by Don Peck
13. one person was lynched Putnam, Bowling Alone, 375.
14. “perfect cultural seedbed” Friedman, The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, 12.
15. Like other forms Ibid., 121–26.
16. In nearly every aspect Ibid., 124.
17. “There is scarcely” Keyssar, Out of Work, 76.
18. The United States emerged Friedman, The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, 140–41.
19. the nation’s real output Robert McElvaine, The Great Depression: America, 1929–1941 (New York: Times Books, 1984), 75, 320.
20. the 1920s stand out Friedman, The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, 147.
21. Farmers still made up McElvaine, The Great Depression, 11, 36.
22. In America’s towns Ron Chernow, The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1990), 302.
23. disposable per capita income McElvaine, The Great Depression, 38–39.
24. willingness of ordinary people Ibid., 40–41.
25. Robert McElvaine wrote Ibid., 42.
26. In Florida Ibid.
27. The real-estate mania Robert Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd, Middletown in Transition: A Study in Cultural Conflicts (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Company, 1937), 190–91.
28. Residential construction imploded Ibid., 190–93.
29. The economic conditions Benjamin Schwarz, “Life In (and After) Our Great Recession,” Atlantic, October 2009, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/10/life-in-and-after-our-great-recession/7651/.
30. In her classic sociology Mirra Komarovsky, The Unemployed Man and His Family (1940; repr., Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press, 2004), esp. 23, 41.
31. the stories paint a picture Komarovsky, The Unemployed Man, esp. 43, 94, 112.
32. most people kept their jobs Lynd and Lynd, Middletown, 202. 52 “In its relation to” Ibid., 443.
33. Trust among strangers Ibid., 427–28.
34. Disillusionment among Ibid., 482–84.
35. The Lynds interviewed Ibid., 485.
36. pronounced diffidence Glen Elder, Children of the Great Depression (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974).
37. the period’s adolescents McElvaine, The Great Depression, 185.
38. That’s in fact Elder, Children of the Great Depression.
39. extremism and rancor McElvaine, The Great Depression, 187.
40. Father Charles Coughlin Ibid., 238–40.
41. John Maynard Keynes wrote John Maynard Keynes, “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren” (1930), published in Essays in Persuasion (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1963), 358–373.
42. “more than Watergate” Edward Berkowitz, Something Happened: A Political and Cultural Overview of the Seventies (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), 53.
43. The seventies saw Ibid., 55, 67.
44. A third recession For additional historical context, see Kevin Quealy, Gregory Roth, and R. M. Schneiderman, “How the Government Dealt with Past Recessions,” New York Times, January 26, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/01/26/
business/economy/20090126-recessions-graphic.html.
45. “hopeful legacy began” Berkowitz, Something Happened, 4.
46. Legal challenges Bruce Schulman, The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics (New York: The Free Press, 2001; Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 2002), 58, 70. Citations refer to the Da Capo edition.
47. In previous decades Ibid., 80.
48. Women entered the workforce Berkowitz, Something Happened, 68, 144.
49. This revolution Schulman, The Seventies, 68.
50. The young adults See, for example, ibid., xii.
51. unemployment never neared U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey: Unemployment Rate,” 2011.
52. Theodore White wrote Theodore White quoted in Joseph Nocera, A Piece of the Action (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), 178.
53. houses, or at least those Ibid., 188–89.
54. All of these developments Ibid., 193.
55. Newsweek dubbed Jerry Adler, “The Year of the Yuppie,” Newsweek, December 31, 1984.
56. Recent academic research See, for example, the work of David Moss (Harvard) and Robert Frank (Cornell), summarized in Nicholas Kristof, “Our Banana Republic,” New York Times, November 6, 2010; and Louise Story, “Income Inequality and Financial Crisis,” New York Times, August 21, 2010.
4: GENERATION R: THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF AMERICA’S YOUTH
1. “I’m definitely seeing” Steve Friess, “In Recession, Optimistic College Grads Turn Down Jobs,” New York Times, July 24, 2009.
2. In one recent study Lisa B. Kahn, “The Long-Term Labor Market Consequences of Graduating from College in a Bad Economy” (paper, Yale School of Management, 2009); Lisa Kahn, conversation with author, 2009.
