Posts Tagged ‘Recession’
What do our economy and a really fat man have in common? Quite a lot according to Michael Pento (with a hat tip to Zero Hedge).
Even if that is just a bunch of Austrian assumptions (for a better explanation check out the video above) our economy is definitely not in the pink just yet.
With that comes pain and sacrifice for consumers (unless your Snooki who is the center of an insane reverse advertising war).
Economists see more than just sacrifice they see a Petri dish to be studied. One aspect that is being analyzed is what things are considered “necessities”.
Thanks to Free exchange
As pointed out by the Economist’s Free exchange:
I would not have imagined that the downturn would lead to decline of 20 percentage points in the share of those labeling a clothes dryer a necessity. It suggests that the psychological impact of recession extends well beyond those who remain unemployed.
It also seems that houses may be becoming a luxury:
Thanks to Yglesias
Houses may become a luxury but an economic downturn doesn’t have to stop you from living in a mansion for free.
Speaking from experience an abandoned mansion is a great place to blog from. Don’t take our word on it: find a mansion, fire up you laptop and drop us a comment. Writing comments is a penny pinching way to have fun.
Thanks to Wikicommons
Are You about to become EXTINCT?!? If you are a member of the Middle Class, we are talking to YOU!
That’s right there are some pretty smart people out there saying the American middle may go the way of the DoDo bird and be found only in museums.
The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a blinding pace.
This is the dark projection Michael Snyder provides via Yahoo! Finance. The article provides a number of shocking statistics to support this view.
Thanks to Wikicommons.
We have some bad news for you. Brace yourself here it comes:
US payrolls GREW by 431,000 in May.
Bad news? that sounds like good news!?! Well it’s not good news… as economists expected 540,000 new jobs.
But wait, there is more. Free Exhange, a blog brought to you by The Economist, notes: …read more.
Money, thanks wikicommons!
Some of us here at USDemocrazy don’t trust banks and instead choose to keep money under our mattresses (and believe us, these mattresses need all the padding they can get).
Still, despite an uncertain economy gripping the country most folks still rely on banks and other institutions to manage their funds.
So, as a follow-up to last week’s post about how money is spent by the U.S. government, we decided to explore how America’s money is managed. …read more.
Living Green: Using your microwave is greener than using your oven.
Top ten unconventional indicators of the economic recession. To whet your appetite, men’s underwear sales is on the list!
Could health care reform be for the worst instead of the better?
Don't they look cozy?
We at USDemocrazy like to take a break from the news every once in a while.
And because we are wonderfully informed, cultured, connoisseurs of everything pop culture, we thought we’d do a little something on some recent summer movies. (If you’re behind a little, catch up on our posts on “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” and “Up!”)
This past weekend saw the opening of Judd Apatow’s “Funny People,” to only mediocre box office earnings. But, according to the L.A. Times, it’s been kind of a slow year for movies in general:
Ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada since the summer movie season began May 1 fell below 2008’s total for the first time, according to data from Hollywood.com.
(There’s a recession on, remember?)
So, should you spend your hard earned money on “Funny People?”
Well, that depends. Are you a man, or a woman? (or neither?)
Apparently, says the same article, this is not exactly a chick flick:
Audience reaction was starkly split along gender lines. Female moviegoers, perhaps put off by the number of jokes centered on male anatomy, gave the movie a C-plus, while men rated it a B-plus, according to market research firm CinemaScore.
Want a full review of the movie? Check out the review in the NY Times. Here’s the trailer:
If you’re feeling nostalgic, RottenTomatoes.com takes a walk down Apatow memory lane, here.
If that one’s not your speed, you might want to wait until this upcoming weekend, when two very opposite movies with duke it out for the top spot at the box office, “G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra” and “Julie and Julia.”
Here’s the trailers, respectively:
So, what’s the buzz? MSNBC named “Julie and Julia” a best bet for the weekend, mentioning that you might not want to go to the movie hungry. (It’s all about famed chef and madame de French cuisine Julia Child and how she inspired modern-day, real-life Julie Powell to change her own path.) It even promotes happy marriages. What’s not to love?
As for “G.I. Joe,” the L.A. Times seems to have taken a more cynical point of view, showing that maybe it won’t be released to critical acclaim, but the movie sure is trying to court mainstream America:
The subtext is none too subtle: Critics are likely to roast the film, and fanboys of the original toy line and comic book may be indifferent, but if you’re a flag-waving, Nascar-loving American, it’s practically your patriotic duty to see this movie.
