From The Big Picture financial blog: Last month, a record-high 38.2 million people were enrolled in the food stamp program, which in 2008 was renamed the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. Below is a chart that shows participation in the program from 1969 to last year.

In this episode of EconomyBeat, we have stories from people who have a very specific niche jobs, which is often a good game plan in tough times. Do something you love and something unique, and you’re probably better off than most of us. The person you will hear from in this story is KellyAnne, and [...]

There’s an endless party of CrunchBerries, SpongeBob, and air guitar going on over at Odd Todd’s place as he issues– in the form of another web cartoon–a state of the union report, on the one-year anniversary of his lay off. Click on the image to watch. Laid Off: Annual Report

From the OddTodd site, home of yesterday’s Laid off cartoon, another regular feature: Friday’s Boss From Hell. A few sample entries:

Team meeting

Our software team has regular meetings on Tuesdays from 11:00 am to noon. Our boss sends out the agenda about a half hour in advance. Sometimes he’d forget to send it, and sometimes he’d cancel but forget to send the cancellation. We tried to break him of both habits.

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

It’s been five months since we visited the web cartoon “Laid Off” by OddTodd. Here’s another installment called “Help Wanted.” Click on the image to begin. Laid Off: Help Wanted

Peter Schiff is the president of Euro Pacific Capital, a former adviser to Ron Paul’s presidential campaign, a libertarian financial pundit, and a current candidate for the Connecticut Senate seat held by the retiring Christopher Dodd. He’s also a bit of a downer, as can be seen in his video blog from last week, in [...]

Last year in The American Spectator, Peter J. Wallison wrote about the political importance of determining causes of the financial crisis that blew up in 2008.

Two narratives seem to be forming to describe the underlying causes of the financial crisis. One, as outlined in a New York Times front-page story on Sunday, December 21, is that President Bush excessively promoted growth in home ownership without sufficiently regulating the banks and other mortgage lenders that made the bad loans. The result was a banking system suffused with junk mortgages, the continuing losses on which are dragging down the banks and the economy. The other narrative is that government policy over many years–particularly the use of the Community Reinvestment Act and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to distort the housing credit system– underlies the current crisis. The stakes in the competing narratives are high. The diagnosis determines the prescription. If the Times diagnosis prevails, the prescription is more regulation of the financial system; if instead government policy is to blame, the prescription is to terminate those government policies that distort mortgage lending.

[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.

Two more from reCareered: How Job Seekers Can Destroy Networking Goodwill By Cyber-Glomming The glommer is someone who over-capitalizes your time, who overstays their welcome with you, who just won’t let you talk to others no matter how politely you try to leave. Instead of building goodwill with you, job seekers who are glommers destroy [...]