Want to Live Longer? Have a Recession.

In good times we live longer, in bad times we die younger. Makes sense—but it’s not true.

The Depression, for instance, increased life expectancy by more than 6 years, according to a study by researchers at the University of Michigan. Meanwhile, during the boom years of the early 20th century, life expectancy actually went down…

Recession Briefing 11.30: Is Anyone Not on Food Stamps?

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

With food stamp use at record highs and climbing every month, a program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children. (New York Times)

“If the United States succumbs to a fiscal crisis, as an increasing number of economic experts fear it may,” writes Niall Ferguson, “then the entire balance of global economic power could shift.” (Newsweek)

Growing ranks of U.S. citizens are heading to street corners and home improvement store parking lots to find day-labor work usually done by illegal immigrants. (USA Today)…

Video: Let the Good Times Roll…

When New Jack City was released in 1991, times were indeed tough—New York City hadn’t yet seen Rudy Giuliani unleash his police force to clean up the streets; the dot-com and real estate booms hadn’t propelled Manhattan to epic heights of prosperity. But if the facade is better now, the times are tougher, at least by the measures above. First-time unemployment claims last month? Nearly double the “month” in New Jack City: 530,000 in September. Americans with income below the poverty line totals 47.4 million by at least one estimate. As for economic inequality—well, that’s an old story by now. Homelessness is only getting worse. And the national debt stands at $12 trillion…

Recession Briefing 10.29: Your Cash for Their Clunkers

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

The “Cash for Clunkers” program cost taxpayers approximately $24,000 for each extra vehicle sold when you factor in the cars which would have likely been sold anyway in the second half of 2009. (CNN/Money)

Remarkably, there has been a decline in deaths during the recession. The truth, little known but well documented, is that death rates decline and healthy living habits improve in tough economic times. (Fortune)

The economy grew at a 3.5 percent pace in the third quarter, the best showing in two years, fueled by government-supported spending on cars and homes. It was the strongest signal yet the economy entered a new phase of recovery. (AP)…

Recession Briefing 9.14: Goodwill Fashion Grows

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

Goodwill stores — which might have been a wardrobe faux pas in better times — are seeing a recession-fueled boost in sales. (Boston Herald)

Basic salaries for executives at top companies jumped 10 percent last year despite the financial crisis, a report said on Monday. (Agence France-Presse)

There is a surge in student interest at the nation’s schools that provide an education in the business and science of funerals, a field that historically garners greater interest as the job market worsens. (Associated Press)…

Recession Briefing 8.24: Manorexia on the Rise

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession. If you come across a good article or blog post about the recession pass it on. To receive Recession Briefing in your inbox, subscribe to our daily email.

Financial fears and the recession are contributing to the rise in the number of men suffering from anorexia. (Sky News)

Obama administration officials are looking at 1937’s stalled comeback from the Great Depression for clues as to what this recession’s rebound might be like. (Wall Street Journal)

In the recession, there are a proliferation of scams that target job seekers. In addition to sham job-finding companies, perpetrators prey on the desperate by offering credit rating repairs, foreclosure rescues, and home-based businesses that aren’t legitimate. (Boston Herald)…

What Happens When Upwardly Mobile Couple Hits Hard Times

The 1930s were a heyday for screwball comedies, rowdy pictures where complications were piled onto complications, until the characters reached their breaking point, crazy stuff happened, hilarity ensued and moviegoers went home happy. In the Great Depression, filmmakers used broad comedy to touch on issues of class and poverty, but kept audiences enthralled with plenty of slapstick that always found some upper crust heel choking on their silver spoon.

Which is why if you’ve seen Made for Each Other—especially when it was first released in 1939—it can only be because you’re a Jimmy Stewart and/or Carole Lombard completist.

On December 12, 1939 producer David O. Selznick changed the course of Hollywood history when Gone with the Wind premiered in Atlanta. It was the centerpiece of his filmic legacy and overshadowed Made for Each Other, a simple comedy that hit closer to home for many Americans: the upheaval on a young marriage brought on by personal finances…

Recession Briefing 5.13

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

Doomsday for Social Security and Medicare has come a little closer, thanks to the deep recession. The costs of administering Social Security are now expected to exceed tax revenues in 2016, a year earlier than expected. The trust funds for the program are now projected to run out in 2037, four years earlier than envisioned a year ago. (BusinessWeek)

Who else knew?: Billions of dollars were withdrawn from accounts at Bernie Madoff’s firm in the months before he was arrested. (New York Times)

In the second part of a series comparing the current recession to the Great Depression, Price Fishback describes what actually happened to our economic system last fall and contrasts it with what happened in 1929. (New York Times/Freakonomics),,,

Redux: Give Us a Hero, Preferably in Tights

Lynn Parramore looks back at the Great Depression to see the path ahead.

Hard times were made for heroes. We want stories of the fearless, the bold, and the incorruptible. We crave somebody who stares danger in the face and stands up to the bad guys. If those bad guys are nasty pirates straight out of a storybook, then so much the better.

That’s why the sea captain Richard Phillips, who offered himself to Somali pirates to protect his crew, is hailed as “Captain Courageous.” And it’s no surprise that the daring Navy SEALS who felled his captors are celebrated with glowing media profiles, their valor and marksmanship like salve in wounded national pride. Score one for America!

After saving the lives of 155 passengers with his spectacular Hudson River landing, Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger got his own superhero nickname…

Stitch Slap the Recession

Forget high-density thread counts. In the Depression, the most popular fabric for quilts was feed sacks, or the cloth bags that packaged flour, sugar and animal food. They were first recycled by thrifty women during Civil War shortages. But by the 1930s, the sacks began to be designed specifically for reuse, with label names on easily removable stickers and decorative prints replacing
solid fabrics- clever eco-marketing a whole 75 years before “I’m not a plastic bag.”

At the recent “Recycling and Resourcefulness: Quilts of the 1930s” exhibit at the American Folk Art Museum, Depression-era pieces on loan from the International Quilt Study Center showcased ingeniously pieced together quilts made from everyday material like dressmaking scraps, commemorative ribbons and even worn-out clothing, from old jeans and sweaters to my personal favorite: the front and back of a men’s red and navy striped, suspendered bathing suit.