The Growth of Gastropsychology

A great deal of thought is being put into restaurant menus these days. A recent New York Times article by Sarah Kershaw reported that restaurants are overhauling their bills of fare to make them more appealing to spending-spooked diners.

Briefly, these are the rules restaurants are using to make their recession revisions.

Good:

A menu cameo by Mom, Grandma, or your Great Aunt Millie
According to the article, "people like the names of mothers, grandmothers and other relatives on their menus, and research shows they are much more likely to buy." She doesn't mention whether male relatives' names have the same effect, but somehow I doubt it.
"Enhancers."
Enhancers are those magical ingredients like "applewood smoked bacon" that turn a dish into menu gold. According to Danny Meyer this is what makes chicken liver sound chic. Hm.
Romance.
Stick words like "smokehouse," "country," or "farm fresh" before your bacon, ham or eggs and you've won your diner's heart and wallet.
The Top Right.
This spot on the menu is where the eyes are drawn, and so it's where a smart restaurant will stick its most profitable items.

Bad:

Dollar signs.
Krenshaw says that, "in the world of menu engineering and pricing, a dollar sign is pretty much the worst thing you can put on a menu, particularly at a high-end restaurant."
Zeros.
Dr. Sheryll Kimes and other researchers at Cornell conducted a study comparing sales at restaurants with various menu formats: four digits and a dollar sign ("$17.00"), two digits and no dollar sign ("17."), and written prices ("seventeen dollars").
They found that guests given the two-digit numeral menu (17.) spent significantly more than those given either of the other two menu formats.
Gray and Purple
These colors stimulate satiation, while blue and gray stimulate appetite.

Heroes of the Recession: The Blu-Ray

You may have thought you've been watching movies all this time, but unless you have a Blu-ray DVD player you've basically just been staring at indecipherable blob of crap. You might as well turn off the TV and watch the blank screen. The Blu-Ray is absolutely necessary in order to watch movies the way they were MEANT TO BE SEEN. This is the 21st century, people; it's high definition or NO DEFINITION.


Luckily the kind and generous gods at Blu-Ray are teaming up with retailers to bring down the price of the player from $300 towards, and even below, the "impulse buy" ceiling of $100. Consumers are buying them in droves, and stimulating the economy while they're at it. This, of course, makes the Blu-Ray producer and its retailers our newest Heroes of the Recession. All they want is make your pathetic life better.

So get one or forever wonder what that movie really looked like. Get one, or be left in the past, with your dead grandmother's wigs and the chastity belt. Do you want to look like these people?!?!?Publish Post


P.S. Guess who's gonna have more fun than you tonight? THIS GIRL, because she is BUYING A BLU-RAY.

Why you should be glad you don't have a job

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In the interest of finding the silver lining, here are some reasons the jobless of you out there could thank your lucky stars.

1. One in three women has been harassed at work according to this article by the Daily Mail. (via savetheassistants.com)

What's more,

• 14 percent are “dreading” going to their holiday party because they’ll have to dodge a drunk and/or handsy coworker
• 20 percent say they have had to fend off a coworker’s sexual advances
• 5 percent report that they have quit a job because the office harassment was so bad
• 32 percent say that they have experienced harassment in the form of lewd “humor” or inappropriate joke

2. All bosses want a softie. The unemployed, on the other hand, are free to act like the bitches they really are.

3. Have you seen The Office?

4. Economist Frank Ackerman writes that "on the whole, unemployment is better for our health." He cites less work-related driving/traffic accidents and the fact that unemployed people exercise more, drink less alcohol, prepare and eat healthier food, see their friends more, and enjoy lower levels of stress. You will live longer than your employed friends, even if it is in a van down by the river!

5. Uniforms - wait, make that all work-appropriate clothing. Not as fun as sweats and slutty dresses.

6. The most common time for heart attacks to occur is Monday morning. WONDER WHY.

Recession Resolutions

The country didn't abandon political humor or become faithful church-goers after 9/11; we didn't maintain the sense of civic duty that brought 61% of voters to the polls for the 2008 presidential election (fewer than 30% voted in the NYC mayoral election); 20% of U.S. Americans still smoke despite the medical certainty that they're inviting cancer; and your uncle/aunt/ grandfather/ grandmother never did lose the weight after that heart attack.

We are what one could call a ... resilient people. Others would say stubborn. So what makes us think that the recession is going to create a long-term change in the way that we spend money?













