Canada, Hampered in U.S., Turns to the East

BEIJING -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada pledged
closer trade ties with China during a meeting with Premier Wen Jiabao on
Wednesday, even as he pressed Beijing over its recent decision to block a
United Nations Security Council resolution against Syria's government.

The trip is part of a broader strategic push by Canada to
more closely align itself with China and reduce its reliance on the U.S. Mr.
Harper aims to increase Canada's capacity to export oil and other resources to
China, an effort that has intensified following the Obama administration's
decision to reject for now TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone XL pipeline, which
would have shipped oil-sands crude from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Finding alternative markets for its natural resources has
become a top priority for Canada, which today sells nearly all of its oil to
the U.S., but sees environmental regulations from Washington as an increasing
impediment to its oil-export ambitions. In that quest, China looms large.

Analysts say the trip is a somewhat tricky one for Mr.
Harper, as he looks to promote deepening trade ties between the countries while
not appearing too cozy with Beijing. He joins other leaders, including German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who have visited Beijing in recent weeks and
pressured China over its continued defense of regimes in Syria, Iran and
elsewhere.

"There was a view when we took office that you either
had to deal with the Chinese on economics or to deal with them on human rights
and consular matters, but you couldn't do both, and we refused to accept that
view," Mr. Harper said. "My view continues to be that it is possible
and necessary to raise with the Chinese a full range of issue as part of a
frank and productive relationship."

Mr. Harper said he pressed the Chinese premier over
Beijing's decision to block the Security Council resolution calling for Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad to step aside amid intensifying violence there.
"I raised in very clear and strong terms Canada's position on this
issue," Mr. Harper told reporters following his meeting with Mr. Wen.
"We would hope to see in the future action from the Security Council on
this matter, and I was very clear about that."

Mr. Harper, on his second trip to China since taking office
in 2006, declined to say how Mr. Wen responded. Chinese leaders weren't
available to comment on Wednesday, but the country's Foreign Ministry has
deflected criticism previously over the veto, arguing proponents of the
resolution against Syria pushed for a vote before differences had been
resolved. Russia, another permanent member of the Security Council, vetoed the
resolution as well.

For China, rising uncertainty over the reliability of supply
from its traditional oil providers, including Iran, has forced Beijing to
aggressively seek out alternatives across the globe. Canadian officials say the
country needs to harness China's rapid ascent in order to keep its own economy
churning.

"Diversifying our markets is a key priority for Canada
and we look forward to expanding our cooperation in many important areas
including energy, natural resources, tourism and education," Mr. Harper said
during his meeting with Mr. Wen. Mr. Wen, for his part, said China was
"ready to expand imports of energy and resource products," the
state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

In a sign of deepening business ties, the countries said
Wednesday they had finished negotiations on a new series of regulations that
aim to make investing in China easier for Canadian companies.

Canadian investment in China in 2010 increased by 38% to
almost $5 billion. Chinese investment in Canada rose 9% in that period, to $14
billion.

2012: A U.S. Referendum on Europe

The conventional wisdom about this year's presidential election is that it's mostly about domestic issues and barely about foreign policy. That's wrong. What kicks off today in Iowa is America's referendum on whether it wants to become an honorary member of the European Union.

GOP-leaning voters generally get this: Warning against the "European social democrat" model is one of Mitt Romney's better talking points. The problem for Mr. Romney is that he represents something of another European specialty: the dispassionate technocrat, data-driven, post-ideological, lacking in soul. GOP-leaning voters get that, too.

Many on the left also understand American politics as a referendum on Europe, and it wasn't all that long ago that they were more-or-less prepared to say it. For example:

-- "Europe is an economic success, and that success shows that social democracy works."

-Paul Krugman, Jan. 10, 2010

-- "The European Dream, with its emphasis on collective responsibility and global consciousness. . . . represents humanity's best aspirations for a better tomorrow."

-- Jeremy Rifkin, "The European Dream," 2004

-- "If we took Europe as a guide, we would do a lot better at capitalism."

-- Thomas Geoghegan, "Were You Born on the Wrong Continent?" 2010

These views have now become a bit embarrassing, intellectually speaking. But it hasn't done much to change the basic terms of the debate President Obama will have with whoever emerges as his challenger.

