Click on the headline (link) for the full text.
Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage
Recession Anxiety Seeps Into Everyday Lives
Pam Belluck, New York Times
Anne Hubbard has not lost her job, house or savings, and she and her husband have always been conservative with money.
But a few months ago, Ms. Hubbard, a graphic designer in Cambridge, Mass., began having panic attacks over the economy, struggling to breathe and seeing vivid visions of “losing everything,” she said.
She “could not stop reading every single economic report,” was so “sick to my stomach I lost 12 pounds” and “was unable to function,” said Ms. Hubbard, 52, who began, for the first time, taking psychiatric medication and getting therapy.
… With economic damage expected to last months or years, such reactions are becoming common, experts say. Anxiety, depression and stress are troubling people everywhere, many not suffering significant economic losses, but worrying they will or simply reacting to pervasive uncertainty.
Some are seeking counseling or medication for the first time. Others are resuming or increasing treatment, or redirecting therapy for other issues onto economic anxiety.
“The economy and fear of what’s going to happen is having a huge effect,” said Sarah Bullard Steck, a Washington therapist who also directs the employee assistance program at the Commerce Department. “People are coming in more” with “severe anxiety” or “more marital strife, some domestic violence, some substance abuse.”
(8 April 2009)
Economic Crisis Sweeps Eastern Ukraine
David Stern, New York Times
New areas of Europe have taken such a body blow from the world economic crisis as the industrial heartland of eastern Ukraine, home to giant enterprises in the steel and metals industry in which orders have dried up nearly completely and prices have plummeted.
In the Donetsk region, home to 4.6 million people, around 80 percent of the economy is tied to the metals industry. In January, when industrial production dropped by a precipitous one-third throughout Ukraine as a whole, in Donetsk it fell by half against the previous year.
Small wonder, then, that Sergei Yeryomin is looking for some place to vent his rage and despair. Mr. Yeryomin, his wife, Tatyana, and thousands of others lost their jobs at the giant Kirov Metallurgicals Factory in this city on Jan. 1.
“If we had a leader to lead us out on the streets, we would go,” he said, sitting in his living room and wondering how to support his wife; his son, Anatoli, 15; and his daughter, Ekaterina, 8.
(7 April 2009)
Pointed out by Atrios (Duncan Black) who writes:
I think thus far people have underestimated the degree to which a prolonged economic recession could led to various types of social unrest. We shouldn’t just be worrying about Ukraine.
Related from NY Times: After a ‘Spontaneous’ Riot, Moldovans Look for Answers
Fox reality series features real-life company layoffs
James Hibberd, Hollywood Reporter
“You’re fired” — but for real.
Fox has ordered a one-hour unscripted series that turns real-life company layoffs into a reality contest.
The show’s working title is “Someone’s Gotta Go.” Employees are called to a meeting and informed there will be layoffs, but with a reality show twist: The staff will be allowed to determine who is fired.
The employees will have access to the company’s internal information — budgets, HR files, salaries, etc. — to help make their decision.
It’s the anti-“Apprentice”: Instead of contestants vying for a dream job, they’re fighting to keep the lousy one they already have.
(8 April 2009)
