 2020 — and that’s just the debt we’re counting. What’s not being counted: potential debt bombs that don’t get factored into most budget analysis. (CNN)

“This recession/depression will be the metric for all future crashes, economic collapses, and currency failures,” writes Paco Ahlgren. “It will create global unrest on a level never before seen, and the world order is going to transform as though the whole thing had been thrown in a blender” (Seeking Alpha)

The rise of the personal brand reflects changing economic structures, as secure lifetime employment gives way to a churning market in tasks. It augurs a future in which we all function like one-person conglomerates, calculating how every action affects our positioning. (New York Times)

Warren Buffett said the U.S. economy has passed the worst of its troubles, but faces an uneven recovery as consumers keep a tight rein on spending. “We got past Pearl Harbor,” Buffett said on Monday. “We will win the war, and it’s going slightly our way.” (Reuters)

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