The contours of that debate are familiar enough. Should government be an engine of employment growth? Does government investment in favored industries or technologies make economic sense? May government compel individual economic choices in the name of a social good? Should the rich pay an ever-rising share of the total tax burden? Are higher taxes the best way to close a budget deficit? Is financial regulation generally effective? Are labor unions good for overall employment? Is inclusiveness the best test of fairness? Must environmental concerns (or phobias) take precedence over economic interests? Is consensus-seeking the ideal mode for international conduct?

To all these questions, Mr. Obama's record answers yes: the Solyndra and Fisker subsidies; the Keystone XL pipeline postponement/cancellation; Dodd-Frank; the SEIU's Andy Stern as the top White House visitor; the growing government work force; the individual mandate; the nonstop rhetorical assaults on Wall Street; federal debt moving north of 100% of GDP; the "balanced approach" to deficit reduction; the perpetual deference to the United Nations.

That's the Obama presidency in a nutshell. It's also how Europe, mutatis mutandis, became what it is today.

There's an alchemistic quality to some of the more common explanations of Europe's crisis. Wizards of finance contrived to lay a European economy low. The contagion spread. Financial fires could not be put out in time. Investors stampeded for the exits.

The mixing of metaphors alone betrays the flimsiness of that analysis. The truth is that what began in Greece (and the U.S. financial crisis before it) simply put a match to already very dry tinder. Uncompromising labor unions have spent decades driving European jobs and industry overseas. Confiscatory tax rates have given every incentive to tax evasion, capital flight and the emigration of the fittest. Work-force rules have diminished productivity and discouraged hiring. National budgets have been strained to breaking by delusional pension promises and the mounting cost of everything a welfare state supposedly offers free, like health and education.

Worst of all, the European model has generated a self-reinforcing combination of prejudice and interest that is almost impossible to break. A cultural bias against "savage Anglo-Saxon neoliberalism" limits the political options for structural economic reform; routine labor strikes, politically entrenched civil services (38% of Belgians work for the state, doing Lord knows what), and other beneficiaries of public largess eliminate all remaining hope. Europe's crisis is not just fiscal and monetary. It's also a crisis of vision and character.

Do the Iowans who will turn out to vote today know all this? I suspect they do. What is happening in Europe is more than an economic crisis: It's the coming apart of a world view that held together for over a century. For Europeans it will probably mean a decade of economic hardship and political risk. For Americans, it's a loud pinging signal coming across the Distant Early Warning Line.

It would be absurd to say that Americans have nothing valuable to learn from the rest of the world, Europe included. But sometimes the most valuable lessons are negative ones. Though he did not mean it quite in this way, Mr. Obama was right to compare his administration to those of FDR and LBJ: Like them, he has driven the U.S. miles down the road toward the social democratic model he so admires. Then again, neither of his predecessors had such visible evidence of where social democracy ultimately leads. What's this president's excuse?

Credit: By Bret Stephens

Welfare Lines Overflow --- Crowded Public-Assistance Centers Interrupt Services as Demand for Aid Grows

Growing numbers of New Yorkers seeking food stamps have created an unwelcome spillover effect at some of New York City's job centers: overcrowding that in some cases has grown so severe, benefits were jeopardized.

The crush of people grew so large at one Brooklyn center in November that the Fire Department intervened and prevented anyone from entering the building.

That was an extreme example of the problem. But clients at many of the city's 29 job centers -- which manage public-assistance benefits, including food stamps -- regularly arrive long before the doors open to wait in line. Advocates said people miss mandatory appointments, leading to a bureaucratic battle to reopen their cases, or abandon the process after growing discouraged.

"It's outrageous," said Charles Leonard, a disabled 50-year-old who complained to 311 recently about a long wait and confusion at a center on Northern Boulevard in Queens. "It's like everybody is running around with their head cut off, and no one cares."

Officials at the city's Human Resources Administration, which runs the centers, acknowledged that serious overcrowding is a problem at five facilities. Advocates believe the problem is broader, affecting roughly 10 centers.

"At best it's benign neglect," said Steven Banks, attorney-in-chief at the Legal Aid Society, which provides legal services to low-income New Yorkers. "At worst, it's like the English poor laws, in which the aim was to make the seeking of assistance so miserable that people wouldn't seek it."

