Quote of the Year
The winning entry comes from Jacob Frenkel, top economist for money pit insurer AIG. Speaking at Davos earlier this year about the economy, he proclaimed economic prospects for the second half of 2008 quite good, adding: “When you’re in a stormy sea, the critical question is to ask how strong is my vessel .” Pity Frenkel didn’t think to run that same ...Read more.Light
I signed on to the LA Times this weekend, and saw the weather was hot in my old hometown. High eighties, low nineties every day out, with Santa Anas expected. It made me nostalgic, because the year of Jake’s birth was quite similar. A long cool summer, with June gloom lasting well into August, followed ...Read more.Let’s Party Like It’s 1988
There are many things I can add to my never-ending “Are We in a Recession” tally. There’s the sudden cornucopia of free samples at the Grand Central Market, the five empty taxis that whizzed by me as I waited for the light to change at the intersection of Broadway/Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street at 6:15 ...Read more.I Don’t Know Whether to Laugh or Cry
I suppose only a parent of two boys would laugh when she read that the first two children abandoned at Nebraska hospitals after the enactment of a law aimed at protecting infants of overwhelmed moms were not babies but instead two boys ages 11 and 15. ...Read more.I Heart Mary Ann Mason
I must confess I tossed aside the galley of Mothers on the Fast Track by Mary Ann Mason and her daughter Eve Mason Ekman a year ago, barely bothering to read more than the ill chosen title. I was absolutely sure it was yet another book about how those darn moms didn’t know how to ...Read more.Beach Baby
I’m not one to underestimate all the things that have changed in our society since I was a child due to the influx of mothers into the paid workforce, but I can’t quite bring myself to blame them for the demise of local pool clubs, a la The Washington Post, especially when it seems the ...Read more.On Leaving Los Angeles …
I’m not sure you can call this week’s Lives essay by Rachel Cline in the back of The New York Times magazine brilliant. Critiques of Los Angeles always seem hackneyed and trite to those who never lived there. Cline, however, captures the gothic feel of Los Angeles, how time slips away and one month becomes ten years overnight, ...Read more.HOW TO MAKE YOURSELF CRAZY
Hot off the presses from Publishers Lunch: UCLA Medical Center OB/GYN Dr. Michael Lu’s HOW TO MAKE A SMART AND HEALTHY BABY: What You Need to Know Before You Get Pregnant, revealing the latest science on how preconception is a critical period for a child’s lifelong health and development while offering easy-to-follow advice including how ...Read more.NEVER MIND THE DOW
Here’s the real evidence the economy is in the crapper, courtesy of Craig’s List: HUGE sale -rain or shine Tent if it rains – 1000’s of things from several families – kid’s stuff, electronics, clothing, art work, household items, electronics, TOOLS, Bikes, toys, sculpture, games, designer linens, furniture – Brand new Executive Gifts, never opened ...Read more.I’m Shocked! Gambling at Rick’s Casino!
The news that shouldn’t be news study of the week comes courtesy of Rutgers University and the journal Politics and Policy. Researchers took a look at the academics offered spots on a number of op-ed pages including the The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. The results: men wrote more than 80% of the ...Read more.About Helaine Olen
I am the voice of The Bills, a column about the intersection of money and life, at Slate. At Inc., I contribute to the Spread the Wealth personal finance column. My work on politics, economics, workplace culture and women’s issues has been published in numerous other print and on-line publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Salon, Pacific Standard, and The Los Angeles Times, where I wrote and edited the popular “Money Makeover” feature.
I'm the author of the critically acclaimed book Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry, and The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn’t Have to be so Complicated, which I co-wrote with Harold Pollack.
What else? I’m a passionate bibliophile, a fan of 1970s pop music and a lover of rummage sales. I live in New York City.
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