David Hirschman
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)…
Recession Briefing: Foreclosures Slowing
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
The foreclosure crisis isn’t over, but the pace of growth may finally be slowing down. RealtyTrac said Thursday that the number of U.S. households facing foreclosure in February grew 6% from the year-ago level, the smallest annual increase in four years. (Associated Press)
The number of cosmetic-surgery procedures in the U.S. sagged for the second year in a row in 2009, according to an annual survey by a plastic surgeons’ association. (Wall Street Journal)
An economically depressed British town is filling empty storefronts with fake businesses so that the district doesn’t look so empty. (BBC)…
Recession Briefing: Hiring Finally Happening
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
Job openings rose sharply earlier this year, evidence that employers are slowly ramping up hiring as the economy improves. The number of openings in January rose about 7.6 percent, to 2.7 million, compared with December, the Labor Department said. That’s the highest total since February 2009. (Associated Press)
IRS agents will be more flexible with taxpayers who have seen their incomes drop during the recession. (USA Today)
The number of U.S. households with a net worth of $1 million or more — excluding wealth derived from a primary residence — grew 16 percent last year, according to a new report. (Huffington Post)…
Recession Briefing: Bull Market Turns One Year Old
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
On Wednesday investors will celebrate the first birthday of the current bull market — the one born a day after stocks hit rock bottom on March 9, 2009, ending the second-worst stock market meltdown in history. (USA Today)
The percentage of workers who said they have less than $10,000 in savings grew to 43% in 2010, from 39% in 2009, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s annual Retirement Confidence Survey. (CNN/Money)
Millions of Americans have been forced to rely on unemployment payments for extended periods as the nation struggles through its longest period of high joblessness in a generation, and critics are taking aim, saying that the Depression-era program created as a temporary bridge for laid-off workers is turning into an expensive entitlement. (Washington Post)…
Recession Briefing: Discount Strategists Shop for Free
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
Discount devotees have formed vast online communities that collectively unearth and swap digital, mobile-phone and paper coupons. The cleverest shoppers combine dozens of coupons and go from store to store buying items in quantity, getting stuff free of charge. (Wall Street Journal)
The recession and continuing high unemployment are taking a psychological toll on individuals. There’s been a startling increase in the number of calls to employee-assistance programs regarding violence, psychosis and dementia in the workplace, including calls about suicidal and homicidal threats, program directors say. (Wall Street Journal)
In an effort to end the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration has been trying to keep defaulting owners in their homes. Now it will take a new approach: paying some of them to leave. (New York Times)…
Recession Briefing: Fewer Jobs Shed in February
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
The U.S. economy shed fewer jobs than expected in February and the unemployment rate was steady at 9.7% despite stormy weather on the East Coast last month, which the government said may have temporarily hit payrolls and work hours. (Wall Street Journal)
Deal with the Devil?: Some entrepreneurs are offering 6% of all of their future earnings in exchange for cash upfront. (VentureBeat)
The economy is driving people crazy, literally when it comes to the growing number of hate groups in this country. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization that monitors the activities of such groups, reports that the worsening recession, soaring public debt, bailouts for bankers, and misinformation over President Obama’s attempts at health care reform are fueling the radicalism.( WalletPop)…
Recession Briefing: What’s An Out of Work Spider-Man to Do?
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
The firing of Spider-Man’s alter ego, Peter Parker, will put him in the unemployment line, but he shouldn’t expect to get unemployment benefits. That’s because his misconduct likely makes him ineligible for unemployment benefits. (WalletPop)
Just when you thought the mess from the February snowstorms was over, it has started to obscure a clear understanding of how the economy is doing. (Washington Post)
Five must-have provisions that the White House should insist upon to make sure we get financial reform that works, not just window dressing. (Mother Jones)…
Recession Briefing: The End of Saturday Mail?
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
The US postmaster general seeks big changes to the way the US Postal Service operates, including ending Saturday mail delivery. The USPS, grappling with the effects of the recession and the rise of e-mail and online bill paying, could lose up to $7 billion in 2010. (Christian Science Monitor)
The cachet of private school has taken a hit from the Great Recession, as parents question whether they can afford to pay for it, and whether it’s really worth the investment. (Slate)
Even as many Americans still struggle to recover from the country’s worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, another crisis – one that will be even worse than the current one – is looming, according to a new report. (ABC News)…
Recession Briefing: Even (Real) Sharks Face Recession
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
The number of shark attacks in the U.S. declined for the second straight year, falling to their lowest level in more than a decade, and researcher George Burgess credits the recession. (Gainesville Sun)
A federal bankruptcy judge in Manhattan has approved the fiercely disputed method used by the court-appointed trustee to calculate victim losses in Bernard L. Madoff’s enormous Ponzi scheme. (New York Times)
Throughout the recession, many entrepreneurs trimmed their payrolls, among other big expenses. There have been tentative moves by some larger companies to rescind salary cuts for remaining employees, but few are rehiring the workers they cut. (Wall Street Journal)…
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 mortgage. 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)…
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