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Recession Briefing: Is This Really Better than the 70s?

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

Is the great recession really less miserable than ‘70s were? According to the “Misery Index,” we’re not faring as badly, but metrics like this are always fishy. (Christian Science Monitor)

It is the Wall Street equivalent of a coroner’s report — a 2,200-page document that lays out, in new and startling detail, how Lehman Brothers used accounting sleight of hand to conceal the bad investments that led to its undoing. (New York Times)

U.S. traffic fatalities last year reached the lowest level in 55 years, dropping nearly 9 percent from the previous year and demonstrating that the continuing recession has at least one upside. (Baltimore Sun)

American household wealth jumped in 2009 for the first time since a brutal recession struck the country, underscoring the impact of an economic recovery, data from the central bank showed Thursday. (AFP)

Of the 16 people Michael Winerip interviewed a year after meeting them at a job fair, nine describe themselves as still struggling. Eight continue to be unemployed or are working part-time jobs that pay near minimum wage. (New York Times)

Could the national debt eventually push the U.S. away from its status as a reserve currency and into second-tier status? “It’s very difficult for a reserve currency to lose that status,” says Kristin Lindow, vice president at Moody’s Investors Service. “It takes another nation to take its place, and right now, there isn’t one.” (USA Today)

The housing market is facing swelling ranks of homeowners who are seriously delinquent but have yet to lose their homes, and this is threatening a new wave of foreclosures that could hit just as the real estate market has begun to stabilize. (Washington Post)

Retail sales rose in February, the government said Friday, surprising economists who expected a decline. The Commerce Department said total retail sales edged up 0.3% to $355.5 billion last month. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had anticipated that February sales would drop 0.2%. (CNN/Money)

News shows that 29% of those who have already retired have saved nothing at all to support themselves, while only a third have saved at least $50,000. (Wall Street Journal)

According to Manpower’s quarterly Employment Outlook Survey, hiring in almost every sector is about to get better.  The staffing company’s assessment, which surveys employers in thirteen industries, found that twelve of the thirteen have net positive employment outlooks for the second quarter of this year. (Huffington Post)

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