Are you one of these people? Go ahead, support Hollywood, and see the movie. If not, well, stay at home and rent a movie.
There’s tons of movie still to come this summer, but now you’re at least somewhat up-to-date on a few different releases that want your money. If you want a fuller list, check out Movie-moron.com’s list of summer blockbusters here, as well as the all-knowing http://www.rottentomatoes.com/.
If you find yourself thinking that it’s too hot outside to go for a picnic or a hike, an equally fun activity is going inside an air-conditioned theater (and you don’t have to see the energy bill at the end of the summer!) to cool down and laugh, cry, or, you know, sit.
Anyone have a review of their own?
photobucket.com
If you’re like any of USDemocrazy’s friends, you’ve often heard the line “I’d join you, but I have no money!”
Now that it is vacation season… it got us to wonder: do other people have money to spend on vacations in this time of economic hardship?
After some research, we came up with an answer: YES.
As vacation season comes but once a year, few are willing to relinquish their precious summer moments and memories.
We found an article that says people are driving this year to their trip destinations rather than flying, despite the fact that gas prices go up during the summer. Also, there is an increasing demographic of spouses willing to spend time with their in-laws to save a few bucks off of a getaway:
Once they reached their destinations, two in five people said they stayed with friends or relatives. About half said they stayed at hotels during their last vacation, while 80% of vacationers stayed at hotels in 2007.
And if there’s anything less predictable than in-laws, it’s gas prices. Here, the Christian Science Monitor explores why fuel prices aren’t declining like demand is. (We’ll give you a hint: it has to do with the bad economy.)
Some people are opting for day or weekend trips to places a little nearer by (than, say, Europe), like Yvette Woolfolk of California:
“This summer, I’ve decided that a balanced approach to travel is in order,” she says. “I want to be able to travel within my means — no charging! — and support the local economy at the same time.”
Even the Choice Hotels International franchise is seeing some improvement, since, according to its CEO, their customers typically are ones who drive to their destinations. With more people taking to the road rather than to the sky or rails, this hotel group is getting pretty optimistic about the summer travel season.
But for those of you who still prefer to fly but maybe have been holding off for cheaper prices, Joshua Freed of the Associated Press indicated that you might want to book those tickets NOW. Could there be a better time? Writes Freed:
Fares have dropped for months while travelers held off buying tickets because they were afraid of losing a job or worried about affording even a scaled-back vacation. But with July 4th fast approaching and jet fuel prices rising, some fares could be set to climb again.
And then, there are people who have been bulking up their frequent flier miles and are saving some moola by cashing those miles in now. Smart move, guys and gals.
So, you might be going on a vacation, staycation, or blowing us off for summer plans like all our other friends, but still every day you’re probably learning more about how this recession is affecting everyone. Now, it’s time for the kids to get in on the learning, too.
We at USDemocrazy are now thinking that a little vacation might be nice… what are YOU up to this summer?
A face that could save the economy.
Three cheers! The worst may be over!
Gas going up… Does your wallet hurt yet?
Fight that case of the Mondays… Check out the best of last week’s late night jokes!
Wal-Mart helps the environment (by forcing its suppliers to).
Courtesy of Gawker
We at USDemocrazy are pretty big fans of the news. That’s why, when 2009’s Pulitzer Prize winners were announced on Monday, we were on the edge of our seats. (OK, well, not literally because there was this baseball game on, and we were pretty into that, then we had to take a nap, and… well, nevermind.)
But we did hear that this year was the first time the Prize committee considered entries from online-only news sources, which is great because we may have a shot at one next year! (Don’t you think??) But enough about us… Turns out that the awards were announced amid a swirl of turmoil in the world of print media.
The news about newspapers is not good. They are laying off writers and editors, selling sections of the paper, shrinking (literally… newspapers are getting smaller), and posting ridiculous losses. Most people are getting more and more of their news online, which present print papers with a positively puzzling predicament: How to make money in this funky new media landscape?
The Pulitzer Prize, which awards great work in journalism, literature, photography, and music, reminded us all of the media sob story, especially when one Prize went to writers who had been laid off.
A story on NPR’s Morning Edition reminds of the stress the newspaper industry is under, due to it not making money and there being a low demand for old-fashioned ink-on-your-fingers black-and-white-and-read-all-over papers, even noticing that the New York Times celebrated its five wins in a news room that no longer belongs to them.
