The Inside Job

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino offered a spirited endorsement and portrait of working for President Bush in an E-mail to Byron York at National Review. Certainly, it's important to consider the source (as she's unlikely to give anything but a positive report), but it's an interesting look at his managerial style--it sounds like he's a rare giver of feedback.

From NRO:

"It's always amazed me that he’s constantly trying to buck us up,” she told me. “For example, during the election cycle, the president said that I should not rise to the bait when he was attacked, that I should let it go and not get caught up in the election. For a while there, it was really difficult--after all, over $125 million in negative ads against him were run the last several months. One day the president called me and said he’d heard I’d had a tough briefing, and that no one wants to stand up there and be a piñata--but that I was doing the right thing and he was proud of me. I have a ton of examples just like that."

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These days, the media is doing its storytelling job by detailing the lives of the recently laid-off and the challenge of finding a job--and the getting by in the meantime.

Seven portraits in New York magazine show the variety of obstacles that accompany a layoff.

• An IT director says it's harder for his wife to parent their kids with him home all the time.
• Bad habits kick in: A 24-year-old former recruiter spent his severance at a bar and finds it hard to get out of his boxers.
• The freetime poses a challenge for workaholics.
• Pride inhibits the job hunt. Says a former newspaper editor: "I’m trying to get myself into the right people’s in-boxes, but I don’t want to be a wretch who reeks of desperation."

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About a month ago, Suze Orman was on MSNBC's Morning Joe pleading with Americans to stop their spending and save, save, save. Time magazine's Joe Klein, also a guest on the show, looked a bit aghast. He responded that if all Americans do just what Orman suggests, the economy will be in freefall. Of course, many consumers are already stashing their pocketbooks until their jobs and investments are more secure, and healthy companies (see Toyota) are feeling the effects.

So, the save/spend argument isn't new. But today RealClearMarkets' Steven Malanga writes a piece titled: "Save Jobs. Buy Something." Malanga's target is the seemingly virtuous (certainly in an economic expansion) Buy Nothing Day--an abstemious holiday touting freedom from consumerism and consumption (it no doubt had plenty of unwitting participants this year).

Malanga asks: "Why is it that in tough times it seems rational and even noble to deny oneself, even when doing so only spreads the pain?" Maybe it's because the tenure of our consumerism-centered economy has been rather brief, compared with our thousands of years of tribal living and shared resources, Malanga suggests.

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It was less than a year ago that I was pounding the pavement in Peoria. My entreaty was not dissimilar to the time-tested "How's it playing in Peoria?" line. I was there to gauge residents' feelings about the economy--and they were mostly optimistic. It wasn't too surprising. Sales at heavy equipment maker Caterpillar--Peoria's largest employer--were booming, thanks to a cheap dollar and bustling exports. Caterpillar sales are a key economic indicator for this Illinois city. As one small business owner put it back in January:

"As Caterpillar goes, Peoria goes," Clementz says. "If it wasn't for the Caterpillar people, I probably wouldn't be here."

Today, we're in a global recession and the news is less rosy.

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