HRA spokeswoman Connie Ress blamed the overflow crowds on rising numbers of people seeking food stamps. The number of New Yorkers getting the benefit has increased by 200,000 in the past two years, jumping to 1.8 million from 1.6 million in late 2009. At the same time, the agency has consolidated some facilities, Ms. Ress said.

"We know that there are issues in a few of our centers throughout the city," Ms. Ress said. "We are actively addressing it."

Because Mondays and Tuesdays are the busiest days of the week, the city plans to stop scheduling mandatory appointments at centers on these days, the agency's general counsel, Ray Esnard, wrote in a Dec. 20 letter to the Legal Aid Society.

In Brooklyn and the Bronx, Ms. Ress said, the agency is "moving into new facilities with better space." In the past few years, she said, people can recertify for food stamps over the phone. "We've made things so much easier," she said.

Still, clients often need to visit the centers to submit documents and deal with complications. Ms. Ress said in-person appointments are necessary to avoid fraud and abuse.

The centers also handle additional benefits, including Medicaid. The number of times someone may have to visit a center can vary widely.

The city acknowledged in its Dec. 20 letter that at least seven clients' cases were violated when the Fire Department kept a crowd out of the Dekalb job center on Nov. 14. The city agreed to "reverse any negative case action taken against" those people, the letter said.

One day last week, more than 100 people lined up outside a job center at East 161st Street in the Bronx, many of them bundled up and moving from side to side to keep warm in the frosty morning air. At least one had brought a folding chair.

The first person in line had arrived at 6:30 a.m., two hours before the doors opened.

Michael Torres was a few spaces back in line after arriving at 7 a.m. from his Bronx apartment. The visit was Mr. Torres's second after being laid off from his job as a building superintendent two years ago. After 28 years of working, he had to move in with his sick mother, he said.

"You try to get here as early as you can," said Mr. Torres, 55. "The earlier the better. It's little by little. They don't let the whole crowd in, in one shot."

Jose Sevielle, a 27-year-old father of three who was waiting for food stamps, said he's hopeful the city will fix the problem.

"They have to put in another system," he said. "It's not running like it's supposed to."

Katie Kelleher, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society, said the city could help solve some of the problems by reducing the number of times recipients are required to visit a center. "I thought this was an administration that prides itself on management," she said. "They can manage this problem. They're choosing not to."

On Friday, during his weekly radio show, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said advocates for the homeless and low-income New Yorkers tend to focus on the negative: "'Oh, it's terrible. The economy is terrible,'" the mayor said, mimicking critics.

Mr. Bloomberg defended his administration. "New York, as a compassionate society, does a better job of taking care of the less fortunate than virtually any other city," he said.

Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, said he believes some people are choosing to forgo benefits rather than confront the long waits.

He pointed to new city numbers that show that there were 13,000 fewer people on the food-stamp rolls in November, compared with the previous month. It was the biggest month-to-month drop since December 2010, officials said.

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn plans to call for hearings to examine the decrease because other indicators -- the unemployment rate and food-stamp enrollment statewide -- don't reflect an improvement in the economy. Ms. Quinn has also been fighting the administration's policy of fingerprinting food-stamp recipients.

The Council is set to pass a law this month that will allow people to apply for benefits by fax and give the city latitude to grant hardship waivers for face-to-face interviews.

Still, Mr. Leonard, who complained to 311, said the problems go beyond the crowds: The centers can be bureaucratic, chaotic and hard to navigate.

"If you're sent to a floor, you're not informed that you're in the right place -- there are instances where you're waiting and waiting and then discover you're in the wrong place," Mr. Leonard said. "It's unreal. It's just a big mess."

Credit: By Michael Howard Saul and Alison Fox

The Coal Age Nears Its End --

(As this article demonstrates, the Environmental Protection Agency is targeting the US coal industry for virtual extinction. Thousands of jobs will disappear, and cities throughout the US will be looking for other sources of cheap electricity. Many think a recession will surely follow. -- Michael G. Zey)

After
burning coal to light up Cincinnati for six decades, the Walter C. Beckjord
Generating Station will go dark soon -- a fate that will be shared by dozens of(A
aging coal-fired power plants across the U.S. in coming years.

Their
owners cite a raft of new air-pollution regulations from the Environmental
Protection Agency, including a rule released Wednesday that limits mercury and
other emissions, for the shut-downs.

But energy
experts say there is an even bigger reason coal plants are losing out: cheap
and abundant natural gas, which is booming thanks to a surge in production from
shale-rock formations in the U.S.