In a New York Times article this weekend, economics professor Carmen Reinhard was quoted saying that even during the postwar years, which were defined by rationing and shortages, the savings don't last; "you get an increase in savings or a decline in debt for one or two years, and then it reverts back.”

So while pattern suggests that our cultural obsession with spending won't change drastically, there is an element of cold, hard truth that can change patterns whether the culture changes or not: for years after this recession, many people, even if willing, will be unable to borrow, due to a collapse in personal credit.

Goldman Sachs Ruined Christmas!

It's raining glass over at 200 West St. According to the Tribeca Tribune last Saturday, a pane from the new Goldman Sachs building in Battery Park City flew out of its pane to shatter the lives of the innocents who toiled below.

No one was hurt, but in addition to causing traffic jams and scaring the crap out of passers by, the falling glass crushed the holiday dreams of children all over New York City: that's right, the hazard delayed the opening of Battery Park City's brand new ice skating rink!

Goldman will compensate both the rink manager and the local cafe that was counting on making a killing selling après-glace treats on opening day.

Happy Endings for Bad News Bears

Speaking of banksters, it turns out some people actually made money from the housing crisis. Greg Zuckerman's book, The Greatest Trade Ever tells the story of the few, the proud, the lucky who bet against that sly little housing bubble and won big.

Guess not quite everyone on Wall St. spent the last two years walking around like this:

The Prosecution Blew It

Thats what William Cohan of the New York Times thinks of the acquittal last week of the two Bear Sterns banksters on trial for conspiracy and securities fraud.


Cohan thinks that the prosecution set the bar for conviction too high in their opening argument and relied too heavily on incomplete e-mail snippets in makings its case. The statement dramatically presented the two men as compulsive and shameless liars who made not a single ethical decision, and those damning blurbs were seen differently when placed in the context of emails that instead seem to document a conscientious decision-making process.

Worse, the prosecution left out evidence that would have been more compelling: for instance a talking points memo that Cohan describes in the article. The acquittal will, as Cohan puts it, force the prosecutors currently investigating the Lehman indictment to "tread lightly." For that reason, "Tuesday’s verdict may be the best news in more than a year for Richard Fuld, the former Lehman chief executive."

In other news— hey wait a minute, what’s tha— ::sniff:: — does anyone else smell fish?

The New Scrooge

Economist Joel Waldfogel doesn't want you to buy presents this holiday season.
His new book argues that holiday gift-giving is not only stressful but in fact economically unsound. That's because the money spent on presents (especially when they're bought in a caffeine-fueled frenzy on December 24th--wait, is that just me?) doesn't follow the same rational patterns that other spending does.

As Waldfogel explains it on Planet Money, we only buy ourselves things that are worth their price to us (a $50 sweater that will give $50 worth of pleasure, for instance.) But all sorts of other variables come into play when the item is bought for a third party. If that present is a dud, and ends up in the closet, it represents a complete (100%) waste of resources. And the chances that the present will be unwanted, or be worth far less than its monetary value to the recipient, are unacceptably high for a guy whose life's work is cost-benefit analysis.

Another argument for re-gifting?

Race and the Recession

“We’re already used to poverty; they’re really not.”

That's how one woman summed up the inclination of the black community in McDonough, Georgia, to help out their white neighbors who are struggling in the recession. In this town, part of historically segregated and racially tense Henry County, the effects of the recession have helped build a bridge across racial lines, according to this New York Times article.

If Henry County can be taken as a case study, it would seem the recession's good news for race relations. Even Eugene Edwards, the president of the Henry County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People acknowledged that, “there used to be a lot of racial tension here, but everybody knows that we need each other to survive this recession.”

But be taken as a case study it can't. Even the author of the times article acknowledges that Henry County has a very different profile from the rest of the nation. There, black people are more likely than whites to hold college degrees, and the income gap between white and black families is less than half what it is elsewhere. In McDonough, where lately, "women in Jaguars pull up to the local food pantry, and former millionaires hunker down in grand, unsellable homes" the recession has been widely accepted as a great "equalizer." In this construction town, a large percentage of both races are uneducated and so the historically fundamental privilege gap between the two races is diminished.

There's been much talk about the racially unequal nature of the recession. In a recent New York Times Op-ed, Dedrick Muhammad and Barbara Ehrenreich argued that, "racial asymmetry was stamped on this recession from the beginning." A, if not the, major catalyst of the recession was predatory sub-prime lending, and the victims of this practice were black families twice as often as they were whites. Even high income black families. Even when they qualified for prime mortgages. And they offered down payments.