We at USDemocrazy, appreciators of very fine journalistic talent, congratulate all of the Pulitzer winners and are proposing that they all pool together their prize money to save the newspaper industry…
Oh, it’ll take like, billions of dollars you say? Nevermind. Maybe they should just keep the money to pay off their mortgages!
Where do you all see the future of print media? Is there a future at all? While you guys figure that out, we’ll be working on our Pulitzer Prize-winning piece for next year.
Obama is back with another message of hope (not that we at USDemocrazy are surprised). This offer of hope is directed towards America’s economy.
In a speech to Georgetown University, Obama said that the economy is kinda sorta maybe beginning to level out. (We’re out of the fire, back into the frying pan.)
A Huffington Post blog has an interesting (albeit opinionated) breakdown of the speech.
Whether or not we are on the road to recovery, things today are not always sunny. Retail sales dropped in March, signaling that consumers have not come out from under their rocks yet.
As Obama said, there will be “more job loss, more foreclosures, and more pain before it ends,” so tighten your belts (and wallets) and hang on. Remember to turn to USDemocrazy, not for answers, but for company (you’re not the only one panicking!) .
Remember the good old days ? By that we, US Democrazy, mean the good ole days of the Great Depression. Well, not “great” for anyone (except shanty contractors and bindle factories), but you get the idea.
So… how does this new-fangled economic turmoil stand up to the Big Bozo of Financial Fiascoes?
Poorly. But before y’all get up in arms about how bad it is now, let’s compare some numbers.
Currently unemployment is around 8.1%. If you add in people who are working part time but want to work full time you get about 14.8%.
This seems bad until you compare it to the 29% unemployment rate in 1932. Based on this factor alone the current hiccup does not seem so bad.
BUT WAIT! There are some nasty similarities between our financial crunch and the Greatest of all Depressions.
Christina Romer, head of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, (who is also a Great Authority on the Great Depression) provided some valuable insights.
In her words “the worldwide nature of the decline” today is similar to the Great Depression.
But don’t panic; Romer points out people during the Great Depression had “painfully few of the social safety nets that today help families.” Phew! But painfully few still sounds kind of painful.
So put a smile on! With a little luck (okay… maybe a lot of luck) we won’t have any stories for our children about the good ole Great Depression of ’09.
Well at least I’m still rich… World’s richest lose billions!
It seemed like a good idea at the time. Man “falls” in Niagara.
Does anybody have any Old Bay? Giant crabs are here to stay!
… but we at USDemocrazy are fairly certain the that does not apply to our US economy.
A few weeks ago, we posted a blog that basically said: if you talk about too much about recession, you could end up with a depression . Well, apparently no one has learned their lesson!
This article in the New York Times tells us how upset we should be about the loss of our jobs. And this article from the Wall Street Journal is especially nice and perky. It gives us the odds of the United States stumbling into a deep dark depression!
We at USDemocrazy kinda prefer stories like NPR’s story on “Laid Off Camp”. This is about unemployed or furloughed people who seek out others in the same bind. One guy said he just wants to meet someone who can go to museums in the middle of the day with him. The Laid Off Camp counselors say that you should embrace unemployment, not stress about it! If you’re going to be out of work… be happy out of work.
In these tough times stories of optimism are great (and hard) to find. As all of us who have been jobless know… being happy and unemployed is easier said than done!
And words will hurt the economy…
Let’s talk for a minute about the recession… NO, LET’S NOT! That’s because all this talk of the economics could be damaging to your health!!! (Financial health, that is…)
The crack team at USDemocrazy has noticed that any time an Obama adminstration official starts to talk economics… the stock market screams, runs and hides!
Now the brainiacs at the New York Times have started to wonder if all this talk of America launching into a depression is going to, well, launch America into a depression. Same with the folks at New York Magazine who have dubbed the US economy’s weakened state “The Greatest Depression.” Newsweek is fielding questions on whether or not we are in a depression, and Google yields 68.5 million hits when you type in “Are we in a depression?”
There’s an old saying that goes, the economy is in recession when your neighbor loses his job, but there’s a depression on when you lose your job. Well, maybe if we all hush up about this lousy depression, maybe the economy will just stay in a lousy recession instead.
Okay… maybe this isn’t a good strategy. We at USDemocrazy think it is important to discuss issues like recessions and depressions… (But please don’t blame us if the market starts to fall!)
Photo courtesy New York Magazine
