David Hirschman
Recession Briefing: Less Spending on Love
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
Two-thirds of Americans (67%) say they plan to spend less than $50 on Valentine’s Day this year, a new survey of adult Americans finds. One-quarter of Americans (25%) say they plan to spend nothing. (Zogby International)
New data shows that poor people face a much higher rate of unemployment than people with higher incomes. “A true labor market depression faced those in the bottom two deciles of the income distribution, a deep labor market recession prevailed among those in the middle of the distribution, and close to a full employment environment prevailed at the top. There was no labor market recession for America’s affluent.” (Time/Curious Capitalist)
The White House expects nonfarm-payroll employment to increase by an average of 95,000 jobs a month this year, suggesting the U.S. labor market will continue to heal slowly as the economy emerges from its two-year slump. (Wall Street Journal)…
Recession Briefing: Relationship Rockiness
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
Money doesn’t buy love and it doesn’t buy happiness, as we should all know by now. But money woes can certainly cause problems for couples, especially during the economic downturn. The bottom line: It’s complicated. (New York Times/City Room)
The Great Recession may be over, but this era of high joblessness is probably just beginning. Ultimately, it is likely to warp our politics, our culture, and the character of our society for years to come. (The Atlantic)
Finding a job got much tougher last year, as the number of available openings fell by nearly one quarter. At the same time, the unemployed population soared by more than one-third, leaving more laid-off workers competing for fewer jobs. (Associated Press)…
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)…
Recession Briefing: Some Construction Unemployment at 30 Percent
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
No industry has taken it more on the chin than construction. Nationally, unemployment fell to 9.7% in January, but in construction it jumped to 24.7% from 18.7% in October. In many regions, union officials report 30% of their members are unemployed or “riding the bench.” (Time)
For the first time in recorded history, women outnumber men on the nation’s payrolls. This benchmark is bittersweet, as it comes largely at men’s expense — because men have been losing their jobs faster than women. (New York Times)
More prosperous American shoppers seem to be defying continuing high unemployment levels and economic uncertainty to renew their spending on luxuries such as jewelery, fashion and cosmetics. (Financial Times)…
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)…
Recession Briefing: The First Rule of Banking Is…
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
Recession-weary bankers are joining Fight Club-like mixed martial arts gyms. “We get a lot of finance guys,” said Max McGarr, the gym’s program director and a professional fighter. “It’s a good release from their job. If you lost hundreds of thousands of dollars, it’s good to come here and get it out.” (Bloomberg)
Health-care spending in the United States grew last year despite a contracting economy, amounting to 17.3 percent of the gross domestic product, according to estimates released Wednesday. (Washington Post)
Gifts to colleges and universities declined almost 12 percent in the 2009 fiscal year, to $27.85 billion, according to the Council for Aid to Education’s annual survey of voluntary support of education. It was the steepest decline in the survey’s 53-year history. (New York Times)…
Recession Briefing: Booze Gets Pricier
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
Americans’ love affair with top-shelf booze cooled last year as the recession took a toll on high-priced tipples. People drank more liquor but turned to cheaper brands, according to a report by an industry group. (Washington Post)
On Tuesday night, a new New York City reality TV show, “Job Hunt,” kicked off, starring actual job seekers. The 10-part series, which runs on the NYC Life network, tries to help New Yorkers get back on their feet if they are out of work. (Christian Science Monitor)
The number of car dealerships in the United States has been shrinking since the 1940s, and the Big Three’s recent troubles have hastened the slide. So what happens to the abandoned showrooms? Many stay vacant, but others see opportunity in the empty space. Here are some of the best examples of “recycled” dealerships in North America. (The Big Money)…
Recession Briefing: Highway Robbery on the Rise
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
Thieves are increasingly swiping tractor-trailers filled with goods, triggering a spike in cargo theft on the nation’s highways. (Wall Street Journal)
Nationally, 37 million people — about one in eight Americans — visited food pantries and soup kitchens in 2009, compared with 25 million in 2006, according to Feeding America, the national hunger-relief network that did the study. Officials say the numbers really began to skyrocket at the onset of the recession in late 2007. (Chicago Sun-Times)
President Obama’s proposals to tax and curb the activities of Wall Street have thrown an unpredictable element into the debate over financial regulatory reform. They also have touched off an intensive new round of lobbying and raised questions in Congress over whether his plan will add urgency or merely bog things down. (New York Times)…
Recession Briefing: Bonuses are Back
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
Goldman Sachs, the world’s richest investment bank, could be about to pay its chief executive Lloyd Blankfein a bumper bonus of up to $100 million in defiance of moves by President Obama to take action against such payouts. (Times of London)
Professional sports teams, concert venues and opera houses may all be seeing drops in attendance as a result of the recession, but suburban community colleges are having the opposite problem. They’re running out of room. (Chicago Daily Herald)
California wine shipments fell in 2009 for the first time in 16 years as purchases in the U.K., the biggest export market, plunged during the global recession. (Bloomberg)…
Recession Briefing: Big Boost for GDP
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
The U.S. economy grew at the fastest pace in more than six years during the fourth quarter of 2009, according to a government report Friday. The nation’s gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity, rose at a 5.7% annual rate in the fourth quarter. (CNN/Money)
Shoppers are taking haggling to new heights in the recession. A recent study found that 66 percent of American consumers had haggled at least once in the preceding six months, with an 88 percent ka-ching rate on gadgets, clothes, furniture and steak. (Washington Post)
Ben Bernanke won the backing of the Senate for a second four-year term as chairman of the Federal Reserve by a comfortable margin Thursday. Even with that storm behind him, Mr. Bernanke faces formidable political and economic challenges. (Wall Street Journal)
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