wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Uncommon Economic Indicators

The Brian Lehrer Show's online and on air collaborative project on the economy

Behavior

baby bust?

Story submitted by: David Garfunkel

Tuesday, November 17 2009

Yesterday, I was the anesthesiologist assigned to labor and delivery for the day at my hospital. Whereas a typical Monday would normally be composed of 2-3 C/Sections and several vaginal deliveries, yesterday was quiet, with only 1 delivery during the 5 hours I was there. The nurses told me it has been very quiet the past several weeks, and suspects that fewer babies were conceived after November, 2008. We'll see how long it lasts.

Ticker-Tape--Ticker-Scrape

Story submitted by: Giuseppe Castellacci

Friday, November 6 2009

Canyon of Heroes

Toilet paper and shredded office paper replace good old ticker tape in today's Yankee's Parade
(http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/11/06/sports/20091106SPTSPARADE_2.html)
Why not? It saves even disposal costs!

bottom feeder

Story submitted by: Jerry

Friday, October 30 2009

Was at Jack's 99 pennies at 32nd st., an older lady came out with her shpping bags and stepped in a new Mercedes Benz 500 cabriolet waiting for her.

Recession Forces Us to "Funsize"

Story submitted by: Virginia

Wednesday, October 28 2009

Katonah NY

For the first time since we moved into our home in northern Westchester county 14 years ago, we will not be giving out full-size Hershey bars this Halloween.

Our little 'hood is an increasingly popular trick-or-treating destination for our and neighboring towns, and we will easily get 600 visitors on our porch Saturday night. WIth me laid off from my publishing job several months ago, and my husband's design firm experiencing the expected revenue falloff, we could no longer justify our confectionary largesse. We'll be handing out puny little candy pieces just like everyone else.

We'll miss the large-eyed astonishment of the little kids who've seemingly never laid eyes on an actual, honest-to-goodness candy bar. And the whoops and calls and thank-you-thank-you-thanks-you's of the early teens who are jarred from their feigned wordliness when they see that big honkin' brown wrapper.

But we're sure that our Halloweeners will understand our cutback, and remember that the real point of Halloween is to venture out into the crisp fall night, see one's friends and neighbors, and have some good, clean, fun. Oh, jeez; I hope we don't get egged.

Don't throw it out!

Story submitted by: Dank C. Linkhart

Tuesday, October 27 2009

10th St. Brooklyn, 11215

You know those disposable salt and pepper grinders one can now purchase at the supermarket ?
I have found out that with a pair of wide pliers one can open them and refill them.

Skateboard mafia

Story submitted by: Christopher Johnson

Sunday, October 25 2009

1 Grand Army Plaza Brooklyn NY 11238

The local skateboard mafia--twenty or so boys ranging in age from eight to fifteen, I'd guess--has taken over the empty planters outside the glossy new Richard Meier building on Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn. No one from the building chases them away, or appears to pay the slightest attention to them. The boys are very polite and make every effort to accommodate passersby, but what a comedown for this much-ballyhooed luxury building!

New Service With a Smile

Story submitted by: Jill Waldman

Monday, October 19 2009

Smith Street Brooklyn, NY

I went in to an expensive store where the staff has always been very snotty to me. I have a 2 month old baby, and haven't been paying much attention to my clothes. I was wearing old chord pants and a baggy sweatshirt left over from college and did not look hip or fashionable in any capacity. I was looking around, and noticed that this time the staff were falling all over themselves to try to sell me clothes. They were bringing me different outfits they thought I might like, complementing me, and making small talk. I felt like a celebrity, even though I looked like a ragamuffin. I did buy something small, my first purchase at this overpriced venue.

Upscale Recycling

Story submitted by: Jax

Saturday, October 17 2009

It is now a common sight to see yuppies picking through trash cans around parks in Lower Manhattan.

Piggy bank raiders

Story submitted by: Jacquie Flynn

Tuesday, October 13 2009

Maywood, NJ

My husband is a coin collector, so my sons and I are very good about always checking our change to pick out anything old or rare before spending it. Since the recession began we have noticed a major upsurge in the number of Buffalo Nickels and Wheat Pennies in circulation. We've guess that hard times have caused people to raid their piggy banks.

Health care failure

Story submitted by: Barbara Singer

Sunday, October 11 2009

Park Avenue South 21st Street

Yesterday a rather shabbily dressed man was standing next to a trash can on Park Avenue South and 21st Street. He was reading Rolling Stones magazine intently while holding the copy very close to his face. It was obvious that he needs glasses. To me this is a sign that the economy is failing, particularly regarding health care.

Nickels and dimes

Story submitted by: Christian Hege

Tuesday, September 29 2009

I remember this happening in an earlier recession: sortof-old coins, such as wheat pennies from the '40s and '50s, are turning up in my pocket change. I think people are busting the penny jars open.

