Recession Briefing 12.11: McDonald’s Gets More Wallet-Friendly

McDonald’s is adding more dollar items to its breakfast menu, in an effort to jump-start sales that have been hit by the high jobless rate. (Reuters)

The Obama administration is proposing creating a new TARP program that gives banks access to government money without restrictions—as long as they use it to make loans to small businesses. (Washington Post)

Some businesses have been forced to close in Lake Oswego, Ore., but there has also been a small boom in new businesses thanks to the downturn. (The Oregonian)…

Recession Briefing 12.3: Families Going Rural

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

The recession is inspiring more young families and singles to head back to the country. Sometimes dubbed “ruralpolitans,” these city and town dwellers are looking at land as their new safe investment. (Wall Street Journal)

Some companies are banding together to save money by having group holiday parties. (New York Times)

Some 60 million adult Americans live without a bank account or use pawn shops and other non-bank operations to handle their finances, according to an FDIC report that called for an expansion of basic services to the “underbanked”. (Financial Times)

Recession Briefing 12.2: Downturn Breeds Vegetarians

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

More than half of Americans have cut back on meat, many becoming “recession-bred flexitarians,” says Gourmet magazine—people who use meat as a condiment not as a meal anchor. And even Martha Stewart broadcast a vegetarian Thanksgiving show last week. (AlterNet)

Climbing interest rates, lower spending limits and canceled accounts are prompting more holiday shoppers to leave their credit cards at home this year. (Wall Street Journal)

The wobbly economy is contributing to a rush by millions of online shoppers to a decidedly low-tech business: coupons. (USA Today)…

Recession Briefing: Antarctica Gets $18.5 Million Stimulus

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

How far would you travel for a job? How about Antarctica? That’s where $18.5 million of stimulus money is ending up. (CNN/Money)

The Obama administration is intensifying its search for policies that can stoke job creation without adding significantly to the nation’s crippling budget deficit. (Washington Post)

The Senate and House are poised to agree on a compromise measure to extend unemployment benefits that also would expand a popular $8,000 tax credit for homebuyers. (New York Times)…

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)…

No Comeback for Credit Cards

In case you haven’t heard, Americans are plunking down their gold (and blue and red and green) cards a lot less. And it looks like some of us are swearing off them altogether.

Almost a quarter of people said they had permanently changed their attitude towards credit cards and would not be using them anymore…

Lost Your Job? Tell Your Landlord.

Sure, he jacks up your rent, ignores your calls about vermin and takes two days to get the toilet fixed. But your landlord (or lady) is really nice.

In fact, two-thirds of small, independent landlords say that they would reduce rents to help tenants stay in their homes, according to a new survey by the National Association of Independent Landlords. And a third say they already have…

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)

5 Things We Learned From Losing Our Dream Home

On June 30, 2009, we handed over the keys to our dream home, a beautiful house on a ridge in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. We had lost the 10-month battle to save it and were headed into the unknown with nothing but the solace that we had at least avoided foreclosure — and more importantly, that we had each other. We finally got it. It took losing our dream home to profoundly ground us in what really matters and teach us that it’s possible to be happy in the face of any circumstance… even foreclosure.

Here’s what we learned along the way.

1. Love wins. In the battle between love and money, love definitely wins. I know this for fact. I had the chance to prove it…

Recession Briefing 10.07: Tortillas Up, Flowers Down

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

In a recession, it seems, people eat more tortillas and stop buying flowers for their sweethearts. Tortilla-makers landed on a recently released top-10 list of best-performing privately held companies, and florists landed in the bottom 10. (Fresno Bee)

The idea of a tax credit for companies that create new jobs, something the federal government has not tried since the 1970s, is gaining support among economists and Washington officials. (New York Times)

Some observers believe that the economic recovery is faltering and could be heading for a “double dip” recession. And that would mean the recent green shoots of recovery turn out to be just a pause in a much longer economic slide. (Politico)…