"Inexpensive
natural gas is the biggest threat to coal," says Jone-Lin Wang, head of
global power research for IHS CERA, a research company. "Nothing else even
comes close."

For
decades, coal produced more electricity than all other fuels combined, and as
recently as 2003 accounted for almost 51% of net electricity generation,
according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

But its
share has dropped sharply in the last couple of years. It fell to 43% for the
first nine months of 2011, as natural gas's share has jumped to almost 25% from
under 17% in 2003. Meanwhile, gas prices, on average, have fallen 37 cents to
$4.02 per million British thermal units so far this year.

Many big
utilities have announced retirements of coal-burning power plants, including
Southern Co., Progress Energy Inc., First Energy Corp., Xcel Energy Inc.,
Ameren Corp. and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Coal
consumption by the power sector is expected to fall 2% this year and 4% next
year; even small movements are important because utilities burned 92.4% of the
1,071 million tons of coal distributed last year.

Experts
think 10% to 20% of U.S. coal-fired generating capacity will get shut down by 2016.

Some of
the soon-to-be-defunct plants have been operating only sporadically because
they are inefficient and expensive to operate; Duke Energy Corp.'s Beckjord
plant in Ohio, for example, didn't even run three of its six generating units
in 2010.

Market and
regulatory forces are "sounding a death knell for many an older coal-fired
power plant," says Hugh Wynne, senior research analyst for Sanford C.
Bernstein & Co. in New York.

John
Stowell, vice president of energy and environmental policy at Duke, says the
EPA rules are triggering "an aging baby-boomer-type situation," that
will force a record number of retirements -- and soon.

The coal
and mining industries have opposed the new EPA regulations as job-killers,
though some coal companies have job openings they can't fill. The communities
that are home to the closing plants will lose jobs and tax revenues.

Closing
Beckjord, for example, will eliminate as many as 120 jobs at the plant,
according to Duke. The loss of tax revenues will cost the local school district
in New Richmond, Ohio, about $2 million a year, says Teresa Napier, the
district's chief financial officer.

Meanwhile,
natural-gas plants are springing up around the country, from Connecticut to
California. More are expected to crop up along natural-gas pipelines,
especially in places like Texas where demand for power is outstripping
supplies.

Duke, for
example, is building four big power plants. Two, in the Carolinas, will burn
natural gas. One, in Indiana, will convert coal to a cleaner, combustible gas.
Only one, in North Carolina, will burn coal.

Cost is a
big reason for the shift. Coal prices have jumped an average of 6.7% a year for
the past decade, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Coal
cost $12 to $75 per short ton in early December, depending on where it was
mined and how hot it burns.

And with
energy markets flooded with cheap natural gas from shale rock, utilities have
been idling coal capacity and running gas-fired plants harder. Fitch Credit
Ratings estimates this is whittling coal sales by 63 million tons a year,
equivalent to 6% of 2010 U.S. coal consumption. Fitch says the new EPA
regulations could reduce coal sales by another 55 million tons a year, or 5% by
2016, due to plant retirements.

Coal-firm
shares have shown the strain. Peabody Energy Corp.'s stock has dropped by half
since April, to $34.54, and Consol Energy Inc.'s stock is off by a third since
March to $38.38.

But the
new EPA rules are also significant. On Wednesday, the agency released its
latest rule, requiring power plants to slash emissions of mercury, arsenic and
other toxic pollutants within three to four years.

Many state
utility commissioners say they fear the agency's recent rules will push up
electricity prices or could even hurt reliability if too many plants are shut
down.

A senior
EPA official said the agency doesn't order plants to shut down -- they are
fined for noncompliance, instead, when not meeting emissions standards -- so
"making a decision not to retrofit a plant is really a business choice by
the owner."

Credit: By
Rebecca Smith

Oldest Baby Boomers Face Jobs Bust

(As this article demonstrates, the economic recession continues for all age groups. We know that college graduates are not finding jobs easily--one survey claims that only 53% of the class of 2010 was able to find employment or any type. However, we have been told that the 55-64 group was actually having a slightly better time holding on to their jobs. This article illustrates the slow, inexorable decline in the American standard of living being experienced by this group. The only solution, as I have pointed out in my books, is economic growth, in the 5%-6% per year range. Energy development and a rebirth in manufacturing are the first steps in an American economic renaissance.---Michael G. Zey, author, Ageless Nation.)

