The recession is taking its toll on New York’s cocaine dealers: “You’re gonna find me at the post office if this goes on for much longer,” says one. (New York/Daily Intel)

Sales of men’s underwear typically are stable because they rank as a necessity. But during times of severe financial strain, men will try to stretch the time between buying new pairs, causing underwear sales to dip. (Washington Post)

To help pare their budgets, more Americans are bypassing the salon and opting to lop off their own locks. The results can be shear disaster — clogged drains, fresh cowlicks and crooked trims. (Wall Street Journal)

The Federal Reserve has made a $14 billion in profit on loan programs that have provided hundreds of billions of dollars in liquidity to the financial system since the start of the crisis two years ago. (Financial Times)

New and prospective college students are abandoning their “dream schools” in favor of more affordable options, forcing many colleges to work harder to justify their price of admission. (USA Today)

Unemployment for middle-aged workers is the highest it’s been since data was first collected 60 years ago. And while the middle-aged are still more likely to have jobs than younger workers, once they are laid off, finding a new job is harder. (New York Times)

Regulators closed three banks Friday, pushing U.S. bank failures to 84 this year amid continuing fallout from the economic crisis. (Bloomberg)

The nation’s economic gloom hasn’t affected the way working Americans feel about their own jobs. In Gallup’s latest poll, 87% reported being completely (50%) or somewhat (37%) satisfied with their jobs. (Forbes)

The recession’s legacy may be Americans’ newfound reluctance to spend. (New York Times)

Federal Reserve and Treasury officials are scrambling to prevent the commercial-real-estate sector from delivering a roundhouse punch to the U.S. economy just as it struggles to get up off the mat. (Wall Street Journal)

Tags: bailout, bank closures, cocaine, college admissions, college costs, commercial real estate, consumer spending, hair salons, job satisfaction, men's underwear, middle age, recession, unemployment

While it’s worrying that more and more Americans are considered miserable enough to warrant prescription antidepressants, there may be some solace in the fact that these drugs are in some ways good for the economy. (The Big Money)

The real US unemployment rate is 16 percent if persons who have dropped out of the labor pool those working less than they would like are counted, a Federal Reserve official said. (Agence France Presse)

“The whole image of America as a shiny land of big money, big cars, and big food on big plates is really played out and passé, at least since we can’t afford those things any more,” writes Hamilton Nolan. “Now it’s Indian chic! Manila magic! The ambiance of Bombay and the mystique of Lagos add up to make us a truly global nation!” (Gawker)

Is the recession fueling the UK’s rise in births? (Daily Mail)

Many analysts say growth likely returned in the current quarter. But with unemployment aid claims stubbornly high, Americans may benefit little from a recovery if jobs remain scarce and spending stays too low to fuel a strong rebound. (Associated Press)

The American farm, which has weathered the global recession better than most U.S. industries, is starting to succumb to the downturn. (Wall Street Journal)

The recession is speeding the decline of coal as the dominant U.S. fuel for generating electric power. (Reuters)

When the credit crisis struck last year, federal regulators pumped tens of billions of dollars into the nation’s leading financial institutions because the banks were so big that officials feared their failure would ruin the entire financial system. Today, the biggest of those banks are even bigger. (Washington Post)

The U.S. banking system will lose some 1,000 institutions over the next two years, said John Kanas, whose private equity firm bought BankUnited of Florida in May. (CNBC)

Consumer confidence is on the rise and home prices have rebounded slightly, but things are still pretty miserable for millions of Americans, according to the latest update of the Real Misery Index. (Huffington Post)

Tags: antidepressants, bank closings, big banks, coal, end of the recession, real misery index, recession, rising UK birthrate, the american farm, unemployment

This fall, law students are competing for half as many openings at big firms as they were last year in what is shaping up to be the most wrenching job search season in over 50 years. (New York Times)

The federal government mistakenly sent out stimulus checks to 1,700 inmates, the Social Security Administration said Tuesday — a $425,000 error. (FoxNews)

Seventy-two percent of Americans say they have cut back the time they spend volunteering and performing other civic activities in the past year — largely as the result of the recession, according to a study. (Chronicle of Philanthropy)

Purchases of new homes in the U.S. jumped more than forecast and demand for long-lasting goods such as autos and computers climbed, reinforcing signs the economy is rebounding. (Bloomberg)

More than a half-million option adjustable-rate mortgages are scheduled to reset in the next four years, at rates many homeowners cannot afford. Economists say this is a looming threat to a housing recovery. (New York Times)

Hit by rising commodities costs amid the recession, America’s largest beer brewers are raising their prices. (Los Angeles Times)

