Today is a fine day for indulging in hard-luck stories for our hard-luck times—a.k.a., recession porn. These are tales of lost jobs, no prospects, and unemployment benefits that have run out. Or if there are jobs, they are jobs that have a 24/7 work week: no vacation, no weekends, no health insurance. And the people featured in these …
Bellweather for the Economy: The Hot Waitress Index
Sure, to get a sense of how the economy is faring, you could look at home sale prices, or unemployment stats, or what products are actually selling well at the time. Instead, a New York magazine story explores the symbiotic relationship between the attractiveness of restaurant waitstaff and the economic climate: Basically, if your …
Treasury tries to publicly shame Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Wachovia
As recently as a few weeks ago, the Treasury Department seemed pretty unhappy(PDF) with how quickly mortgage servicers were extending loan modifications to struggling borrowers under its Making Home Affordable Program. That led quite a few people–including me–to write stories like this one, ruminating on why things weren’t taking off …
It’s a Deal: Two Free Tacos at Jack in the Box
It’s Taco Tuesday at Jack in the Box. With a downloadable coupon, each customer can get two free tacos today only, August 4. Get the coupon here.
Now That You’re Saving Money, Where the Heck Do You Put It?
The recession has turned the U.S. into a nation of savers. After years of spending like it was a job—and in some ways it was a job to buy stuff and keep the economy pumping along—we are finally saving some money. The national savings rate was around 7 percent recently. But now that we’re saving, interest rates in a typical bank …
Breaking news: Tim Geithner knows how to swear!
The talk of the Twittersphere tonight is Damian Paletta and Deborah Solomon’s WSJ story about Tim Geithner cutting loose on Ben Bernanke, Sheila Bair, Mary Schapiro et. al. in an “expletive-laden critique last Friday as frustration grows over the Obama administration’s faltering plan to overhaul U.S. financial regulation.” He’s …
A quote entirely relevant to investing
“Money is a poor man’s credit card.” -Marshall McLuhan
If I wrote Long or Short Capital, that would be today’s installment of Quotes Entirely Relevant to Investing.
I picked it up from Charles Geisst‘s new book, Collateral Damaged: The Marketing of Consumer Debt to America. I’m still reading and will have more to say later.
Barbara!
It’s a Deal: Buy One Smoothie, Get One Free at Jamba Juice
A “Summer Bliss” promotion offers two-for-one smoothies at Jamba Juice locations. The offer is valid through August 9, and a coupon is required, which you can print here.
Kurt Andersen gets all blogthusiastic about our sober new reality
Floppy-haired neopuritan Kurt Andersen has commenced blogging this week for TIME.com to promote his new book Reset: How This Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America, which is based on his excellent TIME cover story of a few months back, “The End of Excess: Why this crisis is good for America.” He is attacking the assignment with …
More Proof That to Get a Discount, All You Have to Do Is Ask
In today’s economic climate, in which salespeople are more eager than ever to make a deal to move some merchandise, it’s foolish to not negotiate. Asking for a discount takes but a moment, and what’s the worst that could happen?
Housing, housing, housing
The chart at left is from the cover of today’s WSJ. The accompanying story is about how high-end houses aren’t seeing the burgeoning recovery that other parts of the market are—an idea that feels somewhat familiar. The article itself doesn’t really talk about what the chart shows, but it shows something important: that the next wave …
China can’t save the world economy. Not yet, at least
My Shanghai-based colleague Bill Powell has an excellent cover story in the Asia edition of TIME asking the big question: “Can China Save the World?” His answer is no, its economy just isn’t big enough. But that’s changing fast:
If Beijing can come through the global crisis without an economic meltdown of its own, its leaders’ reputation
…