Also, more than half of those surveyed plan to save more in 2010 for things like retirement and emergencies, and 58% think fewer people will lose their jobs this year.
recovery
You Will Be Living in a Place that Resembles Europe. Or Perhaps China or Australia
Because of changes to health care, the credit card industry, personal savings habits, and other parts of the economy, observers say that in the near future the U.S. may not look like the U.S. as we now know it. Instead, it may look a lot like … somewhere else.
Top Speculative Quotes About the Economy
Are we heading for a boom time? A slow slog? Another recession? A ’90s-Japan-like lost decade? A full-on depression? The experts have weighed in, as they’re apt to do.
It Was an Awful Year for the Economy. But a Great One for the Consumer?
The most obvious upside to being a consumer this year was that you felt wanted, and you felt appreciated. In a bad year for business, retailers were very, very happy to have yours. You felt the love—though sure, they only “love” you for your money. It wouldn’t be the first time somebody was happy to be in a relationship with a gold digger.
Great Expectations in 2010: More Personal Savings and Cheaper Food, Heat, Electronics, and Homes
As we leave 2009 behind, there are many signs that life will be way better in the year to come.
Who Are You Kidding? New Year’s Money Resolutions You Just Won’t Keep
It’s the time of year to make resolutions, or at least it’s the time for journalists to write stories about making resolutions. This year especially, these resolutions involve better money management. But come on: If you didn’t figure out how to take care of your money this year—a year when everybody was scrimping and saving—you may …
The Top ‘Recession Porn’ Stories of 2009
With an apparently resurgent economy, the media genre known as recession porn may be gone for good. What, exactly, is recession porn? You know it when you see it. Basically, it’s the fascination with all the weird ways the recession has affected different groups of people—the rich and privileged especially, because everyone knows the …
Attention Consumers: You Are Being Profiled
To some extent, the “new frugality” of consumers seems like it is here to stay. That doesn’t bode well for businesses that rely on the liberal spending of disposable income, or for the economy as a whole. So, in the hopes of getting Americans back in the buying mood, researchers and marketers are donning their lab coats to examine this …
Is the New Frugality Here to Stay?
In 2009, cutting back was cool. Whether thriftiness proves to be short-lived fad or an enduring trend remains to be seen.
The Year of Living Cheaply: A Retrospective
In 2009, dorky, inherently un-fun words like “thrifty” and “frugal” were paired early and often with fancy ones such as “chic” and “glamour.” Folks long accustomed to using triple coupons and cutting their own hair enjoyed newfound status among their neighbors: Instead of being viewed as eccentric oddballs—or worse, as killjoys or …
Cheapskate Wisdom from … an Economist in the Reagan Administration
“We have to start paying our bills eventually.”
Odd Economic Indicator Round-up: More Jews Moving to Israel, More-Cramped Cubicles, More Smoking and Surfing Porn
Perhaps they’re not quite as odd as the Hot Waitress Index (a theory in which waitresses get increasingly more attractive as the economy gets worse), but these trends are still rather unusual—yet revealing—indicators of how the economy is faring.