Another reason that blacks have suffered more this recession is that, "thanks to a legacy of a discrimination in both hiring and lending, they’re less likely than whites to be cushioned against the blows by wealthy relatives or well-stocked savings accounts."

Recent reports, such as this one put out by the Acton Institute, this by the Applied Research Center also note the recession's racial divide. Even in Henry County, blacks made up a disproportionately high number of those seeking government assistance both before and after the slowdown. Since 2006, the number of blacks on Medicaid has more than tripled, outpacing the increase among whites.

So while black people rush to the aid of their privileged neighbors in McDonough, Georgia, the question remains: why does sympathy abound for those suffering from the recession when they are simply swelling the ranks of a demographic that has always existed, and in plenty large numbers?

And will this warm and fuzzy feeling of general equality and good will disappear when the circumstances aren't so dire for those in power? Or those who look like those in power?

Ms. Taylor said it best, in the New York Times article. Of her struggling white neighbors she said, “they’re a little weaker than we are at handling things like this, but I know they get more sympathy than we do.”

Gov Gaffe

Recovery.gov, the website set up by the Obama Administration to track the money spent on the stimulus, has been hailed as a great step forward in terms of transparency and a place to track every dollar spent on the stimulus.

But yesterday ABC News' Jonathan Karl revealed that many of the jobs reported as saved or created with the recovery money are in congressional districts that...uhm... don't exist.

Oops.

Ed Pound, Communications Director for the Board, attributes this misinformation to human error, saying, "we report what the recipients submit to us." Presumably, some submitters didn't know what district they lived in, and just took a wild guess when adding their stats to the website.

Working Women And Recession Wages

A recently released survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that women's wages have been increasing at a higher pace than men's wages during the recession - 3.2% over the past two year compared to 2% for men.
However, at the top of the income scale, the salary gap between equally qualified men and women is still vast, according to a report by Payscale. Payscale used information submitted by Joe and Jane Worker through the interwebs to try to help explain observed differences in what men and women earn - for example the figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that showed women earning a median weekly salary in 2008 that was 80 % of men's.

Read more about Payscale's methods and findings in this article from the Times Economix blog.

The Tale Of The $4 Million Road Sign

Once upon a time, the City of New York had a shitload of money, just burning a hole in its pocket. No one could figure out what to spend it on -- the city had no homeless or jobless citizens, and all the New Yorkers already had everything they could possibly need!

Along came a man named Eliot Spitzer. He was a modest guy who, at various points in his life, had spent his time upholding the American tradition of wealth-based social hierarchy, prosecuting others for crimes he committed himself, "steamrolling", taking the meaning of hypocrisy to a new level, and being every high-end hooker's worst nightmare. Mr. Spitzer was the governor of New York.

One day Mr. Spitzer had an idea for how to spend some of that ever-flowin money. New York City would rename the Triborough Bridge! Mr. Spitzer would get lots of publicity, make a bunch of rich and powerful people feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and, best of all, kiss the collective ass of one of the most powerful families in the country.

And so it was decided. For a substantial but entirely reasonable and worthwhile cost of $4 million dollars, the historic Triborough Bridge would become a completely new feature in New York City's landscape and history. Wellll, OK, technically it would be the same exact feature as it always was. But it would have a new name!

Some unpatriotic fools voiced opposition, making unreasonable points regarding the untimely nature of the change. Councilman Vallone of Astoria, for instance, said:

"Robert Kennedy was a great man, but this isn’t the time. While one agency that gets money from the state is raising fares and cutting service to the neighborhood at the foot of the bridge, another has somehow found a way to spend millions of dollars on changing the signage of it."

Oh come on, Vallone! As if anyone could think of anything better the city could be spending money on right now!!

Battle of the Bust!

Brooklyn's got fun independent businesses, community spirit, and more free events than a 20-something can handle. But Baltimore's got beautiful surroundings (nature=free), bookshares, and was sorta born ready for the collapse of the economy.

Check out and VOTE ON my guest post at the blog Baltimore vs. Brooklyn, where we debate which city is the best to weather the storm of the recession.

City Maintenance During the Recession

If this is it, we're in trouble.
via Thereifixedit.com

Cheap and Easy DIY Halloween Costumes

Hello, Halloween procrastinators!

