via For some, hard times are a gateway to new careers – USATODAY.com.

“Our family is now going to be one of those who need public health care, which I never thought we would,” Sarah said. “It’s scary.”

from On a Street in Gaithersburg, Health-Care Anxiety Abounds

Whether or not you’re in favor of the current “healthcare reform” package (whatever form it has taken by the time you read this), surely this is one of the greatest fears of an American family, circa 2009. I have more fear related to healthcare than any other aspect of my own life, and my family is – knock on wood – quite healthy. I can’t imagine the monetary impact that would be felt if, for example, one of us got a serious case of asthma, let alone something more serious. And we still HAVE insurance.

The joke is from this rather remarkable article about the struggles of getting by in New York City on $300,000 a year.

I’m always struck by a very weird combination of genuine empathy and pity on the one hand and utter disgust on the other when I read articles like these.  Hard to figure out whether to feel sorry for someone like this or to want to slap them stupid.  But then again, someone living in a trailer in Dearborn, Michigan who was just laid off from Chrysler might say the same about my family’s lifestyle.  We have two kids and we’re not divorced, but they might scoff at our purchases of organic milk and use of Netflix as unnecessary expenses, too.

So I try not to judge – but it’s difficult sometimes.

Read:  For Many Americans, Nowhere to Go but Down – washingtonpost.com.

via Renters to the Rescue – NYTimes.com.

I’m sorry, but as someone who just relocated from New York to Florida I find statements like this to serve as a complete affirmation of my decision.

That $695,000 studio that couple paid for?  It’s not even in Manhattan, it’s in Brooklyn.  How anyone keeps living in the New York City area is beyond me.  I love New York City, don’t get me wrong.  It’s a wonderful place and my favorite city in the world.  But if 1100 square foot studio apartments in Brooklyn cost $695,000 (and that’s not even considering the association fees) things have just gotten skewed too far into crazy-expensive land.

Banks made for easy targets, logistically and otherwise, and, as the writer Bryan Burrough points out in a book about America’s inaugural war on crime, these outlaws took advantage of the public’s hatred of those recently failed institutions.

via Movie Review – Public Enemies – Seduction by Machine Gun – NYTimes.com.

Recession: I’m lovin’ it!

This number – $100 – is of course entertaining, but it’s something any city with a modicum of sense should be doing. Once a neighborhood has collapsed and jobs have fled, the best hope a city has to rescue an area is to attract artists.

I don’t say this in a derogatory sense. The world needs people who are willing to live in cheap lofts or houses or whatnot while they pursue their dreams of being painters/sculptors/actors/musicians/etc.  Those people are the early recolonizers of neighborhoods which would otherwise be infested by drugs and crime.  And there’s a chance that people who live in neighborhoods like that might be inspired by the chance to own.  I can’t see much downside.

I would never do it. I can’t imagine the kind of nerve it would take to move into a 90% abandoned neighborhood.  I’m glad there are people who can stand doing it.  But the simple fact is that if you lower the price on goods enough, someone will buy that good.  This isn’t sensationalism – it’s just good capitalism.

Chrysler’s bankruptcy will leave lots of people empty-handed. Among them are accident claimants who seek compensation when a faulty Chrysler vehicle causes injury or death. Under terms approved on June 1 by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Arthur J. Gonzalez, the “new” Chrysler emerging from bankruptcy won’t be liable for product defect claims involving any cars sold before it came into existence.

via ‘New’ Chrysler Shielded from ‘Old’ Product Liability – BusinessWeek.

…Mr. Lewis maintained that federal officials pressured him to keep the merger alive, and acknowledged that his job had been at risk if he did not. But he resisted lawmakers’ efforts to characterize the situation as a threat. And he backed away from earlier statements in which he suggested that Mr. Bernanke and Mr. Paulson had urged him not to reveal Merrill’s troubling state before the merger was sealed, calling them “two honorable people” who had “good intentions.”

via Bank of America’s Lewis Tells of Pressure to Buy Merrill Lynch – NYTimes.com.

I still believe that the federal government’s tinkering with private companies was necessary.  It’s not as extraordinary as many people would have you believe – if federal regulators can prevent a merger, it’s not a large step to imagining them forcing a merger.  But what I find deeply disturbing about this news story is the pressure not to disclose Merrill’s “troubling state.”  Why do we need auditors and Sarbanes-Oxley and corporate governance to ensure the transparency of financial statements if, the first time those statements don’t serve the government’s needs, they are suppressed?

I think we’ll look back on the Paulson/Bernanke/Bush management of the crisis as worsening the whole problem rather than solving it.  I don’t think Obama’s team has been perfect, but either through luck, perception or greater skill they’ve seemed to save Bernanke from the worst of the mistakes he made hand-in-hand with Bush and Paulson.