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 Briefing 10.15: Stimulating Tax Dollars?

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

The public will get a chance to see in detail how their stimulus money is being spent when data is released about the $787 billion stimulus package on the website Recovery.gov today. (Huffington Post)

Concerned about Social Security recipients, veterans, and people on disability payments struggling to make ends meet, President Obama is asking Congress to send them each a $250 check next year. (Christian Science Monitor)

A new study found that the recession is taking a big toll on working moms: Over half of the 1,000-plus women surveyed reported working longer hours, while just one in four women without children and one in three men reported doing so. (U.S. News & World Report)…

If You Love America, Keep the Money Hole Open

The Onion’s video about America’s money hole (the place where we like to throw all our money, sometimes adding gasoline and a light) is funny, but dated.

Or is it?

This week on Slate’s The Big Money, Heidi Moore argues that the next entity the government needs to bail out is the government itself. …

Recession Briefing 9.11: Marijuana Farming Grows

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

The typical American household made less money last year than the typical household made a full decade ago. (New York Times/Economix)

Marijuana farming has increased during the recession as hard-luck entrepreneurs supplement their income with backyard pot plantations. (Associated Press)

Both Harvard University and Yale University have reported that the value of their respective endowments fell about 30% in the past fiscal year. (Associated Press, Wall Street Journal)…

Recession Briefing 8.17: A Cocktail to Kill the Recession

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

Brian Redzikowski, executive chef at Bond Street Beverly Hills serves up a blueberry cocktail these days called “Is the Recession Over?” Here’s the recipe. (Vanity Fair)

The recession, tight job market, depressed stock portfolios and mounting bills have prompted a growing pool of new game show hopefuls: unemployed white-collar professionals seeking quick-fix stimulus packages to keep afloat in turbulent times. (USA Today)

How has the recession been affecting one affluent Westchester suburb? One resident describes how she’s now “squeaking by” on just $300,000-a-year. (Washington Post)…

Recession Briefing 7.31: Office Romance Down

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

“People just aren’t having [you know what] in the office any more,” a Wall Street HR person said. “It’s like the crash dampened their hormones.” (Business Insider)

New-car shoppers appear to have already snapped up all the $1 billion that Congress appropriated for the “cash for clunkers” program, leading the Transportation Department to tell auto dealers Thursday night to stop offering the rebates. (New York Times)

Millions of Americans are making dramatic career turnabouts in the recession as some industries shed jobs which analysts say likely won’t return for years, if ever. (USA Today)…Also

Recession Briefing 7.9

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

“Our first stimulus bill … was sort of like taking half a tablet of Viagra and having also a bunch of candy mixed in,” said Warren Buffett, backing the idea of another stimulus package. (ABC News)

While parents may scrimp on their own clothing allowances during the recession, they won’t on their baby’s, making basic baby apparel one of the most defensive discretionary consumer categories in the economic downturn. (Wall Street Journal)

The free and cheap daytime activities at Seattle’s Recession Camp are designed to bring summer camp-style socializing to unemployed adults. (KOMO News)

In this climate it isn’t difficult to imagine that some museums are looking to the works on their walls (or more likely in the their collection vaults) as a possible solution to to their financial problems. Should they? (Chicago Now)…

Recession Briefing 6.26

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

U.S. limousine companies are laying off workers and closing offices as the recession cuts into demand for the shiny black symbols of wealth and power. (Reuters)

The income of Americans soared in May because of the government’s economic stimulus, leading them to increase spending modestly and boost the saving rate to the highest in 15 years. (Wall Street Journal)

Over the next three months, more than 3,200 post offices and retail outlets — out of 34,000 — will be reviewed for possible closure or consolidation. (The Big Money)

According to a study, the economic downturn is making Britons mean, with people ignoring friends’ birthdays and refusing to buy rounds of drinks in the pub. (WalesOnline)

Initial claims for jobless benefits clicked higher once again this week, but amidst that grim news there are hopeful signs that the employment picture may soon improve. (TIME)…

Public Sector Jobs: Going, Going…

The New York Times reports today that states are using furloughs to save money, and save jobs. But in our daily Screwed report, we’re seeing a different trend: public sector jobs are dropping off by the thousands – by our count, of those we reported, which were mainly in the biggest cities, schools, states and cities have laid off 12,000 people in the last two months. And that’s a low estimate, since we haven’t captured them all.

Slate has attempted to capture them all by taking unemployment data reported by counties across the country – this is the raw data that the Bureau of Labor Statistics uses, several months after the fact, to estimate the number of job gains and losses.

In an interactive chart that uses that data (not seasonally adjusted), Slate seems to show some good news: Would you believe 2.7 million jobs (in all sectors) gained since January 2006? We wouldn’t. So take another look: Press the play button on the chart and month after month, those gains drop off, hitting a low of 97,000 jobs gained in June 2008, to be followed by the more familiar trend — 44,000 jobs lost in July 2008, and falling. And the biggest pain came in September, when the number of jobs lost jumped from 89,000 in August to 730,000. Ouch.

Recession Briefing 4.10

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

The economy appears to be leveling off, with retail sales slowing their decline, the stock market up, and credit markets loosening. But the recession’s not over yet… (AP)

Slowly but surely, the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—better known as the economic stimulus package—is beginning to percolate nationwide, six weeks after President Obama signed the legislation.(Washington Post)

It’s a renter’s market around the country, which means landlords are getting more creative (and desperate) to hold down vacancies and prevent turnover. (BusinessWeek)

President Barack Obama yesterday touted the economic benefits of refinancing, but he should keep the 30-year mortgage on his Chicago spread, a broker says. (Chicago Tribune)