This is certainly not the year for buying pricey, ready-made costumes (although apparently "Gilt Man" and his buyers didn't get the memo...) or even for splurging on clothes and accessories to put your own together.

Instead, here are some cheap and easy (but not boring) DIY costumes for this recessiolicious Halloween:

Crayon: dress all in one color, and wear a cone party hat in the same color. Face paint optional.

Cocktails: there are lots of fun, easy, and original ideas to be had in this category. For instance, be Sangria by dressing in purple and stringing candy fruit onto jewelery. Added bonus: purple makeup.

Song Titles: another category full of possibility. They're so easy but people will get a kick out of them they're original, and surprising. "The Long and Winding Road" requires only black clothing and yellow duct tape dashed along the legs and torso. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" promises lots of fun with glitter and sparkly jewelery! Note: by no means feel confined to Beatles songs!

Bat(/batman/batwoman): Dress in all black and use an umbrella to fashion bat-wings!
First, remove the shell of the umbrella from the tube and cut it in half. Next, pin each half to the sides and arms of a black dress. Cut ears out of black paper and attach them to a headband with a little glue

Wind-up Doll: It's easy and its cheap, and you get to walk around acting creepily wide-eyed and soulless all night!
Wear light foundation and paint circles of rosy blush on your cheeks. Wear any cute dress, and a big hair bow. Key elements: big fake eyelashes and, most important, fashion a wind-up out of cardboard.

As you can probably tell, I happen to prefer costumes not based on actual humans or human characters. But that's just me...

Recession Red

Paul Kreider, owner of California's Ross Valley Winery, is adapting to the recession by using a creative pricing strategy.By May of last year, Kreider had begun to see his sales and revenue seriously affected by the slump in the economy. So he decided to respond in kind. He created a blend that he called "Recession Red" and priced it to match the market. Every day he sold his bottles of "Recession Red" for exactly 0.1% of that day's Dow Jones index. When he began to sell "Recession Red" in March of '08, it cost $12.50 a bottle. By last October he was selling it for $9.44. How's that for a silver lining?
Before long Kreider's marketing gimmick was paying off - "Recession Red" was bringing in as much as 20 % of his sales; even when the wine sold below value, Kreider mantained, "what I lose in sales, I gain in publicity."
He must have been on to something, because several other wineries are now jumping onto the trend. Concannon Vineyard (of Livermore, CA) was second to ask for trademark approval of the term, on June 3, 2008, and Woods Lake Winery (of Woodinville, WA) was third, on October 2, 2008.

Can't Afford a Zebra??

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We've all been there.

And it can be pretty rough, especially when you have a busload of kids counting on you to serve them up some magic and excite their suggestible little imaginations.

But this clever zoo owner in Gaza saw away around the prohibitive cost of a real live zebra ($40,000) by creating a little DIY version of his own. He used two donkeys the zoo already had on-site and applied black stripes of women's hair dye with a paint brush.

(They tried paint first but it "didn't look good.")

Because a $1,000 TV is OK, But The Delivery Cost Would Have Been Over Budget?

(from thereifixedit.com)

Recessiotarian Journal: Weekend Edition

Recessiotarian Weekend:

You may have noticed that the whole past week I got pretty gastro-economically lucky in my freeloading experiment, what with conferences, connections and generous third-wheel "dates".

But the arrival of the weekend always brings the temptation to indulge in social eating and drinking. That combined with losing the week's work-sponsored events meant that my mission got tougher.

To keep costs in check, I mostly dipped into the food I had bought with my communal group, for instance lunching on some granola with milk , fruit, and cheese at home on Saturday.

But then, on Saturday evening, Judaism came to my rescue. I went to a party in honor of the Jewish holiday Simchat Torah and had a free meal of delicious veggies with humus, fruit, chips and salsa, yummy pretzel twists, and other goodies. Metzuyan!

On Sunday I had some fruit for breakfast, and then splurged on a bagel and salad (shared with the lovely AT) for lunch at 'Snice in Park Slope. In the evening I made a communal meal with my kitchen group - mediterranean pizzas with feta and goat cheese, spinach, mushrooms, and lots of garlic, on whole wheat flatbreads, accompanied by a big fresh salad; fresh applesauce with leftover apples from last week's shop and brownies with peanut butter chips. Delectable and, because it was shared between the six of us, suprisingly cheap!

And so ends my guest appearance on The Recessionist. I hope that you've enjoyed hearing of my exploits, and possibly have even learned something - that is, besides the sad fact that the culinary life of a broke recent grad is a redundant, sneaky, and less than healthful affair. It may be all these things, but it is at least never boring.

