Lynn Parramore
Forget the Benjamins. Hamilton is Back.
We’ve just been poking around the West Indian island of Nevis, the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton. This man knew a little something about money, and there’s a renewed interest today in his prescient ideas about the American economy.
Alexander Hamilton was the first US Secretary of the Treasury, a Founding Father, economist, and a bit of a rake. He was a thoroughly modern man who envisioned a strong federal government and a strong treasury, a national banking system, a stock market and foreign trade policy that balanced openness with protections…
Redux: Fashion Takes a Turn
Looking back at the Great Depression to see the path ahead.
Is the Recession the final blow to SATC excess?
Flappers of the late 1920s were the Carries and Samanthas of their day: bold, sassy, and fond of flaunting fabulous frocks. They stepped out in sequined sheaths, pricy handbags tucked under their arms. They sported make-up, smoked cigarettes, and bared limbs. Trading petticoats for scanty panties, they shopped for sequined dancing shoes to replace sensible lace-up boots.
But the fashion orgy didn’t last.
Recession Lexicon: Outshipped
When your company lets you keep your job, but ships you to a developing country.
IBM has a new approach to laying off workers: Hang on to your job, but move to India. After pinkslipping thousands, Big Blue is telling American employees that they can have a job, but must export themselves to India, where they’ll receive…
Valentine’s Day ’09: Year of the Dog?
This Valentine’s Day, dogs are getting plenty of love. According to a survey by the National Retail Federation, Americans plan to spend $367 million on their pets. That’s a lot of cat toys and doggy treats.
The holiday may not be a box of chocolates for us humans. But Fido? Doing okay this year.
Redux: Will Meals on Wheels be the Next Boom?
Looking back at the Great Depression to see the path ahead.
Will Meals on Wheels be the Next Boom?
A hot dog tale.
Good-bye filet mignon, hello meatloaf. As the recession rages, Americans are finding ways to chow on the cheap. Consumers are shifting food purchasing patterns. We’re trading down to private label and value brands. We’re eating out less, and getting more aggressive about buying products on sale. Fast food joints are luring us by including more premium items on their dollar menus. High end retailers like Whole Foods are feeling the heat as the organic revolution slows. Many of use are doing without that Starbucks latte.
Screwed: 900 at FedEx Freight
A daily review of the employment fallout around the country.
FedEx Freight cuts 900 jobs…Kansas-based Black & Veatch, the area’s largest engineering firm, to shed 140 employees…Dartmouth College lets go 60…Stanford Graduate School of Business cuts 49…
Recession Briefing 2.10
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
Professor Obama’s First Seminar (Slate)
Calm, cool, and commanding. Slate’s John Dickerson thinks the president ran his prime-time press conference like a grad-school class, schooling America in his stimulus plan and speaking in (wow!) complete sentences.
Recession Not Affecting Sex Lives, Survey Says (Fox News)
Consumer Reports magazine says that of those who are sexually active and willing to talk, 79 percent said their personal financial situation has not affected their frequency of sex. Five percent are even having sex more often.
Freakoutonomics (NY Mag)
Few are feeling the city’s economic pain as acutely as shopkeepers, restaurant proprietors, and small-business owners. Amid eerily empty sidewalks and race-to-the-bottom sales, the questions are: What will it take for them to survive? And how are you doling out your dollars?
R.I.P. to Employer-based Health Care: Author Matt Miller Talks to RW
Has America has been in the thrall of “Dead Ideas”? That’s how Matt Miller sees it, and his book is a showdown with conceptual baggage that weighs us down. The Tyranny of Dead Ideas exposes outdated ways of thinking, from the notion that companies should provide health care and pensions for workers to the modern antitax obsession. Some of these Dead Ideas were born during an era when American businesses faced little global competition. Others grew out of the self interest of a small number of people who don’t want to share society’s resources. Miller, a leading business and political thinker and author of The Two Percent Solution, talks to Recessionwire about “Dead Ideas” we need to chuck and “Destined Ideas” we ought to embrace.
RW: Which Dead Idea do we most urgently need to get rid of?
Lemonade Maker: Chris Hand, Personal Marketer
Profiles of people who turn economic lemons into lemonade.
This week’s Lemonade Maker: Chris Hand
Location: Upper West Side, New York City
Before recession: Running a visual communications agency and recruiting marketing executives.
Now: Building CareerHandlers, a personal marketing agency designed to help job seekers launch professional campaigns.
Screwed: 20,000 at Nissan
A daily review of the employment fallout around the country.
Nissan to pinkslip 20,000…Razorfish shaves off 70 employees…The University of Chicago Medical Center may shed hundreds of workers…
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