3. “Graduates’ first jobs” Austan Goolsbee, “Hello Young Workers: One Way to Reach the Top Is to Start There,” New York Times, May 25, 2006.
4. This job environment National Association of Colleges and Employers, “Job Outlook 2011,” 2011, http://www.naceweb.org/Research/Job_Outlook/Job_Outlook.aspx?referal=research&menuID=377.
5. Strong evidence suggests Krysia Mossakowski, “The Influence of Past Unemployment Duration on Symptoms of Depression Among Young Women and Men in the United States,” American Journal of Public Health 99: 1826–32; Krysia Mossakowski, conversation with author, 2009.
6. Today in Japan Kenji Hall and Ian Rowley, “Japan’s Lost Generation,” BusinessWeek, May 28, 2007; additional data from the Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development provided to author by Kenji Hall.
7. poor health is prevalent Till Von Wachter and Daniel Sullivan, “Job Displacement and Mortality: An Analysis Using Administrative Data,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 124, no. 3 (August 2009): 1265–1306; Till Von Wachter, conversation with author, 2009.
8. various labels Steven Greenhouse, “As Plants Close, Teenagers Focus More on College,” New York Times, June 25, 2009.
9. today’s young adults Jean Twenge, Generation Me (New York: Free Press, 2006); Jean Twenge, conversation with author, 2009.
10. In her 2006 book Twenge, Generation Me.
11. Ron Alsop, a former reporter Ron Alsop, “The ‘Trophy Kids’ Go to Work,” Wall Street Journal, October 21, 2008; Ron Alsop, conversation with author, 2009.
12. In his 2009 commencement Steve Friess, “In Recession, Optimistic.”
13. According to a recent Pew survey Sam Roberts, “Economy Is Forcing Young Adults Back Home in Big Numbers, Survey Finds,” New York Times, November 24, 2009.
14. Aubrey Howell, who’d tweeted Kimi Yoshino, “For the ‘Funemployed,’ Unemployment’s Welcomed,” Los Angeles Times, June 4, 2009; Aubrey Howell, conversation with author, 2009.
15. rate the importance Allstate/National Journal, “Heartland Monitor Poll Topline: Generation Y,” April 22–26, 2010, 8, 9.
16. Overall, job tenure increased U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Employee Tenure in 2010,” September 14, 2010, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/tenure_09142010.htm.
17. These trends are dispiriting Mike Mandel, “Where Young College Grads Are Finding Jobs: Government,” Mandel on Innovation and Growth (blog), October 5, 2010, http://innovationandgrowth.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/where-young-college-grads-are-finding-jobs-government/.
18. The relationship between “Heartland Monitor Poll,” 14. 76 Karen Fingerman indicates Karen Fingerman et al., “Giving to the Good and the Needy: Parental Support of Grown Children,” Journal of Marriage and Family 71, no. 5 (December 2009): 1220–33.
19. A May 2010 “Shouts & Murmurs” Simon Rich, “Your New College Graduate: A Parents’ Guide” New Yorker, May 24, 2010, http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2010/05/24/100524sh_shouts_rich.
20. family and financial consultants Alina Tugend, “Full Nest Syndrome,” National Journal, May 8, 2
010, http://nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/nj_20100508_2642.php.
21. instead living at home For more on youth in Japan, see Michael Zielenziger, Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Decade (New York: Nan A. Talese, 2006); Kosugi Reiko, “Youth Employment in Japan’s Economic Recovery: Freeters and NEETs,” Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus (May 2006), http://japanfocus.org/-Kosugi-Reiko/2022; Peggy Orenstein, “Parasites in Prêt-à-Porter,” New York Times Magazine, July 1, 2001; Kenji Hall and Ian Rowley, “Japan’s Lost Generation,” Businessweek, May 17, 2007; Maggie Jones, “Shutting Themselves In,” New York Times Magazine, January 15, 2006.
22. What often gets lost Pew Research Center, “Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change,” February 2010, 16, http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1501/millennials-new-survey-generational-personality-upbeat-open-new-ideas-technology-bound.