Till next time, Recessiophiles!

Recessiotarian Journal: Day #5

Recessiotarian Friday:

Today I woke up revitalized and more determined than ever to succeed in my quest for free food. And then, for breakfast I ate a cereal bar and a piece of fruit. Womp womp. My first not-free meal yet, and a demoralizing start to the day.

But, for lunch I took some leftovers to work from Tuesday's dinner - Tuesday to Friday was, I know, pushing the leftovers limit, but the chinese food was still delicious, albeit with a decidedly... free... "aftertaste".

After work I indulged in a Pinkberry yogurt for about $5, but for dinner I ate leftover Indian food from Thursday. Later I went to the the house of your very own Brooklyn Recessionist, and ended up - you'll never guess- eating some more! But at least it was free - I had some of her delicious curried lentils and then a dessert of apple crumble, made from fresh-picked apples from upstate. Yum.

Recessiotarian Journal: Day #4

Recessiotarian Thursday:

Today felt like the humpday of my week of scrumptious scrounging.

In the morning I attended a workshop on energy options for low-income people (run, ironically, by electricity giant National Grid). The workshop turned out to be a lot of obnoxious corporate back-patting, but also a major source of free food!

For breakfast I helped myself to three plates of delicious fruit, making up for lost vitamins (shocker alert: free food isn't always the healthiest.) I also grabbed a whole wheat bagel with cream cheese, and managed to slip half a muffin and five mini-croissants into my bag at various times virtually undetected.

Those five croissants later became one buttery, flaky lunch.

For dinner I had another AVODAH program at Hunter College School of Social Work, and event that, lucky for me, provided free (and delicious) Indian food which again, translated into plenty of leftovers for a spicy late-night snack.

Recessiotarian Journal: Day #3

Recessiotarian Wednesday:

I'm back, people, and I'm full.

This morning for breakfast I ate the croissants that I'd snagged at yesterday's conference (yes, all three) and for lunch had the two leftover conference sandwiches. Thank you, LEAP for subsidizing my existence. For dinner I was supposed to meet up with my friend LS and was all set to shell out $3 for delicious (and cheap!) Mamoun's falafel. When we met up, however, her boyfriend was there and he generously told us he was treating us to dinner! ANOTHER free meal I didn't even solicit. We got Chinese food (are you seeing a pattern here?) at Suzies Chinese Restaurant in the Village. It was totally delicious, but it did make my second night of Chinese food in a row. This would be unremarkable but for the fact that that monotony applied to my breakfast and lunch as well. It felt like Groundhog Day in my stomach.

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to reawakening my taste buds after this week is over...

Recessiotarian Journal: Day #2

Hey Recessiophiles, I'm back!

So yesterday, Tuesday, was Day 2 of my freeloading food experiment, and thankfully, I had another conference on my schedule, this one sponsored by LEAP and called Answering the Call: Civil Legal Services Respond to the Economic Crisis. It was held at a fancy law firm on 5th Avenue, and in case you're not familiar with the freeloader code, that means not only free food but good free food. Score and double-score.

As you can imagine (mouth watering and wallet throbbing), they had quite a spread for breakfast. Along with two cups of Starbucks coffee I snagged a bagel, three small butter croissants, and a danish. They offered only those tiny dessert plates, and my loot was towering threateningly on the three I'd filled as I covertly walked them over to my table. I threw two of the plates into a ziploc bag I'd brought along for that express purpose (resorting to napkins on Monday taught me to be prepared!)

In the hustle and bustle my sneakiness went mostly unnoticed - until the food attendant walked over to give me the look of death as I tried to approach the table for (yet) another serving. Under his reproachful gaze I carefully retreated back to my seat. Throughout the day they kept us going with coffee (I had two more cups over the course of the day), soda (one diet coke for me - got to keep that caffeine trip going) and bottled water. At lunch there were several kinds of sandwiches available - being a vegeterian as well as a recessiotarian, I took half of a Greek wrap and half of an avocado/sprouts/carrots sandwich (for then) and shoved two more sandwiches into a handy Tupperware container in my bag (for later). Then I grabbed Diet Cokes, an apple and a bag of Doritoes (also the "later" column). The only person who commented on my squirrel-like behavior was my coworker, and I ultimately explained my BkRecessionist challenge to him. Forgive me?

