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10 Nov 09

Life on Severance: Comfort, Then Crisis - WSJ.com

Things are scary out there for the unemployed in America! This article tells some sad stories of opportunities lost and next eggs blown! It also illustrates a key concept from AP and IB Economics: the theory of sticky wages and prices, at the heart of Keynesian macroeconomics.

online.wsj.com/...SB125780714976639687.html - Preview

keynesianism wages recession sticky wages unemployment

The family recently vacationed in Virginia Beach, Va., and likes to dine on Porterhouse steaks. Since losing his job, Mr. Joegriner, 44 years old, has had several offers. He's turned each down in hopes of landing a position comparable to what he held before.
- Unemployed Americans unwilling to accept lower wage jobs! This sounds like evidence of the "sticky wages" Keynesian observed in his arguments for fiscal stimulus! - on 2009-11-10
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Mr. Joegriner is a member of what might be called the severance economy -- unemployed Americans who use severance pay and savings to maintain their lifestyles. Many lost their jobs in 2007 and 2008, and thought they'd soon find work. Now, they're getting desperate.
- I bet these people just wish they had taken that good offer a year ago. Finance people laid off during this recession must have an artificially inflated view of their own value in the labor market: over-inflated like the assets they had dealt in! - on 2009-11-10
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- Last week, lawmakers passed a bill extending unemployment benefits up to 20 weeks. Unemployment benefits, which typically last about 26 weeks, were expected to run out for 1.3 million people by the end of the year, according to the National Employment Law Project.
  - Extending unemployment benefits, while it is a NICE thing to do, only increases the downwardly inflexible nature of wages. - on 2009-11-10
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- The dramatic changes in such sectors mean that many of the eliminated jobs will never come back. Some workers may suffer a permanent hit to their standard of living.
  - Why won't certain jobs ever return to the US economy? Is it at least partially BECAUSE American workers are so unwilling to accept lower wages? - on 2009-11-10
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- When Michelle Patterson was laid off as an executive director of marketing for a publishing company in January, she figured she could subsist comfortably, at least for a while, on the $20,000 she had reserved from her savings and severance combined.
- She spent as much as $250 a week on networking meals and drinks with contacts. Some days, she scheduled up to four coffee meetings a day, picking up the tab most of the time. She also spent $30 a month for pedicures and $150 on her hair.
  - You've got to be kidding me! This is what our world has come to. Unemployed Americans, delusional about their own worth, spending $180 a week on what, mani-pedis? - on 2009-11-10
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08 Jun 09

Next Test - Value of $125,000-a-Year Teachers - NYTimes.com

So what kind of teachers could a school get if it paid them $125,000 a year?

An accomplished violist who infuses her music lessons with the neuroscience of why one needs to practice, and creatively worded instructions like, “Pass the melody gently, as if it were a bowl of Jell-O!”

A self-described “explorer” from Arizona who spent three decades honing her craft at public, private, urban and rural schools.

Two with Ivy League degrees. And Joe Carbone, a phys ed teacher, who has the most unusual résumé of the bunch, having worked as Kobe Bryant’s personal trainer.

“Developed Kobe from 185 lbs. to 225 lbs. of pure muscle over eight years,” it reads.

They are members of an eight-teacher dream team, lured to an innovative charter school that will open in Washington Heights in September with salaries that would make most teachers drop their chalk and swoon; $125,000 is nearly twice as much as the average New York City public school teacher earns, and about two and a half times as much as the national average for teacher salaries. They also will be eligible for bonuses, based on schoolwide performance, of up to $25,000 in the second year.

www.nytimes.com/...05charter.html - Preview

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