23. But obligations “Heartland Monitor Poll,” 12.
24. 12 percent of adults Wendy Wang and Rich Morin, “Home for the Holidays … and Every Other Day,” Pew Research Center, November 24, 2009, http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1423/home-for-the-holidays-boomeranged-parents.
25. Millennials entered “Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change,” 67–70.
26. When asked whom “Heartland Monitor Poll,” 4.
27. A recent paper Paolo Giuliano and Antonio Spilimbergo, “Growing Up in a Recession” (working paper 15321, National Bureau of Economic Research, September 2009), http://www.nber.org/papers/w15321.
28. The optimism “Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change,” 21–22.
29. college attendance has risen Catherine Rampell, “College Enrollment Rate at Record High,” Economix (blog), New York Times, April 28, 2010, http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/college-enrollment-rate-at-record-high/.
5: HOUSEBOUND: THE MIDDLE CLASS AFTER THE BUST
1. Since the recession began Shannon Behken, “Homeowner Fees ‘Like Extortion,’ Homeowner Says,” Tampa Tribune, September 5, 2010; Mark Spector, conversation with author, 2010.
2. real home prices rose S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.
3. Home buyers National Association of Realtors, conversation with author, 2010; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Survey.
4. nearly one in four Chris Arnold, “Economists Brace for Worsening Subprime Crisis,” All Things Considered, National Public Radio, August 7, 2007, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12561184.
5. 20 percent of all new mortgages Ben Bernanke, “Fostering Sustainable Homeownership” (speech, National Community Reinvestment Coalition Annual Meeting, March 14, 2008), http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/bernanke20080314a.htm.
6. this kind of appreciation Don Peck, “Pffffttt,” Atlantic, July/August 2005, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/07/pffffttt/6751/.
7. typical families saw U.S. Census Bureau, “American Housing Survey,” http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/ahs/ahs.html; S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.
8. Many cashed out Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, http://www2.fdic.gov/sdi/main.asp.
9. more than 12 million U.S. Census Bureau, “American Housing Survey for the United States: 2007.”
10. Nationwide, housing values S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.
11. the total housing vacancy rate Alex Tabarrok, “Why Are So Many Homes Unemployed?” Marginal Revolution (blog), July 29, 2010, http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/07/why-are-so-many-homes-unemployed.html.
12. roughly one in four CoreLogic, “New CoreLogic Data Shows 23 Percent of Borrowers Underwater With $750 Billion of Negative Equity,” March 8, 2011, http://www.mbaa.org/ResearchandForecasts/ProductsandSurveys/
NationalDelinquencySurvey.htm; Mortgage Bankers Association, “Delinquencies and Foreclosure Starts Decrease in Latest MBA National Delinquency Survey,” August 26, 2010.
13. But a larger number Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University, “The State of the Nation’s Housing 2010,” June 2010, http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/news/press-releases/sonh-2010.
14. “Disillusionment is” Andrew Sullivan, “The View from Your Recession,” Daily Dish (blog), Atlantic, April 23, 2009, http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/04/the-view-from-your-recession-13.html#more.
15. This pattern Richard Florida, “How the Crash Will Reshape America,” Atlantic, March 2009, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/03/how-the-crash-will-reshape-america/7293/.
16. So, too, have recent immigrants Audrey Singer, “The State of Metropolitan America: Immigration,” Brookings Institution, 2010, http://www.brookings.edu/metro/MetroAmericaChapters/immigration.aspx.
17. Christopher Leinberger argued Christopher Leinberger, “The Next Slum?” Atlantic, March 2008, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/03/the-next-slum/6653/.
18. difficult compromises Fannie Mae, “Fourth Quarter 2010,” National Housing Survey Fact Sheet, http://www.fanniemae.com/about/housing-survey.html.
19. roughly 3.5 million Americans Arianna Huffington, Third World America: How Our Politicians Are Abandoning the Middle Class and Destroying the American Dream (New York: Crown Publishers, 2010), 104.
20. Related research shows Robert Frank, Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007), 88.
21. Once suburban communities Leinberger, “The Next Slum?”
22. A 2010 Brookings Institution study Singer, “The State of Metropolitan America,” 114, 133.
23. crime, too, has migrated Hanna Rosin, “American Murder Mystery,” Atlantic, July/August 2008, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/american-murder-mystery/6872/; Leinberger, “The Next Slum?”