School Choice

Story submitted by: Anne

Wednesday, September 23 2009

I have a child at one of New York's most sought-after public elementary schools. In the last year, its population has increased by more than 10%, including going from 7 kindergarten classes to 9. At the same time, it is much less diverse than when we first got acquainted with the school and its community 5 years ago. Similar to what happens when a cold front runs into warm, it rains. Hard. Between the real estate boom and the financial market crash, all the new people in the neighborhood who are panicking are wealthy finance professionals and corporate CEOs who, in the past, would have sent their kids to one of the many elite private schools nearby. Now we have to deal with their sense of entitlement toward their kids and anger that they have had to cut back. Wait until they discover their weakness before the Department of Education...

Repaired Things

Story submitted by: Anne Percoco

Wednesday, September 23 2009

After reading an article in the Boston Globe titled "The Duct Tape Economy", about how repair and maintenance businesses have started thriving as a result of the recession, I began collecting pictures of things that have been repaired, and have organized them as a blog. I have taken some of these photos, but most were sent to me by other people.

I see these repairs as small acts of creativity and resourcefulness and gestures of self-sufficiency. They are often surprisingly beautiful as well.

Boston Globe Article:
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/04/27/the_duct_tape_economy/

Repaired Things blog:
http://repairedthings.wordpress.com

jewish new year calendars

Story submitted by: cynthia ehrenkrantz

Thursday, September 17 2009

It's Rosh HaShanah this week, the Jewish New Year and I am usually inundated with calendars. Some raise money for charity and others come from businesses. This year, I haven't received even one and am going to have to go out and buy one.

Story submitted by: bill subik

Wednesday, September 16 2009

i don't have an indicator. but i have a question about the spot you run. when the couple say that they're on the the corner of myrtle and knickerbocker, they see a 23 ft high---------- ---------? i can't ever figure out what they're saying ! what are those 2 words?

Smoke it if you got it

Story submitted by: Carol Gross

Tuesday, September 15 2009

10th Avenue W 50 St

As I was waiting for a bus in the theater district one night, I saw a nicely dressed middle aged woman stop, look at the ground, pick up a not finished cigarette butt, stop a few steps later to get out her lighter, light the butt and smoke it.

Surgical "Specials"

Story submitted by: Chuck

Wednesday, September 9 2009

160 Varick St. New York, NY 10013

I've tried by phone and email to get the station to withdraw their silly promo with the woman amazed to find a "special" on her husband's surgery. Even the threat to cancel my membership didn't work. Here's my Uncommon Economic Indicator-NOT: A "Special" in operating room lingo refers to those occasions when one type of procedure shows up on the schedule in an unusually high amount. Like: "It's the 10th appendectomy today, we must be having a special!" Maybe your local plastic surgeon is having a special, but your friendly neighborhood general surgeon can't give you any special on their fee for your breast or colon cancer operation-- that fee is set by your insurer. I would hope that a news organization would check the facts before spreading false ideas, and while this promo is not news, coming over and over on the air during news shows suggests it is factual- when it is not.

Shopping

Story submitted by: Gaye Leslie

Wednesday, September 9 2009

Fulton Mall, Downtown Bkln

In Downtown Bkln and in my part of Bed Stuy, I see plenty of mostly Caribbean Americans, some Latinos, w/large bags from Target, Footlocker, Dr. Jay's, Conways, Cookies almost every day, but much bigger on Fridays & Saturdays. Pehaps they're spending their stimulus checks & as much on the latest tech innovations for computers, Ipods, etc., as clothes, school supplies.

College students reluctant and/or unable to buy their books

Story submitted by: Gretchen Lieb

Tuesday, September 8 2009

I'm an academic librarian at an "elite" liberal arts college up the river. This year, more often than ever before, I've had students ask for help getting their textbooks from the library. Today a student said she was planning to read Angela Davis' Women, Race & Class IN the bookstore, in order to avoid paying for it. I'm going to take my own copy tomorrow and share it, of course. But this has been happening every day, and is definitely a shift both in behavior and openness about being strapped for cash.

Avant-garde begging

Story submitted by: Christopher Caines

Thursday, August 27 2009

near 14th Street and Fifth Avenue on the Village/Chelsea border

Three recent sitings, all near 14th Street and Fifth Avenue on the Village/Chelsea border, of imaginative recession-era humor-driven begging strategies:

A young guy, hiphop-stylin', on the move, with a sign on his chest reading: "Keeping it real: Need money for weed" and a small pizza box with a slot in it, with "Donations" written on top attached to the sign.

A sad-looking heavyset woman sitting on a fire hydrant holding up a crude corrugated-cardboard sign that says: "Tired of prostitution. Need money. Please help."

A trustafarian Indie rock type—many tattoos and piercings, scruffy, bearded, Williamsburgian—sitting on the sidewalk holding up another crude corrugated-cardboard sign, this one reading: "Need money for beer. Had to be honest. Please help."

Every New Yorker needs to devise a triage system for beggars. Mine is, I always give money to street musicians (unless their music is unbearably bad, which is rare) and people missing a limb or limbs. So I didn't "donate" to any of these three. But I appreciate their efforts.