Recession Briefing 12.29: Goldman Sucks

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

Some of the more tangible expressions of populist rage at Wall Street and Washington over the financial crisis are on t-shirts and other collectibles. Angry, snarky designs came fast and furious in 2009, going after Goldman Sachs , the financial industry bailout, President Obama’s economic policies, and many more. (Business Insider)

Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive of giant bond manager Pimco, says that we shouldn’t trust the nascent economic recovery. “We’re on a sugar high,” El-Erian says. “It feels good for a while but is unsustainable.” (Associated Press)

It was a rough year for Ponzi schemes. In 2009, the recession unraveled nearly four times as many of the investment scams as fell apart in 2008. (Associated Press)…

The Recession Has Ended… in the Art Market?

Says who: Sotheby’s head of contemporary art Tobias Meyer in reference to his $43.76 million sale of Andy Warhol’s “200 One Dollar Bills”

“… after a year of not buying … collectors have started buying again … The desire to have great things will make (them) step up and pay more than $40 million for a work of art.” (via Reuters)

Why it might be false: One pricey painting is an uptick, but it doesn’t…

Recession Briefing 11.13: Jobs Remain a Conundrum

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

Job seekers take heed, the best cities to find work may be in Texas. The Milken Institute released its annual Best Performing Cities Index earlier this week, and the Lone Star state dominated the rankings. (Huffington Post)

When a huge Andy Warhol canvas sold Wednesday at Sotheby’s for $43.7 million — more than triple its pre-sale estimate — it may also have been a sign that growing talk of economic recovery is being taken to heart by the world’s moneyed class, for whom art collecting is a competitive blood sport. (Toronto Star)

As they draw up blueprints for the house of the post-recession future, builders are struggling to distinguish among what luxury home buyers need, what they want and what they can live without — Jacuzzi by Jacuzzi, butler’s pantry by butler’s pantry. (Wall Street Journal)…

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 10.21: Downturn Sends College Prices Up

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

The recession helped push up the cost of college this year, with students facing bigger bills because of reduced state spending on higher education and diminished campus endowments. Four-year public colleges in the U.S. raised annual tuition and fees by an average 6.5%, to $7,020 this fall. (Los Angeles Times)

The financial panics of last September and October will always be part of the story of this recession. But recent research questions the claim that the financial panics themselves contributed to their contemporaneous and severe employment downturns. (New York Times/Economix)

A British survey has found that more people are visiting museums during the recession. (Art Daily)

Retooling: Affordable Art Keeps Gallery Afloat

Provenance be damned. These days the most important thing for gallery owners to master is the art of survival.

The art market—like everything else—has been in contraction for more than a year. Galleries are closing, and many are struggling.

But Jessica L. Porter, owner of a small gallery in New York City, started her business in a recession-friendly fashion. And in the downturn, she has figured out a way to keep people buying art…

Boom’s Over, Boys: Art’s New Take on Money

What is art for? In the boom years, many people, if answering honestly, would have said art was status symbol, investment, an excuse for socializing (and social climbing) at art fairs and gallery openings from New York to Miami to Switzerland. During the boom, artists prospered instead of starving and even students got high prices for their work. Eight of the 10 most expensive paintings ever were sold between 2004 and 2008.

The art market has crashed along with everything else. We’re all thinking more about money–and we’re also thinking differently about it. Which may be shifting the spotlight to artists who have a more skeptical take on money, markets and capitalism than, say, Damien Hirst, the darling of the boom years who created a $100 million, diamond-encrusted skull. We’ve seen some impressive examples out there:

Hedge Fund is an eerie work by Gianni Monteleone, one of 12 artists that Robert Jain, head of Credit Suisse global proprietary trading, commissioned to create works inspired by Wall Street terminology…

For a Cheap Date, Get Creative

Periodically, things go really well. Property values grow at unprecedented rates. The S & P 500 grows 13% year over year. And, once in a blue moon, a single pretty good (but not great) idea will catch the right executive’s eye and move someone from the creative class into the realm of the nouveau riche (and they will buy Jet Skis for all of their friends). Then other times, the unemployment rate more than doubles inflation and the best solution anyone can think of is to tax high-earners in excess of 50% of their income. In the latter scenario, romance, entertainment and romantic entertainment* become a bit superfluous when budget time comes around. That’s when the tough get creative.

Artifacts from Your Former Life

For me, it’s a stash of overflowing bags crammed full of papers, pens, Post-It notes, trinkets, cards received, file folders, business cards.

For Sara, one of my co-founders, it’s boxes that contain art that once hung on the walls.

Everyone leaves their office with the bits and pieces that made up their former work life – how do you keep those artifacts from your former life from languishing, merely detritus of the old you?

Sara took her art and worked it into her apartment, combining the before and now. I’ve still got the bags waiting for me to sort through and toss.

Cards of Change has another idea for purging without purging: Use your business card, a symbolic signifier of who you are, to create change in your life.

Cold, Cold Art

Is the art market on the verge of an ice age?

Last week, the all-important contemporary art auctions were held in New York. The big houses raked in tens of millions of dollars—Sotheby’s hit $47 million in its May 12 evening sale, and Christie’s did $93 million the next night—and set a few records. But no matter how they tried to spin it, those sums were relatively skimpy. Christie’s brought in three times more last year, and the big lot at Sotheby’s, Jeff Koons’ Baroque Egg with Bow (Turquoise/Magenta), which had been shopped around for $20 million, sold for $5.5 million.

The problem isn’t just lack of enthusiastic buyers…