Background
United Professionals grew out of Barbara Ehrenreich’s 2006 book, Bait and Switch: the (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream, on white-collar unemployment.  On her book tour, Barbara met legions of people who had personally experienced what she had written about. They kept asking, “What can be done to protect the white-collar middle class from being [...]

Despite the unbridled (okay, barely bridled) glee on Wall Street at the Dow’s climb above 13000, the tide that’s raising some boats is swamping others and running a lot of dinghies aground. Let’s follow the money to a few ports of call that UP members care about.
Apparently, we’re not the only ones concerned about the [...]

What if losing your job wasn’t a big deal? What if you’re downsized, RIFed, outsourced, laid off, or just plain fired – and you don’t panic, feel like a total loser, get depressed, or go into debt? What if there was no negative stigma involved in losing your job – in fact, what if the [...]

Jared Bernstein has just joined UP’s board of directors. He is a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute and author of  just-released “Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed (And Other Unsolved Economic Mysteries)” Below is an excerpt from the TPM Cafe Book Club at http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/tpmcafe-book-club/ where Jared, Barbara Ehrenreich, and others discuss today’s economy [...]

Until the beginning of this month, Americans seemed to have nothing to say about their ongoing economic ruin except, “Hit me! Please, hit me again!” You can take my house, but let me mow the lawn for you one more time before you repossess. Take my job and I’ll just slink off somewhere out of [...]

How much lower can consumer spending go? The malls are like mausoleums, retail clerks are getting laid off, and AOL recently featured on its welcome page the story of man so cheap that he recycles his dental floss – hanging it from a nail in his garage until it dries out.

Here’s a healthcare horror story on a national level: 60 Minutes’ report on Remote Area Medical (RAM), which sets up emergency clinics in the world’s neediest areas. Recently, though, RAM set up its massive clinic, for a weekend, in an exhibit hall in Knoxville, Tenn. Founded to transport U.S. doctors to truly remote areas to provide medical service, RAM is now running weekend clinics in urban as well as rural U.S. areas.

What are the characteristics of recent terrorists? “Desperation … Occupational opportunities are extremely limited. … Come from upper and middle-class families. … Have some college education …. either professional or semi-professionals … solidly anchored in family responsibilities … married and … have children.”1 Does this sound like today’s long-term unemployed or desperately underemployed white collar [...]

With all the talk about how to stimulate it, you’d think that the economy is a giant clitoris. Ben Bernanke may not employ this imagery, but the immediate challenge–and the issue bound to replace Iraq and immigration in the presidential race–is how best to get the economy engorged and throbbing again.

The soothsayers have slaughtered the ox and are examining the gloppy entrails for signs: Rising unemployment, a falling dollar, weak consumer spending, the credit crisis, a swooning stock market. Could there be something wrong here? Could we actually be approaching a, god forbid, recession?