For dinner I had free kosher Chinese food sponsored by AVODAH, the Jewish Service Corps that I'm a part of. There were also TONS of leftovers, which I'm sure you'll hear about later...

By Tuesday night I was already starting to feel sick from the amount of gorging I was doing when food was right in front of me, and also from how much super sweet or super salty food I had been eating (free food is usually not the healthiest!) But, I hadn't even gotten through 48 hours so I swallowed hard and tried to digest.

Guest Post: The Recessiotarian!

This week on the Recessionist, one woman bravely goes where ... well, where all too many of us have gone before. But she does it better. Call it an experiment in freeloading, or maybe an investigation into the art of mooching. Call it what you will - we just call it necessary. For the next seven days, this blog will accompany one very broke friend of mine (E.B) as she discovers just how little a truly motivated Recessionist can get away with spending on food in a week. With no further ado, EB and her week of cheap.
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Hello readers! I'm honored to be doing this guest spot on Brooklyn Recessionist. This week I will regale you with tales of taking cheapness to the next level and rising to the challenge of finding out just how much free food one person can get in a week.
I'll say right now that I plan to not purchase a meal or any food for consumption from Monday through Thursday. I buy groceries collectively with the other women in my house, so I pitch in $15/wk, but I hope to not use any of those items for the meals I describe as "free" this coming week. Because, well, it's more fun that way. So here's how it went down on Day 1!

Recessiotarian Monday
This morning I went to a training for work on Public Assistance budgeting at LSNY served us coffee and a delicious breakfast of fruit and pastry. I chowed down on the food like because it was my job and, despite a weird look from the guy sitting behind me, also slipped a danish and a croissant into my bag, which I had for lunch. Hello Sugar Rush, why don't you stay a while.

After work I met up with a friend who has access to the VIP Lounge at the Lincoln Center where they serve free drinks to anyone cool enough to hang there :) They were showcasing some fancy vodka so I had passion vodka, soda, and grapefruit juice (ok, I had 3) and then we headed off to Williamsburg where we had planned to buy pizza for dinner. Tony's pizza is not only delicious (they have lots of creative pies too) but at $2/slice is in my normal budget. Once we got there, however, AK's friend MT bought a pie and refused to allow me to contribute - ANOTHER FREE MEAL! I went to bed content - nothing better than a free buzz and a belly full of free pizza.

Freeloading Fitness

A while ago I posted about the cheap-as-can-be gym memberships offered through the city's Parks and Recreation Department, and, believe me, I am still a devotee of their $75 yearly deal. But that doesn't mean that I can't get down with some free fitness as well.

Brokelyn.com has published a guide of all the gym deals and promotions one could possibly find all over Brooklyn. From 1-day passes to a full week (!), Brokelyn calculates that the truly motivated Recessionist could end up with 26 straight days of free workouts.

Bed-Stuy Booming during the Bust

During the past decade of rising rents and gentrification, Bed-Stuy has been all but unaffected by the various results of a growing economy. But in this recession, as its neighbors to the south, east, and west are slumping along, Bed-Stuy has kick-started its own mini-economy.

The New York Times reported last week on a bunch of new spots opening up in the Do-The-Right-Thing nabe, like a wine bar called Therapy, a flower shop called Creative Blossoms, and Saraghina, a trattoria which opened in June to rave reviews.

So, why is the block blowing up now, after all this time?

For one, many of the residents of Bed-Stuy work in government sectors like education and health care, meaning that their salaries haven't plunged in the crisis as have those of the bankers and corporate execs living in other neighborhoods. Instead, their spending power remains relatively stable.

Also, entrepreneurs are attracted to the cheap rent in the neighborhood. Low overhead is always an appeal, but even more so in a time when loans are hard to get.

What's best, these new businesses are opening to a hungry audience. For years Bed-Stuy residents have been spending all of their hard-earned dough in Manhattan and more upscale Brooklyn neighborhoods (more than $30 million according to a 2008 study done by the market research firm LISC MetroEdge). So they are understandably eager for both the privilege of stimulating their own community's economy and the convenience of traveling only around the block for their cocktails or pizza. (Oh, and "put some extra mozzarella on that motherfucker and shit. ")

BBQ for the Recession!

courtesy of thereifixedit.com

Charged With Guilt

An entire generation of kids raised during the depression grew up with modest spending habits and their materialistic impulses seriously in check. Expectations were low, gratitude and humility expected. As they reached adulthood, stability was the assumed aspiration, and living within limited means was the status quo.

