Recession Briefing 12.17: Months at the Museum

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

Admissions at the majority of art museums in the US have been holding steady through the recession — and many are dramatically on the rise. Two-thirds of museums surveyed have experienced a clear increase in visitor numbers over the past three years. (Art Newspaper)

Businesses don’t expect American consumers to return to their spendthrift ways anytime soon. They see consumers emerging from the punishing downturn with a new mind-set: careful, practical, more socially conscious and embarrassed by flashy shows of wealth. (Wall Street Journal)

Despite an official unemployment rate of 27 percent, the real jobs problem in Detroit may be affecting half of the working-age population, thousands of whom either can’t find a job or are working fewer hours than they want. (Detroit News)…

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…

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