David Blum, former editor-in-chief of The Village Voice and The New York Press, teaches at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. He is the author of Flash in the Pan: The Life and Death of an American Restaurant and Tick...Tick...Tick...: The Long Life & Turbulent Times of 60 Minutes.

With jobs disappearing faster than the polar ice cap, those who find themselves out of work must pit their wits against those who still cling to their paychecks.