Recession Briefing 4.17

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

There are new signs that the recession may be easing up. The pace of new-home construction seems to be nearing a bottom, and first-time jobless benefit claims fell more than expected. (Associated Press)

The banking industry is also starting to see some signs of recovery. JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo have announced major profits this quarter. (New York Times)

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says that the Obama Administration’s ties to Wall Street will doom its bank-rescue efforts. (Bloomberg)

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.

Recession Lexicon: Recession Hacking

Finding and using smart strategies and ideas for dealing with the downturn—whether it’s saving money on your cell phone bill to dining for less. We don’t know where this one started, but there are already a few websites using it, including Recession Hacking and Recession Hacks. Without realizing it, you’re probably looking for recession hacks every day.

Graduation to Nowhere

I’ve spent no small amount of time thinking about how my life could have been different if I had graduated in another year.

From the first day of senior year in the fall of 2007, (like all seniors) we avoided mentioning the “G word” and cringed when anyone asked what our plans were for the next year. We were still safely ensconced inside the safe, dependable collegiate bubble. The outside world, where concerns over subprime mortgages were slowly mounting, hardly penetrated. Besides, people we knew had graduated and gone to get jobs. Just as we expected we would.

When I did finally graduate in May 2008, Bear Stearns had already collapsed, but I couldn’t see how my experience could fold in on me: I was a double major, graduated magna cum laude, had put in my time as an unpaid intern, and was an editor of a campus magazine at Syracuse University. I expected success and moved to New York so I would be here to interview at a moment’s notice. I signed a one-year lease on an apartment and waited for the interviews and offers to roll in…

The Recession Road Trip

You get laid off from your job. You file for unemployment for the first time. You’re wondering what comes next.

It’s a situation millions of Americans are experiencing right now. But as far as we know, only one of them packed up the peanut butter and jelly and embarked on a three-month road trip around the United States, with the goal of documenting how the recession is affecting people. Make that two people—since 26-year-old Austin Chu is doing it with his brother, Brian.

So far Austin and Brian have traveled through New Mexico, Texas, Nebraska, and Alabama, to name just a few, interviewing people they meet along the way. Today, they’re in Washington, D.C.—outside the White House, they accidentally met my brother.

We love their tips for taking a 21st century road trip on the cheap. But we’re even more into their videos, like their version of Fifty People, One Question, shot in Austin, Texas.

Recession Lexicon: Homeworking

This term is so obvious, we’re amazed more people aren’t using it. It’s a little less of a mouthful than “working from home,” which is great for all of us who are now setting up shop in kitchens, spare bedrooms, and alcoves.

The Book Reporter: Bad Money by Kevin Phillips

Painting a portrait of a declining global hegemon, i.e. the United States, Kevin Phillips pulls no punches in telling us just how irresponsible and delusional we’ve been. It’s all there in Bad Money – debt, consumption, and our failure to understand the cultural forces (the Religious Right, oil dependence) that cripple us. Phillips, a leading economist and former Republican strategist, is now a political agnostic who finds much to blame in both parties…

Ode to the Blingrupt

Trevor Butterworth, a Wordie contributor, sent us a link to his list of economic crisis-crafted terms. And then this, a Jabberwocky rip-off, landed on our desk.

‘Twas ponzipaloosa, and the slithy brokerers
Did scofit and fraudit in the Davy Jones Index;
All bankholed were the financial sucktor,
And the drivelatives quantitatively fassets teased.

The Down-and-Out Show for Our Times

Forget the movies. If you want some good old recession-era fare, you better have kept your HBO. Flight of the Conchords is the only place to find company in the misery, set to escapist “smile on your brother” sing-a-longs like Too Many Dicks (On the Dance Floor).

When it first aired in 2007, FOTC seemed like the pinnacle of Williamsburg Brooklyn writ large: fake New Zealand rock stars, unlucky in love, parodying musical genres in nerdy glasses—with a creepy stalker to boot. Funny at times, yes, but also grating in its hipster smugness, more or less the pay-channel equivalent of a night out in Williamsburg.

That, however, was a short-sighted, knee-jerk reactionary view caused by an allergic reaction to ironic tee shirts.

This is what the FOTC is really all about: being broke in the big city. It’s a 21st-century Dickensian tale of poverty, only instead of begging and pick-pocketing, the urchins wear thrift-store short-shorts while jogging and steal cushions from the local library.

Out on the Street: Gendernomics

Each week, “Joe the Trader” chronicles his experiences with life after Wall Street.

Okay, so I could have picked up the laundry, I could have dealt with the recycling piling up in the kitchen, I could have bought a tarp for the air conditioner so it doesn’t rust sitting outside on the porch. But I didn’t. That’s right: I chose not to do the three things my lady asked me to do. Time slipped away, I claimed, when she asked what the hell I’d done all day. Through repeated questioning, I maintained my innocence, highlighting all of the “important” networking calls I had made. But between us, dear reader, the truth is I was in my giraffe boxer shorts most of the day talking to my “important” contacts about my upcoming ski trip. And what did my lady do all day? You guessed it: She went to work.

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