Earn What You Spend

Last week the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the unemployment rate has now hit 8.5% -  so far in this recession the economy has shed over 5.1 million jobs.  We all have friends, family and colleagues who are affected by these job losses.  It’s an incredibly tough thing to watch. 
The standard saying is that [...]

[via Greg Mankiw]
Christina Romer, current Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, presented this talk today at the Brookings Institute.  Although the adjective ‘Great’ is returning to our lexicon when describing the current crisis - Ms. Romer assures us that no, we’re not in another Great Depression.  The Great Recession, perhaps, but we are a [...]

So what would a return to the Great Depression look like? Drake Bennett of the Boston Globe asks just this question, and finds a repeat would look quite different from the last.  
In essence - 
Unlike the 1930s, when food and clothing were far more expensive, today we spend much of our money on healthcare, child [...]

Yesterday’s New York Times asked an important question that I think is worth repeating:
Have We Learned Enough? 
We’re in a recession, undoubtedly.  (True, the NBER hasn’t declared it officially, but they issue statements after the fact, when all the evidence is in.)  Could we sink further, into a depression?  With all the bad news on the [...]

Are we heading for a recession, or a full-blown depression?
Gut-wrenching is the phrase I’m hearing most often in relation to the stock market.  This particularly disturbing headline caught my eye earlier: the S&P500 is down 32.92% for the year-to-date.  Wow.
The difference between a depression and recession is primarily semantic; while the uncertainty we’re currently feeling [...]