Many older Americans fear they will be working well into their 60s because they didn't save enough to retire. Millions more wish they were that lucky: Without full-time jobs, they are short of money and afraid of what lies ahead.

Deborah Kallick was a professor of biomedical chemistry at the University of Minnesota until she ventured into the private sector in 2000 with a job in genome research. She is now one of more than four million Americans aged 55 to 64 who can't find full-time work. That number has nearly doubled in five years, according to U.S. Department of Labor figures in October.

Ms. Kallick, 60 years old, has been unemployed since 2007 and lives in the Northern California home of an ex-boyfriend. She has run out of unemployment insurance, used up most of her retirement savings and is indebted to relatives and credit-card companies.

A good job could settle her accounts, she said. Until then, Ms. Kallick relies on generosity, occasional consulting work and the sale of sweaters, purses and other possessions on eBay.

"It is very hard to work through this and learn to be calm and happy day to day," said Ms. Kallick, who never married. "It has taken a lot of strength and courage to learn to do that."

Older Baby Boomers are trying to postpone retirement, as many find their spending habits far outpaced their thrift. With U.S. unemployment at 8.6%, and much higher among people in their teens and 20s, younger members of the labor pool accuse Boomers of refusing to gracefully exit the workplace.

But their long-held grip is slipping, as employers look past older Americans to younger, cheaper workers.

The Labor Department counts people as unemployed only if they have looked for a job in the previous month. By that definition, 6.5% of workers aged 55 to 64 were unemployed in October, below the national average but more than twice the jobless rate for the group five years earlier.

Taking into account the number of older people who want full-time work but are unemployed, working part-time or need a job but have quit looking, the percentage jumps to 17.4%, or 4.3 million Americans ages 55 to 64, according to the government data. The number has grown from 2.4 million in October 2006.

This group without full-time work now accounts for more than one in six older Americans seeking positions.

In some ways, older people are doing better than everyone else: Among all U.S. workers, 20% are unemployed, underemployed or have given up looking for jobs. But older people have far less time to rebuild savings.

"This is new. It is different. It is worse than we have experienced before and it is very widespread," said Carl Van Horn, head of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. "It is going to get worse. You are going to have a higher level of poverty among older Americans."

Older people have more trouble finding new jobs. Among unemployed workers older than 55, more than half have been looking for more than two years, compared with 31% of younger workers, according to the Heldrich Center. Among older workers who found a new job, 72% took a pay cut, often a big one, the Rutgers data show.

The problem has been building for decades: Inflation-adjusted, middle-class incomes have stagnated in parallel with a free-spending culture of indebtedness that has left many Americans with too little saved. Over the same time, many U.S. companies cut pensions and shifted to less-generous retirement-savings plans such as 401(k) accounts that have stagnated or diminished in the market tumult of past years.

Older families aren't just failing to save, they are increasingly draining accounts that were supposed to help finance retirement.

The median household headed by someone aged 55 to 64 has $87,200 in retirement accounts and other financial assets, according to Strategic Business Insights' MacroMonitor database. If each of the 4.3 million unemployed or underemployed people in this age group runs through half the family savings, that will, in theory, total $188 billion in lost retirement money.

The typical retirement-age household has too little saved to maintain its standard of living in retirement, according to actuarial and Federal Reserve data.

Financial planners often advise that retirement resources be large enough to provide 85% of a person's working income. Median households headed by a person aged 60 to 62 with a 401(k) account have saved less than one-quarter of what is needed in that account to live as well in retirement, according to Fed data analyzed for The Wall Street Journal by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

The trouble spreads across generations. Older people hang on to jobs or, out of desperation, take lower-level jobs for which they are over-qualified. Either way, they displace younger workers.

In the past, older people who lost jobs often gave up and retired. No longer. In October, two-thirds of people aged 55 to 64 had jobs or wanted them, up from 59% in 1994, according to Labor Department data.

At an age when they should be generating peak incomes and savings, many unemployed and underemployed Americans are applying for early Social Security benefits and spending what's left in their retirement accounts.

Kathi Paladie, 64 years old, lost her job as an executive assistant at a mortgage company in Tacoma, Wash., six years ago. She hasn't found full-time work since but works occasionally as a phone interviewer for a political survey firm.

