From the blog economicus ridulous comes this post called Blue and Broke, about the economic necessity of bartering instead of paying for certain extras, and the emotional toll it has taken. My sister’s son is getting married this summer. The invitation is sitting atop my fridge. The family lives in Ontario. I want to attend, [...]

Intrepid blogger Mary Hannington writes about the perils of living in crime-afflicted Detroit. Guns and the Weber Grill Wars (Vagabond Guru) I don’t know if it was a trend unique to my city or if it was popular everywhere, but everyone I knew in Detroit had a Weber grill and we barbequed all summer. We [...]

From the blog PR and Unemployment, a list of dozens of questions you are likely to encounter on a job interview. Here are some of them: Who was your favorite manager and why? What kind of personality do you work best with and why? Why do you want this job? Where would you like to [...]

“Come Thursday, February 24, I will be making my way on the streets of Orange County as best I can, and I will be considered that most stigmatized of people – a homeless woman.” “Whereas it used to take me a matter of days to find employment, it is now rare for me to even [...]

Retiring senator Jim Bunning, Republican from Kentucky, has single-handedly blocked an extension of unemployment and COBRA benefits originally doled out in the stimulus bill. Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog! Go! has a run down of federal highway funding, which includes money for thousands of federal employees who will now be furloughed, that is also not flowing [...]

“Health insurers are not that profitable; as an industry, net profits were 2.2% in 2008…(T)his is in large part due to a lack of creativity and foresight…Most insurers are not much more than transaction processors and provider aggregators.” Two interesting posts from the blog Managed Care Matters on Anthem Wellpoint, the company that became the [...]

The blog Girl on the Brink chronicles the day-to-day existence of “a professional, divorced urban mom,” laid off and “panicked, desperate and going-for-broke.” From last October 11, or Day 189 of her unemployment. Manifesto of the Idle Workers of the World We are more than 15 million individuals in the prime of our lives who [...]

At first glance, this post from the blog Fired For Now might seem rather banal, as it simply asks its unemployed and other Great Recession-affected readers:What have you had to give up? In reading through the answers, though, you may be hit with the reality of just what a profound effect this economic dislocation has [...]

[caption id="attachment_5946" align="alignleft" width="101" caption="Imaginary job wardrobe"][/caption]Just cuz you’re out of work doesn’t mean you have to be out of style. That’s the concept behind The Great ReDression, subtitled “Life on the Recession Runway.”

The Great ReDression is written by the ReDressionista, who profiles herself this way:

My father grew up in the Great Depression. During the Seventies, my mother refused to let the economic crisis limit her designer intake. My mother passed down her thrifted Dior and shopping secrets to me: how to “fix” broken jewelry, how to upholster bar stools with mink coats, how to dress “one size fits all” and how like fine wine, clothes are better when marked “vintage.”

I learned the secrets of extreme shopping on an extreme budget.
After spending three years living in six cities and four countries, I know how to fill closet space with quality clothing on poverty wages. Quality clothing isn’t about brands. Like art, quality clothing is about craftsmanship; well-crafted goods can be found in the sale bin at Goodwill or on a sidewalk at the Vienna flea market.

“…it is not at all clear…that a Special Inspector General should be weighing in on government policy decisions, much less predicting the housing market or economy’s future.” Yesterday we ran a post about the Special Inspector General for TARP’s Quarterly Report to Congress. The report was highly critical of the bailout’s inability to increase bank [...]