Crash Survival Zone

Economic fears are driving a resurgence for repairmen. When it comes to autos, computers and all kinds of appliances, consumers are more likely to repair what they have, rather than buying a new replacement.

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WSJ

Demo Is Cutting Back on Food and Excursions, Still Spending on DVDs and Music in Recession
In a recession, one group can usually be counted on to keep spending: teens. Their parents often pick up the tab for necessities, leaving them free to spend the income they earn from part-time jobs and birthday money from grandma [...]

A new Gallup Poll finds that about a third of Americans, 32%, say they have been spending less in recent months, and that they intend to solidify this behavior as their “new, normal” pattern in the years ahead. Twenty-seven percent say they are saving more now and intend to make this their new, normal pattern [...]

By  Mortimer Zuckerman

Of all the bubbles that have burst recently—the wealth bubble, the housing bubble, the credit bubble—the one whose bursting hurts the most is the bubble of confidence. The confidence of Americans is shaken not only in their own economic futures but in their business and financial leaders who once seemed to be bringing [...]

A record 19.1 million homes stood unoccupied in the first quarter and the U.S. homeownership rate fell as the recession sapped demand for real estate.

The number of vacant homes, including foreclosures, properties for sale and vacation properties, jumped from 18.6 million a year earlier, the U.S. Census Bureau said in a report today. Households that [...]

…The fact is this recession has made high echelon jobs in the financial sector less desirable for women. Once venerable brand-name organizations are losing their luster amid sagging revenue, mass layoffs, bailouts, cost cuts, bad PR and low morale. The psychological and emotional perks that once helped balance the time commitments of high pressure “extreme” [...]

I’ve just read the most intelligent political tract of 2009, and the best analysis of the credit crunch. Compassionate Economics by Jesse Norman was in fact published at the end of last year. The thing is, I’m a very slow reader. My school once ran a course on how to read more quickly, but I [...]

By Carolyn Baker
… I cringe when I hear the words “back to normal” because of what that means to me. “Normal” means hordes of Walmart shoppers stuffing cars and SUV’s full of plastics from China and driving off to their suburban homes to devour or display them until the current fix wears off and their [...]

The recession will end. No one is marking the calendar, least of all President Obama, but the president is hinting at an audacious ambition as he waits for that inevitable if distant day: a redefining of American capitalism.

In a series of comments in recent weeks, Mr. Obama has begun to sketch a vision of where [...]

Hard times are creating economic survivalists such as the Wojtowicz family who are paring expenses by becoming more self-sufficient.
Reviving “almost lost” skills and preparing for tough days make people feel more in control, says Charlotte Richert, consumer sciences educator for Oklahoma State University’s Extension Service in Tulsa County.

Karen Gulliver, MBA program chair at Argosy University [...]