Recession Diaries

You aren't the only one feeling the pinch. In an exclusive interview with WalletPop's Jason Cochran, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition's resident carpenter, Paul DiMeo, reports that the tough times have hit his popular ABC show, too. One of the first things to change was the size of the homes. In...

WalletPop was at the Epcot theme park at Walt Disney World in Orlando when Disney Parks (aided by ABC's Ty Pennington) unveiled a publicity stunt for a good cause: a Guinness-authenticated world record for the largest structure ever made out of canned food. A strange accomplishment, to be sure,...

We are waiting at a light, my two youngest boys and me, on our bike, when she pulls up beside us: shocking-pink hair streaming behind her. It coordinates with her bike and, more importantly, her helmet: a striped Nutcase. My boys, too, are sporting Nutcase helmets. We both look at our watches....

As one of the nation's underemployed, naturally my new year's resolution is to get un-underemployed, perhaps even overemployed. But since this was also my resolution last year, I better go about it differently in 2010. Luckily, I subscribe to an invaluable service called Help a Reporter Out, which...

Republic Airlines CEO, Bryan Bedford, has a bit of egg on his face after his disparaging remarks about Milwaukee at a recent analysts' meeting in New York City. The comment by Bedord was "I don't care how cheap you make it, you don't go there (Milwaukee) unless you have to." I, like most native...

By now, you know the numbers statisticians and economists most often use to paint the picture of the Great Recession: unemployment percentages, jobs lost and created, and gross national product among them. Now, add to that another crucial though less obvious number: shifts in U.S. population...

Last year at this time, one writer -- and only one -- in the entire Chicago Tribune features department was either brave or foolish enough to bare his family finances for all to see: yours truly. In a two-page spread, I outlined 10 steps to a better family budget, using my own experiences with...