RecessionDiaries

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...

As he nears the end of the line for his Man in a Van Project, Aaron Heideman of Grants Pass, Ore. has only begun to process the stories he gleaned from his cross-country recession odyssey. After losing jobs himself due to the sour economy-not once, but twice-the 29-year-old set out to chronicle the...

The Great Recession of 2008 and 2009 has hurt not just the everyday working person, but also those who harbored big dreams in real estate, only to see fortunes vanish as the bubble burst. In this Recession Diaries special, developer Paul Pierce, whose name has been changed, shares his story of...

The Great Recession of 2008 and 2009 has hurt not just the everyday working person, but also those who harbored big dreams in real estate only to see fortunes vanish as the bubble burst. In this Recession Diaries three-part special, developer Paul Pierce (whose name has been changed) shares his...

A little more than a year ago, Daniel Seddiqui was just another post-college grad with an economics major from USC -- the "U" perhaps standing in his case for Unlucky in the job market, Unable to find full-time work, Unemployed after 40 interviews. So, perhaps figuring that 50 outranks 40, Seddiqui...

It's two-thirds of a day by plane to slingshot halfway around the world from Chicago to Seoul, South Korea -- a monumental distance, by any reckoning, to escape the throes of the Great Recession.But when Elizabeth Groeschen, a single 26-year-old Kentucky native, couldn't get anything going on the...

Ever since the Chicago Tribune gave me the heave-ho in April, I've been thinking a lot about my image and the way I dress. An awful lot. Ready to hit the job market in mind, body, spirit and attitude -- but not in wardrobe -- I sought the advice of a true master, and a man after my own Italian...

In a 30-year journalism career that ended with an eight-year stint at the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, staff writer Sam Fulwood III crafted the kind of columns and long-form profiles that made his subjects and personalities spring to life on the page.There was only one problem: When Fulwood took a...

Greetings from carmaproductions! OK, so you know me better as "Recession Diaries" columnist Lou Carlozo. But over the years, I've also made a hobby of buying and selling on eBay, amassing great finds, surprising sales and 100 percent positive buyer/seller feedback. That should especially come in...

For those not familiar with the "The Recession Diaries" as it appeared on the Chicago Tribune's Web site, I used it to achieve two purposes: share tips for economic survival and thrift, and report my own stories from the home front as I wrestle with debt, financial choices and spending discipline....