Recession Briefing: Monkey See, Monkey Do

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

Dr. Laurie Santos’s studies of monkey “economics” suggest that greedy, loss-averse human behavior — the kind in large part responsible for the recession — may have deep evolutionary origins. (Big Think)

While the Great Recession was tough on just about everyone, rookie CEOs were faced with what will likely be the biggest crisis of their careers. Here’s how four of them handled it. (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)

The nation’s health insurers have come under sharp attack by the Obama administration for seeking seemingly staggering rate increases on policies they sell to individuals. But the weak economy and the unrelenting rise in the cost of medical care make it increasingly difficult for companies to avoid substantial rate increases. (New York Times)…

Recession Briefing: A Real Teeth-Grinder

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

In the wake of the recession more people are grinding and clenching their teeth, dentists say. A new survey by the Chicago Dental Society found that 65 percent of Chicago area dentists reported seeing an increase in jaw-clenching and teeth-grinding among patients in the past year. (Chicago Sun-Times)

“The ongoing Greek financial crisis is the same kind of crisis the United States might face a few years from now if we continue to make the same kinds of mistakes the Greeks have made over the last decade,” writes Anne Applebaum. (Slate)

Experts fear that a new wave of foreclosures will hit this year as prolonged unemployment makes it difficult for millions of homeowners to pay their mortgages — and many of them aren’t likely to get much help from a federal program aimed at keeping them in their houses. (Los Angeles Times)…

Recession Briefing: Can’t Drive 55

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

Just what Americans need as they try to dig out from the Great Recession: gas prices headed back toward $3 per gallon. The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline hit $2.70 on Thursday, according to the auto club AAA. That’s up 67 percent from this time last year. (Washington Post)

The decimated housing market may get considerably worse before it gets better, according to housing-industry professionals, who expect foreclosures and home-price declines to continue pressuring the sector through at least the first half of 2010. (Time)

Apartment vacancies hit a 30-year high in the fourth quarter, and rents fell as landlords scrambled to retain existing tenants and attract new ones. The vacancy rate ended the year at 8%, the highest level since Reis Inc., a New York research firm that tracks vacancies and rents in the top 79 U.S. markets, began its tally in 1980. (Wall Street Journal)…

Recession Briefing: Now, We’re in a Phase of Ambiguity

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

If the Great Recession has indeed relaxed its grip on American life, it has been replaced by something that might be called the Great Ambiguity — a time of considerable debate over the clarity of economic indicators and the staying power of apparent improvements. (New York Times)

92 percent of the top managers and directors at the top 17 companies that received TARP funds are still in their same positions. (The Big Picture)

Heather MacDonald writes that the recession of 2008-09 has undercut one of the most destructive social theories that came out of the 1960s: the idea that the root cause of crime lies in income inequality and social injustice. (Wall Street Journal)…

Recession Briefing 12.31: Brits Move Back Home

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

Nearly 500,000 British adults aged 35 to 44 moved back into their parents’ home in the past year. Devastated by the recession and rising rates of relationship breakdown, many had no option but to return to mother. (Daily Mail)

Companies in the U.S. expanded in December at the fastest pace in almost four years, signaling the economic recovery is gaining speed heading into 2010. (Bloomberg)

Employers say they plan to tread carefully in the coming year, and those that are hiring say they will wait until the second half to fill jobs. (Los Angeles Times)

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)…

Krugman: Four More Years of Unemployment (Video)

Ever since the $787 billion stimulus package passed earlier this year, economist Paul Krugman has been the squeaky wheel moaning about its small size.

“The stimulus bill looks helpful but inadequate, especially when combined with a disappointing plan for rescuing the banks,” he said at the time. “The complacency now setting in over the state of the economy is both foolish and dangerous,” he’s said since, in column titled “Mission Not Accomplished.” And at a recent talk at White & Case for the Hudson Union Society, he kept up the drumbeat:..

Recession Briefing 11.20: Tuition Up a Ton

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

Strapped for cash after deep state budget cuts, The University of California’s Board of Regents has approved a plan to raise undergraduate fees — the equivalent of tuition — 32 percent next fall. (New York Times)

Some states have hunger problems that far outpace their poverty rates, an indication that it isn’t just the fragile economy that’s to blame. (The Daily Beast)

Last winter as the American economy seized up, the Flea Theater commissioned six rising playwrights to write 10-minute plays for a series titled The Great Recession. The show debuts tonight in New York. (Los Angeles Times, The Flea)…

Recession Briefing 11.17: More Going Hungry

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

The number of Americans who lived in households that lacked consistent access to adequate food soared last year, to 49 million, the highest since the government began tracking what it calls “food insecurity” 14 years ago. (New York Times)

Massive financial fraud schemes like Bernard Madoff’s multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme may attract lots of headlines. But as the effects of the recession wear on, it’s small-time financial crimes that are thriving, experts say. (NPR)

Some 15.4 million taxpayers could receive smaller refunds than they expected or owe taxes next year because they did not have enough money withheld from their paychecks as part of the Making Work Pay tax credit program. (Washington Post)…

Recession Briefing 11.13: Jobs Remain a Conundrum

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

Job seekers take heed, the best cities to find work may be in Texas. The Milken Institute released its annual Best Performing Cities Index earlier this week, and the Lone Star state dominated the rankings. (Huffington Post)

When a huge Andy Warhol canvas sold Wednesday at Sotheby’s for $43.7 million — more than triple its pre-sale estimate — it may also have been a sign that growing talk of economic recovery is being taken to heart by the world’s moneyed class, for whom art collecting is a competitive blood sport. (Toronto Star)

As they draw up blueprints for the house of the post-recession future, builders are struggling to distinguish among what luxury home buyers need, what they want and what they can live without — Jacuzzi by Jacuzzi, butler’s pantry by butler’s pantry. (Wall Street Journal)…