Then that all changed.

For the baby-boomers who came to dominate the U.S. social sphere a generation later, raised in the post WWI economic boom, the status quo evolved to "financial security" and "comfort," which were, arguably, simply euphemisms for wealth.

The consumer culture of these different generations evolved to fit the economic context of each. But spending patterns aren't all about practicality. Emotion and subjectivity find their way in; there's guilt, shame, pride, and euphoria; cultural mores are injected into every thought and behavioral pattern around consumerism.

According to Sarah Kershaw of NY Times Magazine, 95% of neuroscientists and behaviorists say that our decision to purchase or not to purchase is borne of a complex biochemical phenomenon that occurs deep within our subconscious.

Unless eclipsed by a major source of anxiety, big purchases tend to release dopamine, which triggers feelings of euphoria and chases away guilt and regret. But in a recent study done by David Lewis of Mindlab International, even upper-class consumers, who have held on to their wealth - and purchasing power- in the recession, experienced anxiety and hesitation in response to luxury goods. Before the recession those same high-end items elicited only positive responses-excitement, arousal, and raised attention levels. Instead, they now experience "disgust," according to the study, and consider the consumption of these high-end items irresponsible and even immoral given the state of the economy.

Professor Kit Yarrow's research that this mentality will not fade with economic revitalization. The results of his post-recession consumer surveys suggest that this newfound moral doubt over expensive taste is here to stay. Other researchers believe that this group-think will evolve like any other; that brain patterns are cyclical and soon dopamine will rule again.

Wal-mart Wins Again

This recession has turned even the Japanese into Wal-Mart shoppers.
As long as most of us can remember, the Japanese have been such faithful consumers of luxury goods that items like designer handbags were effectively considered mass-market. Perhaps for this reason, Wal-mart has never yet seen a profit from its Japanese subsidiary (Seiyu) since first opening the stores 7 years ago.
But that is soon to change. Against all odds (popular consumer opposition, resistance on the part of employers) the company dug in with its pointy little claws and stayed the course, waiting for its luck to change. It's business plan included forcing layoffs of about 25% of the store's employees (an unheard of practice in Japan), aggressively cutting out distribution middlemen, mandating that stores remain open for 24 hours, and pushing historically unpopular and lower-quality goods from China.

Sure enough, Wal-mart's luck has changed in Japan, much as its wealth this past year has grown at a rate inverse to that of consumers worldwide. Sales at Seiyu have risen every month since November, and this year, the company expects to make a profit. Congratulations, you blood-sucking parasite.

Meanwhile, handbag designer Louis Vuitton canceled its plans for a fancy new store in Tokyo, as the company's sales in Japan have dropped 20% in the first 6 months of this year.

Frugal Brooklyn

Last week, Brooklyn was named the most frugal city in the U.S. by Mint.com, based on discretionary spending figures. Of course, since the numbers correspond to the percentage decrease in spending since 2008, it could just mean that Brooklyn was one of the most outta hand back in bull-market 2008...

Either way, its a great graphic and is fascinating in its specifics, charting how much each (at least, each of the 5 least frugal) spent on clothing, books, electronics, hobbies, and sports respectively (Chicagoans love them some books). I wish they had broken it down for the most frugal as well-could be a very interesting comparison.

Blackout Film Festival: The Great Recession

In 2004, Tom Keefe founded an annual film festival inspired by the blackout of 2003. Each year since the Blackout Film Festival team has chosen a theme, "a topic that touches the lives of everyone in our community " according to the website, and have called for submission of film shorts on that theme.

This year the theme is The Great Recession, and the program will include shorts such as Wall Street Chicken, a satire featuring a massive pillow fight in the streets of the Financial District, as well as more somber films like Bridge, in which a woman returns home to find her mother missing and her house in foreclosure.

So today at 3PM, 5PM, or 7PM get down to the School of Visual Arts Theater at 333 West 23rd St. between 8th & 9th Ave. The 90-minute program will be shown at each screening and tickets are $12 in advance or $14 at the door.

Heroes of the Recession 2: Men Who Wear Clean Undies

In his 2007 book The Age of Turbulence, Alan Greenspan proposed that the sales figures of none other but men's underwear may serve as a particularly insightful economic indicator.

He says that manties are historically among the most steadily consumed products out there. Their sales figures are almost always a flat line: underwear is nothing more or less than a necessity for men; they buy em when they need em, and generally they their girlfriends and wives do replace their undies when they've gotten old and ratty.