Her retirement savings is spent, and she said her monthly $800 Social Security checks, $100-a-week unemployment benefits and occasional paychecks barely cover expenses.

"If I don't buy a lot of groceries, then I am OK," said Ms. Paladie, who is divorced. "I do a lot of puzzles sitting here and watching TV. And I play with my bird. And that's about it."

She rarely goes out, she said, "but I've got a clean house." To save money, she sometimes eats Frosted Flakes for dinner. She shares them with her African Grey parrot, Muffin, who also likes the sweetened cereal.

Ms. Paladie hasn't been to the doctor for five years, she said. She frets about paying rent after her unemployment benefits run out next year. Her daughter lives nearby but doesn't have the room for her, Ms. Paladie said.

"It is kind of a standing joke," she said, "that if this fails, that I can always move in with them and sleep in the garage."

The problem of older, out-of-work Americans extends beyond individuals to the U.S. economy. Among jobless people aged 55 to 64 who want to work, lost annual wages exceed an estimated $100 billion, based on the median income of this age group.

Retirement savings losses exceed $10 billion a year, assuming contribution rates of 8% for employees and 2% for employers. Even if only half the people were working, the economy would gain $50 billion a year in income and another $5 billion in retirement savings.

That doesn't count the lost wages of people who have taken salary cuts to get new jobs.

Richard Foster, 59 years old, a former computer programmer and software analyst in Arvada, Colo., near Denver, has been unemployed several times over the past decade. The older he gets, the more trouble he has finding jobs in computer mainframes, his specialty, amid changing technologies. And the longer his absence from programming, the harder it is to attract recruiters, who prefer people with experience in the past six months, Mr. Foster said.

These days, he works on the telephone nearly full-time as a customer-service representative. His employer grades him on how fast he finishes each call and how customers rate his service. Mr. Foster recently contracted Bell's palsy, a temporary facial paralysis thought to be stress-related.

The work pays a lot better than a previous job, delivery driver for a dry cleaner. Still, Mr. Foster said, it pays 40% less than what he earned as a programmer at the University of Colorado Hospital, a job he lost in a restructuring that kept more tenured employees.

Mr. Foster's wife, Tina, has complications from a detached retina, which keeps her from working. Her treatment is only partially paid for by his medical plan, which classified Ms. Foster's eye problem as a pre-existing condition.

He has a retirement-savings plan at his new employer, he said, but it's hard to save, given the couple's struggle "to make ends meet day to day." He is putting off dental work, for example, to save money.

While out of work, Mr. Foster said, he sometimes depended on food banks. He filed for personal bankruptcy in 2003. He and his wife got a break recently: his wife's sister and her husband helped them purchase a home. Mortgage payments to his in-laws are less than his rent. Retirement? He said he has no idea when.

Mr. Foster's worries aren't unusual. More than two-thirds of unemployed people older than 50 report extreme stress, trouble sleeping or family strains, according to surveys by the Heldrich Center at Rutgers. More than 60% of respondents said they didn't expect to hold another full-time job in their field and a similar percentage said they were pessimistic about finding any job soon. One-third of those over 55 reported selling possessions to stay afloat.

In another unfortunate consequence, the younger people are when they apply for Social Security retirement benefits, the lower their monthly checks for the rest of their lives. Two-thirds of Americans older than 50 expect to file for the benefits earlier than they would prefer, or already have done so, according to the Rutgers survey.

"People are taking in boarders, they are moving in with their kids, selling their homes for the cash that they can live on," said Abby Snay, executive director in San Francisco for JVS, a community agency that teaches work skills.

Although her agency has long focused on young people, the fastest-growing client group is closer to retirement age. Before the recession, only 11% of her clients were older than 55; now, it is 17%.

"We are seeing people in a panic, in survival mode," she said. "They are about to finish their financial assets and all they have after that is their retirement funds. They are trying to figure out some kind of bridge so they won't have to pay an early withdrawal fee for their retirement incomes."

Ms. Snay has even seen former donors return as clients. "There is a level of shame and humiliation," she said, "and, 'What have I done wrong?' "

She recently offered older clients a workshop on the website LinkedIn. She recalled some people said, "'If I put up a picture, no one will hire me.'"

Her response: "We advise people to put up a photo, put their best foot forward."

Credit: By E.S. Browning