Foreclosure guilt — where a home buyer feels bad for the family they replaced — is a little-noticed emotional byproduct of the financial devastation wrought by the housing and banking meltdowns of the past year. (USA Today)

Nouriel Roubini: “Governments have been spending and borrowing like never before. The question now is: how do they stop?” (Forbes)

The number of Americans traveling by car over the Labor Day holiday weekend is expected to drop 11.8% from a year earlier due to the weak economy and the lateness of the holiday in the month. (Wall Street Journal)

According to a survey taken earlier this year, almost six in ten respondents said that despite the recession their standard of living is much or somewhat better than their parents’ was at the age they are now. (U.S. News & World Report)

Tags: adjustable-rate mortgages, beer prices, foreclosure guilt, housing market, Labor Day travel, law jobs, recession, stimulus, volunteering

Thanks to the economic downturn and rising shipping costs, junk mail volume was down 16 percent in the nine months ending in June compared with the same period a year earlier. (Associated Press)

Karen Blumenthal writes about big-time booms and busts — and how she got caught up in the Beanie Babies bubble. (Wall Street Journal)

Build your own 360-square-foot home for less than $3000? Yup, if you’ve got a place to put it, here’s how to make one out of cob. (TreeHugger, The Year of Mud)

Researchers questioned 250 homeowners going through foreclosure and found that 47 percent showed symptoms of depression, with 37 percent exhibiting signs of major depression. (Washington Post)

The USA TODAY/IHS Global Insight economic outlook index predicts GDP growth starting in September, the first increase since July 2008. The index predicts future growth based on 11 leading economic and financial indicators. (USA Today)

U.S. unemployment will surge to 10 percent this year and the budget deficit will be $1.5 trillion next year, both higher than previous Obama administration forecasts, White House budget chief Peter Orszag said. (Bloomberg)

The FDIC wants to ditch a subsidy that has been helpful for small banks amid the recession, but withdrawing insurance on big checking accounts won’t be popular. (CNN/Money)

An interesting change the how small businesses are being financed in the poor economy: fewer business owners needed to obtain financial capital to start their companies. (New York Times/You’re the Boss)

How are pampered pets faring in the recession? Still pampered. (Chicago Sun-Times)

In this recession, there are struggling apparel retailers all across the country. Then there’s Abercrombie & Fitch. The upscale teen retailer has suffered 10 straight months of double-digit same-store-sales declines. (Time)

Tags: abercrombie & fitch, budget deficit, DIY, FDIC, foreclosure, home building, junk mail, pet retail, pets, recession depression, small business, unemployment

Cities nationwide have been logging fewer traffic fatalities since the current recession officially started in December 2007, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. (Arizona Republic)

Beginning late this fall, a new Cash-for-Clunkers-type program will authorize rebates of $50 to $200 for purchases of high-efficiency household appliances. (BusinessWeek)

After spawning legions of victims, the recession is forging a class of winners. Downturns “are very fertile fields of opportunity,” says Nancy Koehn, a business historian and professor at Harvard Business School. (Wall Street Journal)

Penny-pinching Americans are getting cold feet at the checkout — thinking twice about spending and ditching items before they’re rung up. (Associated Press)

The signs are growing that there’s a new Wall Street gold rush under way — for the same complex bundles of mortgage loans that fueled banks’ profits between 2005 and 2007. (The Big Money)

Rhode Island will shut down its state government for 12 days and hopes to trim millions of dollars in funding for local governments to balance a budget hammered by surging unemployment and plummeting tax revenue. (Associated Press)

The Obama Aministration will issue national debt numbers today that show federal debt rising by $9 trillion over the next decade — significantly higher than the forecast earlier this year. (Financial Times)

Brian Wingfield writes that President Obama’s decision to retain Ben Bernanke as Federal Reserve Chairman sends a message that he doesn’t think the crisis is over. (Forbes)

The U.S. government’s popular “Cash for Clunkers” program officially ended last night, and auto dealers across the country are now bracing for a hangover. (Washington Post)

The Federal Reserve must for the first time identify the companies in its emergency lending programs after losing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. (Bloomberg)

Tags: Ben Bernanke, cash for clunkers, efficient appliances, emergency lending, investing in mortgages, national debt, recession winners, traffic fatalities

Financial fears and the recession are contributing to the rise in the number of men suffering from anorexia. (Sky News)

Obama administration officials are looking at 1937’s stalled comeback from the Great Depression for clues as to what this recession’s rebound might be like. (Wall Street Journal)