24. Detroit remained Florida, “How the Crash Will Reshape America.”
25. Today, after years of rapid growth J. Patrick Coolican, “Las Vegas Population in Decline; Will It Reverse?” Las Vegas Sun, November 13, 2010.
26. as Sin City beckoned Alex Tabarrok, “Leaving Las Vegas (If They Can),” Marginal Revolution (blog), October 4, 2010, http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/10/leaving-las-vegas-if-they-can.html.
27. That’s no surprise Adam Nagourney, “Las Vegas Faces Its Deepest Slide Since the 1940s,” New York Times, October 2, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/us/03vegas.html.
28. What’s surprising is Jean Guerrero, “All Signs Point to Continuing Las Vegas Exodus,” Las Vegas Sun, September 2, 2010, http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/sep/02/moving-vegas-not-anymore/.
29. Anchored by houses Haya El Nasser, “More Move, But Not Long Distance,” USA Today, May 11, 2010.
30. surely this recession Social & Demographic Trends Project, “How the Great Recession Has Changed Life in America,” Pew Research Center (June 30, 2010), 7.
31. the suburbs were never Kenneth Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 272–76.
32. In his 2008 book Bill Bishop, The Big Sort (New York: Houghton Mifflin; 2008), esp. 49–54.
33. middle-class status anxiety Social & Demographic Trends Project, “How the Great Recession Has Changed Life in America,” 36–51.
34. But middle-class optimism Ibid.
35. According to Fannie Mae’s “National Housing Survey,” Fannie Mae, http://www.fanniemae.com/media/pdf/2010/National-Housing-Survey-112310.pdf.
36. In their analysis Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, “The Aftermath of Financial Crises” (paper prepared for presentation at American Economic Association meeting, San Francisco, January 3, 2009).
37. In Japan Information provided to author by the Japan Real Estate Institute, 2010.
38. the New York Times has taken For example, see Martin Fackler, “Take It from Japan: Bubbles Hurt,” New York Times, December 25, 2005; Martin Fackler, “Japan Goes from Dynamic to Disheartened,” New York Times, October, 16, 2010.
40. As it relates to housing Alex Kotlowitz, “All Boarded Up,” New York Times Magazine, March 4, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/magazine/08Foreclosure-t.html.
41. In Las Vegas and Phoenix David Streitfeld, “Building Is Booming in a City of Empty Houses,” New York Times, May 15, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/business/16builder.html.
42. under a pilot program Annie Lowrey, “The Return of the $1,000 Down Mortgage,” Washington Independent, August 5, 2010, http://washingtonindependent.com/93795/the-return-of-the-1000-down-mortgage.
6: PLUTONOMY: THE VERY RICH IN RECESSION AND RECOVERY
1. three Citigroup analysts Ajay Kapur, Niall Macleod, and Narendra Singh, “Plutonomy: Buying Luxury, Explaining Global Imbalances,” Citigroup Research, Citigroup Global Markets, Inc., October 16, 2005.
2. The report was a hit Angela Barnes, “Want Wealth? Invest in the Uber-Rich,” Scripps News, October 4, 2006; Ajay Kapur et al., “The Plutonomy Symposium—Rising Tides Lifting Yachts,” Citigroup Research, Citigroup Global Markets, Inc., October 2006.
3. on the eve of the recession Analysis by Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty in “Income Inequality in the United States, 1913–2002,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 118, no. 1 (2003): 1–39, updated at http://www.econ.berkeley.edu/~saez/; Updated Tables and Figures, “Table A6: Top Fractiles Income Levels (Including Capital Gains) in the United States,” July 2010, http://www.econ.berkeley.edu/~saez/.
4. Income inequality usually shrinks The Gini coefficient, perhaps the most widely used measure of income inequality, rose from 0.463 in 2007 to 0.468 in 2009, a small increase. See U.S. Census Bureau, “Selected Measures of Household Income Dispersion: 1967–2009,” http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/data/historical/inequality/
taba2.pdf.
5. The top 1 percent Emmanuel Saez, “Striking It Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States (Updated with 2008 Estimates),” July 17, 2010, http://www.econ.berkeley.edu/~saez/saez-UStopincomes-2008.pdf.