From CNNMoney:Stressful jobs that pay badly. No. 1 on the list? Social worker! So this one’s for you, social workers, who work for little recognition and paltry salaries to support people who otherwise might fall off the edges of the earth. From Fried Social Worker Blog. Related posts: Friendship with the homeless Faces of Poverty

“Spare the “we are family” bullshit…Because families don’t lop off the newest or most expensive offspring when the belt needs tightening.“ That’s from a post on Eric Proulx’ web site Please Feed the Animals, devoted to laid-off advertising professionals. (See previous EconomyBeat entry.) It’s a rather profound if bitter denunciation of what Proulx sees as [...]

Please Feed the Animals is a blog for “recently laid off advertising professionals,” created by copywriter Eric Proulx, who is also coming out with a film about the same topic, called Lemonade.

The blog features a useful section on companies that are hiring and a column specifically for those in account services. But the highlight is the first-person accounts and reactions by those in the industry (or formerly in the industry) who’ve been let go. Here are a couple of good ones:

A blog we like: Thought Gadgets, reflection on “advertising, the marketing, and the media.” Blame Flannel Shirts on Wall Street and Narcissus is a typically quirky post:

To understand the current flannel fashion, let’s walk over to Wall Street and Greek mythology. First up, market psychology. There’s a saying that investors don’t pick stocks based on what they think will happen…or even what they think others predict will happen. Instead, market investors are three steps removed — if you think everyone else believes that others think the stock will go up, then you buy the stock. We guess about others’ desires to stay ahead.

If you haven’t seen Recovery.gov yet, it’s worth a look. From the About page:

A provision in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 calls for establishing

“a website on the Internet to be named Recovery.gov, to foster greater accountability
and transparency in the use of funds made available in this Act.”

Recovery.gov went live shortly after President Obama signed the Recovery Act into law on Feb. 17, 2009. Given its primary mandate – to allow taxpayers to see precisely what entities receive Recovery money in addition to how and where the money is spent – the site displays easy-to-understand, user-friendly graphs, charts, and maps…

The site also provides an online way for reporting any suspected fraud, waste or abuse related to Recovery funding and projects.

As recipients of Recovery funds file quarterly reports about their spending and the status of their projects – including the number of jobs created and/or saved – Recovery.gov will update data and information accordingly….

Last week we brought you Overheard in the Office. Now, some choice recession-related dialogue from Overheard in New York.

Rich teen: I asked my mom to go to Louis Vuitton with me this weekend and she was like, “we’re in a recession, let’s go to Dolce.”

–42nd St

Little girl: Can I have a job here?
Clerk: How old are you?
Little girl: Nine.
Clerk: Well, you have to be at least 14 to work at the library.
Little girl: Oh, yeah? Well, you have a big head!

–Queens Library

20-something female to friend: If everyone would just pay a dollar, then we would be out of this stupid recession!
Friend: You pay a lot more than a dollar in taxes.
20-something female, frustrated: I know–but if everyone would just pay another dollar on top of it, then we’d be fine.

-39th and 5th

Professor: You should go to Trump Towers and pretend to be a prospective buyer, and tour the rooms.
Student: Will they pay for my lunch?
Professor: No.
Student: How bout a scone?
Professor: We’re in a recession.

–NYU Silver Center

Guy: You know — it’s Dow Jones and NASDAQ.
Girl: Who are they? Those guys that died?

–14th & Park Ave South

If you’ve been thinking of buying or selling a home, you may find The Housing Helix podcast by Jonathan Miller, who runs a real estate appraisal firm, of some use. He interviews a lot of real estate professionals, and mostly covers the New York City metro region. (Check here for an archive of his company’s [...]

Click on an image to see it full size. More photos here.

Black Friday, as inveterate shoppers well know, is the name for the Friday after Thanksgiving, which marks the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season. This year, the day falls on November 27th. From Wikipedia: Black Friday is not an official holiday, but many employees have the day off (with the exceptions of those employed [...]

We don’t wish to add to the considerable woes of the publishing industry, but if you’re looking for some low-hanging fruit in terms of cutting expenses, buying books may be it. The marriage of electronic books and libraries has made it easier than ever to access free reading material online. And we’re not just talking [...]