What We’re Buying (And What We’re Not)

A few surprises…
Divorce rates are down, with couples perhaps seeing some (economic) value in staying hitched, and people are reaching past the Campbell’s Soup for more organic (and pricey) options.  More people are going to the movies (Harry Potter surely hasn’t taken a hit in his wallet) and the “vice” industry -  drinking, gambling, and [...]

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Home Economics

“Four writers from around the country provide snapshots of their local economies”
Trading Down
Fish Store Out of Water
The Real Bank of America
Bike Among the Ruins

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Co-Housing

From the NYTimes:
“What is co-housing?”The Cohousing Association of the United States has been answering that question quite frequently as more people sign up for its tours: The communities consist of individual houses whose residents share some common space, a few communal dinners a week and a commitment to green living.
The movement has been gaining momentum [...]

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Art and Urban Regeneration

“Post No Bills, Post Pretty ART”

As the impact of the current downturn in the global economy worsens, and more and more storefronts are being abandoned and boarded up, we expect to see more street art urban regeneration projects like ‘Post No Bills, Post Pretty ART’ in in downtown Edmonton, AB.
A group of local artists in [...]

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Living in Less

Home sizes are shrinking…
Though the square footage of new houses tends to dip modestly in recessions, the size of the American home has essentially increased since 1973. But that changed last year, when the size of the typical house suddenly shrunk by 11%. That appears to be faster than at any time since the 1970s.
“People [...]

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Guilty Purchases

The rich are thinking twice – and feeling a little guilty – about those luxury purchases:
More than half of affluent consumers say they feel “guilty” making luxury purchases in this economy, a survey of the most-moneyed Americans finds. Fewer this year also say they like to be labeled as “wealthy.”
[...]
Of course, far more than a [...]

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Homeward Bound

More and more adults (and college graduates) are moving back home, according to this article from the Washington Post:
The recession, loss of jobs and homes, high cost of living and growing debt are forcing adults to turn back to their parents for financial help. These boomerang kids, as sociologists and psychologists call them, are the [...]

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Fashionably Frugal

Abercrombie’s not as cool as it used to be…
This spring, spending by teenagers, a closely studied but rarely understood segment of the population, is off by 14 percent, a direct reflection of the economy, according to a report this month by the investment bank Piper Jaffray. And that is having a profound effect on an [...]

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MTV’s 180

The times are a-changin’…
After years of celebrating wealth, celebrity and the vapid excesses of youth, MTV is trying to gloss its escapist entertainment with a veneer of positive social messages. Last fall, after the financial crisis erupted but before the presidential election, MTV executives gathered in New York for meetings to discuss the direction of [...]

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The Fight Over Free News

From Michael Wolff:
A little history:
Here’s a brief recap of how publishers originally came to give away their store: The early and fierce Internet mantra on the part of the digital elite was about information wanting to be free. Sharing was the Internet’s singular function. So from the get go, traditional publishers found themselves not only [...]

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