recession (Page 5)

The more you spend – During an economic downturn, staying within a budget at the grocery store may be more important than ever for many shoppers, especially those with low incomes. But a new study shows that the harder shoppers try to figure out how much they’re spending, the WORSE they do. Is this some kind of conspiracy?

Marketing expert Koert van Ittersum says, “When shopping in a grocery store, the chaotic, information-rich environment can tax a shopper’s ability to mentally calculate the total basket price. Executing many arithmetic operations with multi-digit pricing is demanding. Our findings show that shoppers tend to be more accurate when they employ short-cut strategies in their calculations.”
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It’s a strange world out there: You may not like your job, but are you ALLERGIC to it? Damp environments, poorly maintained heating and air-conditioning systems and carpeting may contribute to poor indoor air quality that can make you sick. Americans spend about 90% of their time indoors, where they are repeatedly exposed to indoor allergens and airborne particles that can lead to respiratory problems.

Researcher Doug Garrett says, “If there was just one thing I could do to fix buildings, it would be to change the relative humidity. Moisture leads to conditions that are conducive to dust mites and mold, as well as bacteria, yeast and other living organisms.”
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Reaction to citizen anger & threats? – We blamed Bush for 911 and now everyone blames Wall Street and big banks for the recession. It’s gotten so bad that brokers are packing heat.

On Bloomberg.com, Alice Schroeder quotes a friend at Goldman Sachs as saying, “I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit.” Supposedly bankers want to be ready to defend themselves in case of a populist uprising at their bank.Schroeder says (and most of us would agree) that “a little humility and contrition are probably the better route.”
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Worried about an upcoming shortage of food and oil (and everything ELSE)? Being miserly won’t help.

Would the world be a better place if we could somehow curb our desire for material goods? Environmentalist Saleem Ali says “No.”

Take minerals: “The reality is, without minerals, we could not have had modern civilization,” he says, “That’s why we have ages named after them: Iron Age, Bronze Age. We simply could not have achieved those without minerals.”
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