In the recession, there are a proliferation of scams that target job seekers. In addition to sham job-finding companies, perpetrators prey on the desperate by offering credit rating repairs, foreclosure rescues, and home-based businesses that aren’t legitimate. (Boston Herald)

For many workers who have been displaced by the downturn, who have seen their salary or retirement income slashed or who fear the worst is yet to come, going back to school is looking more and more appealing. (New York Times)

Economist Nouriel Roubini writes that the risk of a double-dip recession is rising, while European Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny says a double-dip is unlikely. (Financial Times, Reuters)

Could the tourism industry lose half a million jobs this year? (Daily Finance)

Coverage for repairs has grown amid the recession. So-called attachment rates, or the percent of people who add a service contract to their purchase, have increased by 10 percent this year. (Bloomberg News)

Call them accidental entrepreneurs, unintended entrepreneurs or forced entrepreneurs. A year and a half into the Great Recession, with the jobless rate hovering near double digits, many corporate refugees are trying to fend for themselves. (New York Times)

Millions of older people face shrinking Social Security checks next year, the first time in a generation that payments would not rise. (Associated Press)

An increasingly common situation in the recession: You accept a job offer, maybe even move to a new city to do so, but then the employer backs out. Do you have any rights? (CNN/Money) It’s called being pre-fired. (Recessionwire)

Tags: corporate refugees, double-dip recession, going back to school, job-finding scams, manorexia, mental health, Nouriel Roubini, Social Security, tourism, unemployment

Elmo, Sesame Street’s most giggly spokesmonster, is going through some tough economic times. His mommy has lost her job. (Daily Finance)

Data is beginning to show that the rich, as a group, are no longer getting richer. Over the last two years, they have become poorer. And many may not return to their old levels of wealth and income anytime soon. (New York Times)

The rough economy is inflicting hardship on people even in death. Coroners and funeral directors in several cities say the number of people seeking government-paid funerals, cremations and burials is spiking. (USA Today)

Delinquency and foreclosure rates for U.S. mortgages continued to rise in the second quarter, with loans to the most qualified borrowers going bust at an unnerving clip, especially in hard-hit states such as Florida and California. More than one in every eight homeowners with a mortgage was behind on home loan payments or in some stage of foreclosure at the end of the second quarter. And there are worrying signs that the foreclosure crisis could be spreading to parts of the country that had previously been relatively unscathed. (McClatchyDC, Financial Times, NPR)

In the aftermath of a layoff, style is critical. And it’s about more than the decision to polish a wardrobe. The way people comport themselves after losing a job can make all the difference in what comes next. (Wall Street Journal)

Car dealers and consumers have just four days left to take advantage of Uncle Sam’s $4,500 cash-for-clunkers rebate. Ironically, American cars have represented only 42 percent of vehicles purchased under the $3 billion U.S. government-funded program. The program has prompted a new entry into our Recession Lexicon: Clunkerf*ck. (USA Today, Newsweek, Recessionwire)

An index of economic indicators — “The Leading Economic Index” — rose in July for a fourth straight month, in another sign that the recession is bottoming. (CNN/Money)

“Nouriel Roubini has disingenuously promoted himself as nailing the crisis, when truthfully he was wrong until other hard working analysts fixed his broken crystal ball,” writes Damien Hoffman. (Wall St. Cheat Sheet)

Morgan Stanley is planning to hire as many as 400 traders and salespeople, a hiring spree that comes as the firm tries to dig its way out of three straight quarters of losses. (Reuters)

The BBC is producing The Last Days of Lehman Brothers, a TV movie “inspired by the real events” of that September weekend last year. (New York Times/Dealbook)

Tags: cash for clunkers, elmo, fashion, foreclosure, government-paid funerals, layoffs, morgan stanley, mortgage payments, Nouriel Roubini, sesame street, the last days of lehman brothers, unemployment

What does the recession smell like? It has created scents as varied as those produced by the overheated Wall Street shell game that gave birth to it. The mix is different. There’s less perfume, for one. Fragrance sales have fallen 7 percent this year.( New York Times/T)

A man is driving across the U.S. asking people to write stories of how the financial crisis has affected their lives on the side of his orange van. (Washington Post)

JetBlue suspended sales of its recession-friendly unlimited-flight pass Wednesday, saying it had to do so because of strong demand. (USA Today)

The hypnotic, gyrating, seizure-inducing happy lender Flash ads are showing up again online. Could they be a possible sign of the thawing of credit markets? (New York Times/Economix)

The numbers of poor and uninsured Americans are likely rising — with more than 38.8 million believed to be in poverty. (CBS News)

Everyone should stop asking when the recession is going to end, writes Nouriel Roubini. (Forbes)

