Recession Briefing: Discount Strategists Shop for Free

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

Discount devotees have formed vast online communities that collectively unearth and swap digital, mobile-phone and paper coupons. The cleverest shoppers combine dozens of coupons and go from store to store buying items in quantity, getting stuff free of charge. (Wall Street Journal)

The recession and continuing high unemployment are taking a psychological toll on individuals. There’s been a startling increase in the number of calls to employee-assistance programs regarding violence, psychosis and dementia in the workplace, including calls about suicidal and homicidal threats, program directors say. (Wall Street Journal)

In an effort to end the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration has been trying to keep defaulting owners in their homes. Now it will take a new approach: paying some of them to leave. (New York Times)…

Recession Briefing: Workers Liberated from Cubicles!

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

Two years of the Great Recession have done more to liberate workers from their offices than a decade of stressed-out employees pleading to telecommute. Dilberts worldwide are losing their cubes. (Global Post)

Even when the U.S. labor market finally starts adding more workers than it loses, many of the unemployed will find that the types of jobs they once had simply don’t exist anymore. (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street firms aren’t the only banks that had a banner year. The Federal Reserve made record profits in 2009, as its unconventional efforts to prop up the economy created a windfall for the government. (Washington Post)…

Stop Reading and Start Sleeping

Want to get back on your feet in 2010? Forget a better (or simply a) job, salary or place to live. The key to success lies in sleep, according to the Huffington Post, which is going crazy over shut-eye time. In a series of posts, the website notes that sleep improves memory, keeps you healthy, lowers your stress levels, and increases performance on the job. Arianna Huffington has even set up a “sleep challenge” for a month. But our favorite idea is an on-the-job nap program proposed by Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute. Who wouldn’t want that? Those out of work are in an even better spot to take up the challenge!…

Recession Briefing 12.9: Will Jobs Really Come Back?

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

“What if the job losses this time around aren’t temporary, the ‘ebb’ part of the ebb and flow of the business cycle?” Caroline Baum asks. “What if employers are hacking away at their permanent workforce?” (Bloomberg)

The recession has slashed U.S. output of planet warming gases and puts the country on track to reach President Barack Obama’s short-term emissions goal, but cutting the pollution further will take more effort as the economy recovers. (Reuters)

One of the oddest phenomena of the boom years was how kitchen appliances quickly morphed into sexy, high-maintenance trophies. These high-flying days flickered out when the real estate market imploded, but they may come back. (The Big Money)…

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 12.1: Only 12 Percent of Stimulus Spent??

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

Only $100 billion of the $787 billion stimulus package passed nine months ago has actually been spent by the federal government so far, with another $90 billion of stimulus coming in the form of tax reductions, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported. (Huffington Post)

The proliferation of underemployed workers could represent a profound reordering of the employment structure. Many people who had comfortable full-time jobs with benefits and advancement opportunities now are cobbling together smaller jobs often at lower pay. (Wall Street Journal)

Reviled by the public and spurned in private, more bankers have reportedly been looking for solace in adultery. IllicitEncounters.com said it has seen a huge increase in the number of financial workers signing up to have affairs after the collapse of the markets in October last year. (Reuters)…

Recession Briefing 11.19: Making America Run

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

Americans are lacing up athletic shoes and signing up to run in 5Ks, 10-milers and even marathons in record numbers. Running “gives you something to control — you can’t control the stock market or the economy, but you can control your health,” said Ryan Lamppa with Running USA. (Agence France Presse)

With the national unemployment rate above 10%, and employed folks looking to bolster budgets by taking second jobs, the competition for seasonal retail, movie theater, package-delivery and other holiday posts is fierce this year. (USA Today)

A Human Rights Watch report on Cuba takes the government of President Raúl Castro to task for, among other things, jailing those without jobs. The report cited the cases of dozens of people charged with “dangerousness” for being unemployed. (New York Times/Economix)…

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 11.02: Wallets Thinner, Waistlines Thicker

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

Wallets may have gotten thinner during this recession, but waistlines have expanded. Many consumers are turning to cheaper fare to better balance their budgets. That often means fast food and canned and frozen processed foods that are higher in fat and calories. (Wall Street Journal)

The American public is starting to get more than mildly annoyed at those who tell them the economy is bouncing back, writes Terry Savage. For every economist or politician who tells you the recession is over, there are a dozen people who think we’re in the midst of a depression. (Chicago Sun-Times)

“Unfortunately,” says John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics, “you have as many views of the economy going forward as you have letters of the alphabet to describe recovery.” (New York Times)…

Recession Anger is Kicking In

Is it us, or do people seem a bit more…pissed off these days?

One morning last week, we were at the entrance to a New York subway station, taking photos for an article. We tried to shoot when the stairs were clear, and move out of the way when trains arrived.

One woman, who was obviously on her way to the office, wanted to go down our side of the staircase and felt we were obstructing her.

“Morons!” she said loudly as she passed, in the withering tone that Gothamites have perfected.

When the recession began, we felt a sort of camaraderie in the air. Even though–in fact, because–the economy seemed to be teetering on the edge of collapse, there was a feeling that Americans were all in it together. They were more generous, more community oriented. It seemed like everyone was a little bit nicer.

Over the past few months, there’s been more anger and aggressiveness on the street, on the subway and in stores…