So usually, since undies don't represent a major expense nor a frequent purchase, they aren't among the items cut from the family budget when money gets a little tight. But as Greenspan's theory has it, in times of true hardship, men do start to skimp on their skivvies, making do with dingy pairs so that they can afford, say, toilet paper.

So, here's the good news: Hanes brands just reported second quarter 2009 sales at a decline of 4%. If you think this figure seems as gray as those ratty undies you're wearing, think again. This is actually a significant improvement, as sales declined by 13% in the first quarter. Manty sales are up, people!

So let's give it up for those men who care about what's on the inside - or at least, what's underneath. May their increasing manty purchases lift us from recession and deliver us from depressing laundry days!

Heroes of the Recession: Meet the Beatles? Be the Beatles.

Welcome to the first installment of 'Heroes of the Recession,' where we pay homage to those brave citizens who against all odds are hanging in there, refusing to be bullied by a a bear market, and continuing to spend money like it's their job. That is, the job that they no longer have because they were laid off 6 months ago and have found nothing since and now have simply given up because there's really no point anymore. Anyway, these spenders who slowly digging themselves into more debt are digging us out of a recession. And so we commend them, for they are true American Heroes.

This week, gamers and music fans alike lined up like kids in front of a crack-laced candy store to score a copy of the new Beatles edition of the video game "Rock Band" fresh off the racks.
Just One Crazed Consumer of Many, Gleefully Shelling Out for a taste of the Fab Four
A limited edition of the game, which comes with special instruments resembling the ones the Fab Four used, will cost $250 and is expected to sell big. The standard version will cost $160 with controllers included, or just $60 for the software alone. Although the original Rock Band has been a consistent money loser for Viacom, the company expects this version of the game to shake them out of their slump, selling as many as 5 million copies this year and generating up to $1.2 billion in revenue.You'd think these guys they were more popular than Jesus or something.

Quick! A Few Free (and Almost Free) Things to do in NYC Before Summer's End

September 21st is the last day of summer. Stop crying about it and start reading about it, because you have exactly 3 weeks to get your act together and get your Recessionist summer on. Here are some cheap things to do before you break out the corduroy and wool.

Explore Governor's Island:

Rent a bike for free (1 hour) on Fridays through October 9th and take a ride on the island's 2.2-mile waterfront promenade. The island is completely carless, and only accessible by a free ferry from Manhattan or Brooklyn.

If you're lucky you'll catch one of the art exhibits hosted there during summer months. (Creative Time’s show, “This World & Nearer Ones,” is up through September 20.)

Have a High Time:

A park that offers natural beauty, art, and a history lesson, the High Line opened on June 8th to hordes of New Yorkers who couldn't wait to get off the ground.







What's now wildflowers and fountains was for the past 25+ years an abandoned and overgrown train track. From the 1930s until 1980 it ran through the meatpacking district in Manhattan, bringing freight from 34th St. to Gansevoort St downtown.

The track was all set to be demolished (thanks , Giuliani) until the Friends of the High Line stepped in and got that thing good and parkified. Read more about the park and the process in this New York Times article.

Take Yourself Out To The Ballgame:

The Brooklyn Cyclones' season ends around labor day. Tickets are only $7.50. The Wonder Wheel is open through labor day as well.

Warm Up at P.S.1

P.S.1, in Long Island City, Queens, holds a weekly dancefest to soundtrack of fun, experimental music, held in the museum’s annually redesigned courtyard. This year it's a bedouin tent designed by the architecture firm MOS. Remaining shows: DJ Spun on Sept 5.

Green It Up:

Whether or not you even buy, all those vitamins in the air at local Greenmarkets have gotta be good for you, right?. Plus they are always samples! Check out the markets at Union Square (Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday), Tompkins Square (Sundays), Tribeca (Saturdays), Tucker Square (Thursdays and Saturdays), Stuyveant Town (Sundays), Columbia (Sundays) and 57th St. (Saturdays). and catch great views of Lower Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the New York Harbor for free.

Take a ride on the Staten Island Ferry and catch the very best kind of views (the free kind) of Lower Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the New York Harbor.

Check out the Brooklyn Public Library's Free Summer Concert Series:
Up next are the Mandingo Ambassadors on Sept 12th, followed by Harry and the Potters on Sept 26th.

Roosevelt Island's Riverwalk Commons also offers free summer concerts, through Labor Day. See their calendar here, or on the Islander blog.