What are some of the principles to consider when you are hiring during the recession? There are some very good people out there looking for jobs — but there are many more less-than-good people. (New York Times/You’re the Boss)

College students are appealing financial aid decisions this summer in unprecedented numbers, an outpouring of need that underscores how layoffs and pay cuts have battered household budgets in the past year. (Washington Post)

More Americans are moving away from material frivolities and taking pleasure in a simpler lifestyle, writes John Zogby. Now that a recession is forcing many others to also live within limits, how many will discover that they never really needed all those material things to be happy in the first place? (Forbes)

While the private sector has shed 6.9 million jobs since the beginning of the recession, state and local governments have expanded their payrolls and added 110,000 jobs, according to a report to be issued today. (New York Times)

Tags: consumer spending, end of the recession, financial aid, jetblue unlimited flight pass, materialism, Nouriel Roubini, perfume sales, poverty, recession sacrifices

The lowly penny is making a comeback as the recession puts a crimp in back-to-school sales. Spiral notebooks, batteries, markers, crayons, pencils and even some clothing are just a few of the items going for 1 cent these days. (Los Angeles Times)

How hard is it to find a job in your city? Here’s the number of unemployed per job posting for the 50 most populous metropolitan areas in the U.S. (Indeed)

“The United States economy is now out of the emergency room and appears to be on a slow path to recovery,” writes Warren Buffett. “But enormous dosages of monetary medicine continue to be administered and, before long, we will need to deal with their side effects.” (New York Times)

Want to save a few bucks on fresh eggs? Get yourself a chicken. Many cities, including San Francisco and Indianapolis, are allowing residents to raise chickens in their homes. (Indianapolis Star)

Major retailers reported that American consumers are continuing to hunker down, casting a cloud over the durability of the U.S. recovery. (Wall Street Journal)

Over the past year, mutual fund fees have risen in nearly every category. According to Russel Kinnel, director of Mutual Fund Research at Morningstar and author of Fund Spy, the rising fees are actually a result of last year’s market plunge. (CBS Moneywatch)

As all burned investors now know, an economy mired in a deep recession acts like a powerful depressant on the stock market. But there is an antidepressant with the power to fix this financial mood disorder: an economy showing signs of recovery. (USA Today)

The country’s growing unemployment is overtaking subprime mortgages as the main driver of foreclosures, according to bankers and economists, threatening to send even higher the number of borrowers who will lose their homes and making the foreclosure crisis far more complicated to unwind. (Washington Post)

The housing market showed further signs of stabilization in July, but weak demand dragged down prices for both raw materials and finished goods by a record margin. (Washington Post)

During the current economic crisis, high-flying women have been overlooked for promotion, according to a study by Catalyst. (CNN)

Tags: back to school, consumer spending, foreclosures, glass ceiling, mutual fund fees, unemployment statistics, Warren Buffett

High gold prices, combined with increasing economic uncertainty, means that more families are including gold panning in their vacation plans. Gold panning for some people is more than a hobby: It’s a source of much-needed income.( USA Today)

91,100 Manhattan households feel more comfortable hiding their savings in closets, in pillows — even in brown paper lunch bags — than in banks. (New York Times)

As a result of the recession, visits to national parks were up about 4 percent in the first half of the year. (Deseret News)

Some economists expect a powerful recovery, others a sustained but muted one. Some even say it will be neither: a fleeting rebound quickly followed by a second slump. (Wall Street Journal)

Women with M.B.A.s have fared during the recession as well as their male counterparts, according to a new study. (Wall Street Journal)

Many economists who were caught off guard by the brutality of the downturn are accentuating the negative, bracing for head winds that could cause the recovery to be weak. (Washington Post)

Many professionals are leaving corporations for classrooms as the economy continues to wallow and frustrated employees reconsider career trajectories. School districts nationwide are seeing a rise in these applicants. (Dallas Morning News)

The U.S. economy isn’t giving dentists many reasons to smile yet. 84 percent of dentists said the economy was having a negative or strongly negative impact on their practices. (Reuters)

The delinquency rate on U.S. mortgage loans hit an all-time high in the second quarter, but the pace of growth for the rate slowed, a possible sign the mortgage crisis may be beginning to turn the corner. (Associated Press)

While easy money can be thought of as a temporary positive (a sugar high), the end of panic and changes in mark-to-market accounting are more fundamental, write Brian Wesbury and Robert Stein. What they do is take Armageddon off the table. (Forbes)

Tags: dentistry, education in the recession, end of the recession, female MBAs, gold panning, mortgage payments, national parks, saving