Recession Briefing: Shoes are Recession-Proof!

The news you need to survive and thrive in recession.

Clothes, cars and houses aren’t on the list these days, but one thing people are still spending on the recession is shoes. (NY Times) Here’s how to spend less–if you want to. (Recessionwire)

The United States economy shed 190,000 jobs in October, and the unemployment rate reached a 26-year high of 10.2 percent, up from 9.8 percent in September. (New York Times)

The House voted yesterday to expand a popular tax credit for home buyers. The bill, which also extends unemployment benefits and expands a tax break for money-losing businesses, now goes to President Obama, who plans to sign it today. (Boston Globe)

LA’s homeless population is dropping despite the downturn–by a whopping 38 percent in two years. (LA Times)…

Recession Briefing 11.05: Wearing Your Dirty Laundry

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

Some coin laundries are closing and many others are battling sales declines, asAmericans are cutting back even on their laundry costs. Some are using the home equipment of friends or relatives, while others are wearing items multiple times between washes. (Wall Street Journal)

Remember those 99-cent recession iPhone cases? Well, Case-Mate is holding a contest for artsy people who take the time to decorate them. Win a mo-ped! (Case-Mate)

Last week the Obama administration claimed the $787 stimulus program saved or created more than 640,000 jobs, but a review of those reports shows that some are simply wrong, while others contain apparently subjective estimates. (New York Times)…

Recession Briefing: Antarctica Gets $18.5 Million Stimulus

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

How far would you travel for a job? How about Antarctica? That’s where $18.5 million of stimulus money is ending up. (CNN/Money)

The Obama administration is intensifying its search for policies that can stoke job creation without adding significantly to the nation’s crippling budget deficit. (Washington Post)

The Senate and House are poised to agree on a compromise measure to extend unemployment benefits that also would expand a popular $8,000 tax credit for homebuyers. (New York Times)…

Recession Brieifing 11.03: The Underwear Model of Economics

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

The “underwear model” as an economic metric has recently gained in popularity, following Alan Greenspan’s to an NPR correspondent to the effect that the less men’s underwear is sold the worse off the economy. But the metric might not be as revealing as it’s purported to be. (New York Mag)

The pain of the financial crisis has economists striving to understand precisely why it happened and how to prevent a repeat. (Wall Street Journal)

Artist Andres Zapata has been working on a project called Recession Nation, collected photos, short stories, visual art and poems from Baltimore and abroad. He recently published them in the book “The Recession Nation Project.” (Baltimore Sun)…

Recession Briefing 11.02: Wallets Thinner, Waistlines Thicker

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

Wallets may have gotten thinner during this recession, but waistlines have expanded. Many consumers are turning to cheaper fare to better balance their budgets. That often means fast food and canned and frozen processed foods that are higher in fat and calories. (Wall Street Journal)

The American public is starting to get more than mildly annoyed at those who tell them the economy is bouncing back, writes Terry Savage. For every economist or politician who tells you the recession is over, there are a dozen people who think we’re in the midst of a depression. (Chicago Sun-Times)

“Unfortunately,” says John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics, “you have as many views of the economy going forward as you have letters of the alphabet to describe recovery.” (New York Times)…

Recession Briefing 10.30: Rappers Hurting Too

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

Rapper 50 Cent has admitted that he has to sell his old diamonds before buying new ones after the recession cut down his fortune. (Telegraph)

Recent studies found that 40 percent of American women are now the primary earners for their families, and that means more and more moms are going back to work — or at least trying to. (Fox News)

Economist and writer Katerina Alexandraki has launched a creative idea for easing the housing crunch this holiday season. She’s asking Wall Streeters getting big bonuses to contribute them to folks in danger of losing their homes. (BusinessWeek)…

Recession Briefing 10.29: Your Cash for Their Clunkers

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

The “Cash for Clunkers” program cost taxpayers approximately $24,000 for each extra vehicle sold when you factor in the cars which would have likely been sold anyway in the second half of 2009. (CNN/Money)

Remarkably, there has been a decline in deaths during the recession. The truth, little known but well documented, is that death rates decline and healthy living habits improve in tough economic times. (Fortune)

The economy grew at a 3.5 percent pace in the third quarter, the best showing in two years, fueled by government-supported spending on cars and homes. It was the strongest signal yet the economy entered a new phase of recovery. (AP)…

Recession Briefing 10.28: Discover Your Recession-Era Personality

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

A new study finds that 51 percent of Americans are at high risk of not having enough money to retire at 65. (ABC News)

Which recession-era personality are you? From fearful to apocalyptic, delighted to indifferent, a professor finds employees tend to fall into one of six behavioral patterns. (Globe and Mail)

Almost 9,000 Detroit homes and lots in various states of abandonment and decay were auctioned off last week. Total vacant land in Detroit now occupies an area almost the size of Boston. (Reuters)

Recession Briefing 10.27: Foreclosures Become Art

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

A photographer and an architect plan to freeze one of Detroit’s thousands of abandoned homes this winter, encasing it in ice to draw attention to foreclosures that have battered the region. (Associated Press)

House Democrats and the Obama administration are preparing to introduce major legislation that would empower the government to seize troubled firms other than banks that are deemed “too big to fail.” (Washington Post)

Star Trek as a model for recession-busting? Judy Howard Ellis writes that if joblessness in the U.S. hits 10 percent at the end of this year and hovers at 9.5 percent at the end of 2010, some Americans may be quoting Spock to get them through the economic night. (Politics Daily)…

Recession Briefing 10.26: Pre-Teens Striking Out on Their Own

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

Over the past two years, officials and experts have seen an increasing number of children leave home for life on the streets, including many under 13. (New York Times)

Staying put has become a national phenomenon. The rate of interstate migration is the lowest since the 1940s, the Census Bureau reports. (Chicago Tribune)

Nearly half a million workers 65 and older want to work but cannot find a job — more than five times the level early this decade and this group’s highest unemployment level since the Great Depression. (New York Times)…