David Hirschman
Recession Briefing: Paulson Defends AIG Rescue
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
In last night’s State of the Union Address, President Obama promised to focus intently on the issue of most immediate concern to the nation: jobs. Obama sought to restore public confidence in his administration and to persuade Americans that he is directing his attention more fully to the economy. (New York Times)
Hit by the recession, Mexican migrants sent home 15.7% less in remittances last year, a record drop, the country’s central bank reports. Although it marked the second straight yearly decline — and the second drop since tracking began in 1996 — migrants still sent home big bucks: about $21.2 billion. (USA Today/On Deadline)
College and university endowments in the United States and Canada collectively lost $93 billion during the 2009 fiscal year, according to a study jointly released Thursday. The average institution lost 18.7% after fees. (Forbes)…
Recession Briefing: Americans Have Money for Gifts, But Not Food
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
Nearly one in five Americans said they lacked the money to buy the food they needed at some point in the last year, according to a survey co-sponsored by the Gallup organization and released Tuesday by an anti-hunger group. (New York Times)
Consumers spent an average of $811 on holiday gifts, significantly more than the $699 they initially planned to spend, according to a survey. About 4 in 5 consumers bought gifts, and many shoppers bought for themselves, the poll found. (Los Angeles Times)
“How do I know when the next recession will occur? All I have to do is ask my wife,” writes Gene Marks. “That’s because women know this answer. Not men.” (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)
Recession Briefing: Add a Job, Write it Off
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
President Barack Obama’s push to create jobs includes a new tax credit for small businesses that add employees. It is an idea, however, that fell flat in Congress when Obama first proposed it last year because lawmakers didn’t know how to target the credit effectively. (Associated Press)
“Recognizing that financial blowups are as dangerous as foreign enemies or nuclear weapons, Congress should establish … a ‘West Point for regulators,’” writes Jason Zweig. “A rigorous training program to instill expertise and ‘a sense of honor and duty.’” (Wall Street Journal)
Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this interactive map shows how counties across the U.S. are faring in terms of unemployment. (Washington Post)…
Recession Briefing: Did Wall Street Really Cause the Crisis?
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
Satisfying as it can be to stick it to the Wall Street, and especially the traders on Wall Street who are the most avid consumers of $500 bottles of champagne, as a response to the financial crisis, they aren’t really the ones who caused it, writes Mark Gimein. (The Big Money)
Unemployment rates rose in 43 states last month, the government said Friday, painting a bleak picture of the job market and illustrating nationwide data released two weeks ago. (Associated Press)
If the revival of Depression-era drinks has begun to hit a little too close to home — not to mention the wallet — take heart. High-end cocktail bars, ones that ordinarily serve 1930s favorites like Ramos Gin Fizzes and Singapore Slings for as much as $18, are offering drink deals that speak to contemporary economic concerns. (Liquor.com)…
Recession Briefing: Obama Proposes Big Limits on Banks
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
President Obama expanded his new offensive on Wall Street on Thursday, proposing rules that would impede the growth of the largest banks and bar them from making what he called “reckless” investments. (Washington Post)
As a result of the recession, the U.S. Census Bureau finds itself with the most highly skilled, highly educated work force in its 220-year history. Nationwide, the bureau already has recruited engineers, former corporate vice presidents, college professors and radio disc jockeys to help manage the 2010 census, which will attempt to count everyone in the country beginning in March. (Coloradoan)
“Britain has eaten, drunk and smoked its way out of the recession” according to a new report on manufacturing production. (The Times of London)…
Recession Briefing: White House Drops 5.1% in Value
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
Last year, real estate site Zillow estimated the White House was worth $308 million, based on the home’s physical attributes (132 rooms! 55,000 square feet!), historical value and housing performance in the local Washington, DC market. One recession year later, estimates put White House at a bit less: $292.5 million, a drop of $15.6 million, or 5.1 percent from last January. (Zillow Blog)
The recession hit this year’s college freshmen hard, affecting how they chose a school as well as their ability to pay for it, according to an annual nationwide survey released Thursday. Over all, students were more likely than previous freshmen to have a parent who was unemployed and less likely to have found a job that might help pay for college. (New York Times)
The lobbying industry demonstrated its resilience last year in the face of the recession and is fully expected to smash previous spending records. On Wednesday, lobbyists filed their fourth-quarter reports, offering the first glimpse at their spending totals for the year. (Huffington Post)…
Recession Briefing: 1 in 6 Blue-Collar Workers Laid Off
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
A new report says one of six U.S. blue collar-workers lost their jobs in the recession. The statistics for construction and manufacturing workers mirror those of the Great Depression, when one in six workers lost a job. (United Press International)
Singer Billy Bragg has threatened to stop paying taxes, and called on others to follow suit, unless the British government acts to limit bonuses paid by the Royal Bank of Scotland. (Reuters)
The suburbs are home to America’s largest and fastest growing poor population, according to a Brookings Institution report. The increase reflects continued population growth in the suburbs in addition to the aftermath of the housing bust and the longstanding woes in the manufacturing sector. (WSJ/Real Time Economics)…
Recession Briefing: Economist Blames Foreigners for Financial Meltdown
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
NBC’s late night fiasco has become the perfect allegory for the Great Recession. And just as with the financial meltdown, it looks like this fiasco will end with the same corporate screw-ups still in their jobs, no real change, and everything back to more or less where it was when the whole thing started. (New York/Daily Intel)
Bank robberies plunged nearly 20% last year to their lowest point in at least a decade even as Americans grappled with a deep recession and widespread unemployment. (USA Today)
Much of the fault of the financial crisis has been heaped on Wall Streeters, unscrupulous mortgage lenders and weak regulators. But in a new research paper, economist Ricardo Caballero says there is another major group of contributors to America’s monetary mess who are not getting the blame they deserve: foreigners. (Time)…
Recession Briefing: African-American Unemployment Rate Tops 17 Percent
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
Unemployment for African Americans is projected to reach a 25-year high this year, according to a study released Thursday by an economic think tank, with the national rate soaring to 17.2 percent and the rates in five states exceeding 20 percent. (Washington Post)
Major U.S. banks and securities firms are on pace to pay their people about $145 billion for 2009, a record sum that indicates how compensation is climbing despite fury over Wall Street’s pay culture. (Wall Street Journal)
The federal foreclosure prevention program was designed to help struggling homeowners reduce their monthly payments, but housing advocates say they frequently see homeowners rejected or kept in a trial modification for questionable reasons. “There’s a real resistance on the servicers’ part to making permanent modifications,” said Diane Thompson of the National Consumer Law Center. (ProPublica)…
Recession Briefing: Wall Street Bigwigs Get Grilled
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
Comparing Wall Street titans to shady car salesmen, a committee investigating the financial crisis grilled the nation’s top bankers Wednesday in the latest example of Washington’s smoldering anger at an industry many there feel hasn’t atoned for its role in the slump. (Wall Street Journal)
President Obama plans to call on Thursday for taxing about 50 big banks and major financial institutions for at least the next decade to recoup all taxpayer losses from the bailout of Wall Street. (New York Times)
The last time the nation’s debt was this big compared with gross domestic product — 70.4% of GDP — was immediately following World War II. How did the Greatest Generation pare it down? It didn’t. It grew the economy faster than the debt, pushing down the debt-to-GDP ratio and making debt payments easier to manage. (USA Today)…
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