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It’s not a Fellini film. It’s the percentage of people now unemployed in America.

This surreal number has made it official: this is the longest recession in the country since World War II, beating out the contractions of the early 1970s and the early 1980s, which lasted 16 months a piece. And if you count part-time and discouraged workers, the unemployment rate would be a whopping 15.6 percent. Economists say that the job losses are unlikely to let up anytime soon, a point underscored by Secretary Geithner on NBC’s “Face the Nation”. He said that the typical pattern of an economic turnaround shows that only when businesses begin to hire again will there be an unemployment peak…

Recession Briefing 4.6

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

Easter bunny impacted by recession: Not even the Easter bunny can out run the current downturn. (Volunteer TV)

Blackberry success with consumers defies recession: What recession? Millions of people are snapping up flashy BlackBerry smartphones made by Research In Motion. (Reuters)

Frugality forged in today’s recession has potential to outlast it: There’s good reason to believe Americans will be saving more in the next decade than they did in the last one. (WSJ)

If you come across a good article or blog post about the recession pass it on.

Middle Class Guilt Attack? Yuppies and Food Stamps, Part 2

Our recent post on yuppies and food stamps generated a lot of lively discussion, both on and off-line. My own first reaction to my colleague Sara’s question of whether yuppies should take food stamps was a resounding “no” coupled with a feeling of indignation. But when I started asking around, I found that lots of smart people had a wide range of views on the subject. A British friend surprised me by saying: “Oh, that’s just your middle class guilt. You should examine it.” Living through a crisis has the fortunate byproduct of getting all of us to ask ourselves questions and consider why we think the way we do. So examine it I will…

Double Dip Recession?

We were just getting our minds around the first one. But sure enough, a research group has crunched the data and predicts that we could be in for another recession next year. The maddening logic: If the stimulus plan works, then we may experience a “too-rapid recovery” which will then lead to another slump in 2010. This scenario is known fondly as the Double Dip (recession followed by brief recovery followed by recession). Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Gary Stern has even made mention of a “triple dip”…

Recession Lexicon: Recession Roadkill

“Recession roadkill” refers to the laid-off, the unemployed, and those generally getting run over by the merciless wheels of the economy. The term has been popping up lately on the blogosphere (Jim Cramer’s blog on TheStreet.com; Miss Pink Slip ).

Ex: Being recession roadkill has allowed me to indulge my daytime soap fetish.

The Freelancer’s Tip Sheet

The Recession provides excellent opportunities for freelancers as companies shed regular staff and look to freelance workers for contract jobs. There’s no magic formula for freelancing, but these tips may help you be more effective:

1. Keep meticulous records.
Be sure to keep receipts for everything relating to your work for potential tax deductions. Things like magazine subscriptions, web domains, and dedicated phone lines can all potentially be listed. This is especially important if you have a clearly defined home office area. You can write off some expenses based on ratio of office space to home.

2. Create a formula for what to charge.
Many freelancers use this simple formula: $D /B hrs. D is how much you want to earn in a year. B is the total number of billable hours that you think you can secure in a year. Most freelancers estimate B on the basis of 15 billable days per month, for an 8-hour day (15 d/mth x 8 hr/d x 12 mth/yr = 1440 hrs/yr)…

Timothy Noah Calls Out Repubs on Health Care Shenanigans

Want to pay less for health care? You won’t if certain senators have their way. Slate’s Timonthy Noah follow the threads of some weird and wily arguments about health care today in his “Lemon Economics.” He calls attention to five senate Republicans who are planning to defend the private health insurance industry to the last breath and vow to block the creation of public plans. Noah catches these lawmakers in a specious argument: They are finally owning up to the fact that government health insurance programs like Medicare out-perform their private counterparts both in delivering benefits and in keeping prices down. But get this: The senate Republicans use that as an argument against them…

Haiku You – Poetry for the Impoverished

There’s something about hard times that makes a weary soul wax poetic. The haiku is the ideal form for expressing the deep feelings stirred by the downturn. Its compact form (typically a 5-7-5 metrical pattern), simple language and habitual twist give a sense of the unexpected that seems to fit uncertain times.

I got inspired last night while doing my taxes…

Can’t get paid today –
But who am I to complain?
Color me freelance.

This, admittedly, is nothing compared to what our colleagues at Unemployment Haiku Weekly are turning out. The new blog brims with poignant pieces that deploy a mischievous sensibility, paired with exquisite drawings depicting the down-and-out.

In one piece, the poet offers a plaint to the 80s hair-band Loverboy…

This Little Piggy Went Hungry…

The piggy bank business is booming in the Recession, according to Reuters. Seems that decimated home prices and ravaged retirement accounts have reinforced the virtue of putting money aside. Piggy banks symbolize the need to save, but they also remind us of just how hard it is to do that right now. This photo of a skinny piggy bank – aka the “gasoline piggy bank” when it appeared during last summer’s gas price hikes – has been hoofing it once again across the Internet…

Are You a Retro Porn Addict?

There’s something musty in the air. Many of us are finding ourselves sifting through flea markets, queuing up old movies, and eagerly listening to Granny’s tales of days gone by. We’re yearning for simpler times, picking up values cast aside, and coveting objects thrown away. Sometimes we’re putting on our rose-colored glasses and pretending that everything was better in the Land of Long-Ago. Call it retro porn – the urge to romanticize and fetishize the past during hard times.

The marketing world is already hip to the fact that consumers crave the security and comfort of their childhoods during the Recession…