Signs of the Recession: Mystery 101

Everyone is wondering who is behind the billboards that are popping up all over the country, from Times Square to I95 in Providence. Well, we’re not telling.

The campaign, which is oh so Upside of the Downturn, features slogans like, “”Self worth is greater than net worth” and “Stop obsessing about economy, you’re scaring the children.” The Associated Press says some mysterious and deep-pocketed East Coaster is to thank for the Recession 101 PSAs. They started appearing in June and are in 1,000 spots around the U.S.

We have some ideas…

Young Jeezy’s Next — “The Recovery”?

Unlike the Great Depression, the Great Recession hasn’t produced quite the same amount of artistic output. Remember “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime”? We’ve still mainly got lots of dimes. Even dollars (oners, natch). Or, “Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries”? Despite the “forgotten, silent crowd,” the recession hasn’t really required everyone to throw one’s hands up and “laugh at it all.”

So we’ve got Young Jeezy’s “The Recession,” which was released last year. In it, he raps about tough times paying bills and getting work. And we don’t think that’s going to change even in the Recovery.

Ode to Less and Less

My job as an administrative executive at a large publisher was eliminated over two years ago, after almost 18 years there. Although this is never good, I was treated respectfully, paid a very fair severance and retired this March. In some ways, this fact and, later, “the recession,” may have sparked dormant creativity. I began to re-teach myself how to write, composing haiku or light verse almost everyday. I also expanded my illustrated notebooks and journals, kept for years, and began making original collages.

In March, I started a small consulting firm, and Christie’s is my first client. So, I am at Ground Zero of what I think of as a deep and profound cultural shift, rather than merely a “recession.” I have a daughter who is 23 and a son, 25, both striking out on their own as well…

Will “Forced Frugality” Last?

Lately I have been hearing about the concept of “forced frugality” from the media and my peers. Many colleagues and family members say they feel a need to be frugal in this economic climate due to job loss and investment losses. With this shift to frugality it seems that shopping at thrift or dollar stores is suddenly trendy. However, will this new wave of frugality last? (Recessionwire co-founder Sara Clemence isn’t so sure it will.)

Right now some households have no choice but to be frugal. With job losses, credit card companies aggressively cutting credit lines, and home equity lines drying up due to the drop in real estate prices, many are forced to be conservative with their cash…

What Recession? An Airline for Your Pet

Pet Airways launched Tuesday with the tagline “Travel for your best friend.” And “where pets fly in the main cabin, NOT in cargo!”

Well, thank goodness for that. If your pet has been roughing it in this downturn, good news is that Pet Airways is here. For just $300 *each way*, you can send your pup from New York to Los Angeles and back. If you want to meet him there, you’ll have to find your own way. So far, only dogs and cats are welcome.

The pets will be treated to regular bathroom, feeding and play stops along the way, and they will each have their own carrier spot where seats usually go. Flight attendants will check on the pets en route every fifteen minutes.

The real sign that boomier times are here? Pet Airways is booked for the next two months…

The ‘Forgotten, Silent Crowd’

While Dan Gross is saying the recession is over, the unemployment rate is hitting levels nearing the Great Depression. But as the New York Times’ David Leonhardt points out — it doesn’t feel like the Great Depression. The vast unemployed are not becoming the vast homeless. The few breadlines that there are have not become legion. On this site, we have even noted the “Nouveau Poor” — the pretension of the downturn, as a fashionable posture.

The point that is missing is that this is a new kind of downturn. This is the Great Recession because it is not just any recession, in which primarily lower levels of the labor ladder are hit…

Off the Page…and Into the Real World

I couldn’t help but laugh when, right as we were approaching the final stretch of the presidential campaign, the economy went off the deep end. I laughed because I sure as hell didn’t need the 24-hour news cycle to tell me how bad things were.

I’m a screenwriter, a card-carrying member of the Writers Guild of America, and though I have had nine movies made (credited and uncredited), business has been abysmal from about six months before the November ’07 writers strike to…oh, say, today. Tomorrow. Next week. The foreseeable future.

I weathered the strike, as I had weathered a previous career dry spell. But the weathering, ladies and gentlemen, is over. I’m looking for a real job. But as I awaken to the lifeless moonscape that is the present economy, I have to wonder: what was wrong with me that I didn’t start looking for one sooner?

I know most of the answer to that. I had it in my head from a young age that being “talent” was an end in and of itself – if you can make 100 percent of your living off said talent, you win. That’s how my grandfather did it as a commercial artist. That’s how my cousin Molly Picon, legend of the Yiddish stage, did it. That’s how my TV producer cousin Bruce has been doing it since the ‘80s.

A very short time ago, I wasn’t certain whether this notion of purely being a screenwriter was more important to me than my marriage. Two things changed that in a hurry. The first was news that a paying gig I had been counting on wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. The second was our checking account balance…

How to Survive and Thrive in the Recovery

An ounce of a prevention is worth a pound of cure, they say, and many of us wish we’d thought ahead about the downturn we’re in (it’s not like you couldn’t see it coming, with teetering mortgages built on nothing and monolithic banks crumbling all around).

So, lesson learned. Now we look ahead to recovery. What are you doing to prepare? The signs of an end to the recession are inconsistent, at best, with economists and banks — and politicians — all over the map on their predictions. But the day may come when the economy is robust and healthy, and you need to be ready for it. No longer will lavish spending be something you want to flaunt. Frugality is in; it’s here to stay. If you don’t want to be caught all bespoked and besotted with pecuniary privilege, you’ll need these essential tips for slimming down now, before it’s too late (with apologies to U.S. News):

1. Rethink your lifestyle. It’s okay to live at home for a little while. Call it shag chic à la 1970s basements.

2. Couponize. They’re better than food stamps.

3. Downsize permanently. Ditch the manse and live on the road. It worked for Jack Kerouac.

4. Get competitive about it. Isn’t there a reality show about scraping and scrounging? Oh, right. The Real Housewives of New York City…

Recession for Men (Video)

It’s not Monday—it’s Manday. There’s been a lot of very serious chatter about how much more men are suffering in the downturn. (See Recession Lexicon: Mancession.) But we’re all about bringing you the the lighter side, too. To appreciate this takeoff of the whispery, angst-ridden Calvin Klein fragrance ads, it helps to have been of television-watching age in the 80s. Thanks to Funny or Die!

Recession Lexicon: Mancession

/n. A downturn in which men are affected more than women. Several economists, including Mark Perry, a professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan who coined the term, agree that men have been falling behind in several areas, from life expectancy to employment. In this recession, American Enterprise Institute scholar Christina Hoff Summers points out, 80 percent of the jobs lost were held by men, since they dominate manufacturing and construction.

Thanks to Derek Thompson at The Atlantic for uncovering the mancession trend.