November 30, 2009Jon Brooks
Welcome back everyone. You lived through Thanksgiving, and Black Friday. But just 3 1/2 more weeks till Christmas. Better get clicking, for today is:
CYBER MONDAY!
From Wikipedia:
The term “Cyber Monday” is a neologism invented by Shop.org, part of the U.S. trade association National Retail Federation. It was first used within the ecommerce community during the 2005 holiday season. According to Scott Silverman, the head of Shop.org, the term was coined based on research showing that 77% of online retailers reported a significant increase in sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving in 2004. In late November 2005, the New York Times reported that “The name Cyber Monday grew out of the observation that millions of otherwise productive working Americans, fresh off a Thanksgiving weekend of window shopping, were returning to high-speed Internet connections at work Monday and buying what they liked.”
Whether you buy into that or not, many retailers have. So while some people like to hit the malls and shop till they drop, others prefer to stay home and click till they’re sick. Some web sites to help you find Cyber Monday deals:
November 27, 2009Jon Brooks
Click on an image to see it full size.
More photos here.
November 26, 2009Jon Brooks
If you’re starting your holiday shopping tomorrow and are looking for bargains, check these sites…
Related post: Buy Nothing Day
November 26, 2009Jon Brooks
A list of our top ten most popular posts to date:
- Health care reform explained – on the back of a napkin – well, a series of napkins, but still quite impressive
- Funny unemployment photos – from the blog Unemploymentality
- Friday photo gallery – images courtesy of The Great Recession
- Repaired Things – the blog – “collection of pictures of things that have been repaired”
- Best of Craig’s List: Economy version – posts nominated by Craigslist users as particularly interesting and/or humorous
- EconomyBeat podcast: Local Currency Bucks the Dollar – More than 150 cash-strapped communities throughout the US are actually printing their own currency.
- There, I Fixed It – blog of “epic kludges and jury rigs.”
- Unemployment Haiku Weekly – single-panel cartoon haikus
- Musical economics – economics lessons through song lyrics
- Not an Onion headline – “Toronto Star copyeditor edits memo announcing elimination of copyeditor jobs.”
November 25, 2009Jon Brooks
As most consumers with an early eye on holiday shopping know, the day after Thanksgiving is also known as Black Friday. On that day, savvy purchasers arise at 4 a.m., attire themselves in running shoes, flak jacket, and football helmet, and brave the vast hordes of salivating shoppers intent on scoring a dirt cheap price for their desired merchandise.
Yes, it’s easy to be snide. But in the midst of this brutal recession, with 10% unemployment, who can blame beleaguered Americans for seizing any opportunity they can to achieve some semblance of their former lifestyle while still meeting their dwindling budgets? Plus the economy needs that holidays’ jolt. Early scenes from the mall have not been encouraging:
But despite all those reasons to have a rooting interest in Black Friday, that mad rush to spend–which has spawned ugly scenes like last year’s trampling death at a Long Island Wal-Mart–has also triggered a backlash. This has manifested in the alternate-reality Buy Nothing Day, co-existing on the calendar with Black Friday.
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November 25, 2009Jon Brooks
Earlier this year Austin and Brian Chu hit the road to document the effects of the country’s worst economic downturn in 70 years on communities in all 50 states.
In September, they held a screening in San Francisco for their finished film, called The Recess Ends. Admission to the screening was free. “I didn’t want people to have to buy a ticket to see a recession film,” Austin said in an interview. “It didn’t make sense to me.”
Check out the photos from the trip and these video clips.
The brothers held a second screening a few days ago and are looking for the resources to hold more. Follow their progress on Twitter and Facebook.
November 24, 2009Jon Brooks
Sifting through the seemingly infinite number of blogs devoted to the misery of long-term unemployment can be depressing (though probably not as depressing as actually being unemployed). So it’s nice to read one of the rare posts about a blogger actually landing a job and the method she used in doing it. Some excellent concrete steps to take here, from the blog Magnificent Soar:
We are moving imminently to Palo Alto, California on a new adventure. WOW! If you had told me this even 3 months ago, I would have responded with an incredulous Nuh-uh! Just goes to show you, what can happen when you remain open to new opportunities and are willing to go with the flow.
Truth is, I did not initially consider leaving Austin (or Texas). I, like so many, have fallen in love with Austin. Many of my fellow laid-off-from-the-same-company colleagues adamantly refuse even to contemplate any other option. However, I’m not the type to wait around collecting unemployment (which does not even cover health insurance, let alone food or mortgage), hoping the economy will recover…
It took 14 weeks from the time I was officially informed that my services were no longer needed, to accepting the offer.
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November 24, 2009Jon Brooks
On Boston Gal’s Open Wallet, a blog of the “ongoing chronicle of a single 30-something Bostonian who is seeking enlightenment and control of her Net Worth,” Boston Gal writes about the factors that helped create a “financial neurotic,” as she calls herself:
I learned at an early age that while I could be too sick to go to school I was never too sick to walk the paper route. I also learned that if your college aged sibling needed money for books you gave them money out of your passbook account for books – no questions asked. If you were at the grocery store and your Mom did not have enough cash to pay the cashier you just quietly took back the items and reshelved them – you never complained or made a scene about it. Frankly, you learned to add the cart up as you helped your Mom shop and periodically reminded her of the ongoing total to try to prevent the money shortfall from happening again at the checkout.
All of these and many many more small and big financial experiences instilled a fear of someday becoming a bag lady. Someone homeless and without money.
So you can imagine how she felt when in 2005, a newspaper article prompted her to calculate how much money she’d need to retire.
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November 23, 2009Jon Brooks
From the blog Pink Slips are the New Black:
Inappropriate Comment of the Day:
“You want to be unemployed.”
-My dad
Dear Dad,
Contrary to your belief, I don’t want to be unemployed. In fact, I would love nothing more than to have a job to go to Monday through Friday, or hell, even Tuesday through Saturday. I’m really sick of living off of unemployment and being so poor that I can’t afford to eat or buy anything. I would really like to work hard and use my brain and make money, hopefully at a job that provides health insurance so I can visit a doctor and not have to worry about going bankrupt if I get hurt or sick. Believe me dad, if I could, I would work. I would work every day! Unfortunately, the economy sucks, nobody is hiring, and if they are, there are usually 200+ applicants I’m competing with.
Would somebody who wants to be unemployed apply to numerous jobs every day? Would somebody who wants to be unemployed try to network with everybody she could? Next time, you should think twice before you say something like that.
Signed,
Your daughter who wants more than anything to be employed
