There was a time, not too long ago, when Americans thought that everything bigger was better. Got a nice big home? Sweet. But a 5,000-square-foot McMansion showed that you were really living large. Rolling around in a sporty SUV? Cool. But having a huge (and expensive) Hummer really showed that you'd arrived.

Now it seems, mercifully, that the era of all things "big" is slowly but surely coming to an end. As far as houses go, people are finally figuring out that they don't need palatial estates to be happy after all. (Unless, of course, you're Tiger Woods, Tyler Perry or Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen -- all of whom have recently bought ridiculously large, multimillion-dollar properties). But thanks to the Great Recession, the average American buying a home is scaling back.

The National Association of Home Builders reports that the size of a new single-family home sold in 2009 decreased by nearly 100 square feet to 2,438 square feet – a decline that reversed a 30-year trend toward bigger houses. The real estate Website Trulia put it bluntly: "The McMansion Era is Over." Everywhere you look on the housing front, this trend is occurring. Even owners of vacation properties and megamansions are downsizing -- and sharing a few lessons learned in the process.

From The Root:

Apparently, the votes of white farmers in a key state trump the USDA's settlement of long-standing discrimination complaints -- especially in an election year.

The ire that black farmers and their advocates are currently feeling has two targets: the Senate's failure to vote the money to complete the farmers' settlement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and President Obama's recent generous offer to white Arkansas farmers. Both examples of political expediency are bitter reminders of black farmers' second-class status.

For five months, the Senate has blocked passage of legislation that contains money to fund the USDA's $1.25 billion settlement of the second bias suit lodged by black farmers. The agreement, called Pigford II, is supposed to redress past USDA racial discrimination cases.

In 1997 Pigford I, the first USDA settlement, provided 13,000 farmers with $50,000 each and debt relief. Timothy Pigford, a North Carolina farmer, and 400 other African Americans had filed a class-action suit against the USDA, alleging bias in allocation of farm loans and assistance. For decades their complaints were ignored or got a slow response. Pigford II occurred after the USDA admitted that thousands of other black farmers' claims from the 1990s went uninvestigated.

President Barack Obama used Labor Day as an opportunity to unveil a new $50 billion plan to create jobs and bolster the economy. The plan revolves around boosting the nation's infrastructure to expand roads, railways and runways.

During his speech, the president also took the opportunity to criticize Republicans for turning down many of his measures. He joked that their slogan is "no we can't," and said that they are talking about him "like a dog."

I recently read an open letter written by Regina King, the famous actress who seems to be in every major black film and TV show I can think of. Ms. King is a black female version of Harrison Ford, the kind of actress who has been in more movies than we can name, yet unappreciated for the magnitude of her gifts to the industry.

Regina King's recent challenge to those who hand out those little meaningless trophies called Emmy Awards was a very telling reminder that racism knows no boundaries. The Hollywood streets and screens that have been traditionally denied to us as a people continue to be grandly opened to others who have exclusive racial access. Just like during the days of slavery, we do much of the work, but get very little credit.

This weekend, I was on the radio with Rev. Jesse Jackson. He'd just completed a march in Detroit for jobs, peace and justice, only to find that his SUV was stolen upon arrival. But when I asked him if he was OK, his response was quite telling of the leader that he is: He simply said that the car doesn't matter at all when there are so many people suffering across America.

Well, the nation-wide suffering for African Americans has just intensified with the recent unemployment data delivered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It's most recent report showed that while white unemployment only went up from 8.6 percent to 8.7 percent, black unemployment went up from 15.6 percent to 16.3 percent. This increase is at a rate that is 700 percent higher than the increase for white Americans.

The mid-term elections are coming, and the president is eager to make things right. Friday, President Barack Obama announced a list of new proposals designed to strengthen the economy and create jobs. The measures are expected to include tax cuts and additional government spending.

I'm not sure if the company's executives would consider this to be a Kodak moment, but it's certainly a moment in racial history. Kodak, the large film company based out of Rochester, New York, just had a racial discrimination suit settled for the princely sum of $21.4 million.

The suit was filed on behalf of black employees who argued that their white co-workers were being favored for higher pay and more promotions. The legal battle took nearly seven years, and roughly 3,000 current and past workers were given amounts ranging from $1,000 to $50,000.

Radio show host Tom Joyner has decided to start making investments in the educational arena. Joyner has announced that he will help found a company designed to support Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in their quest to create online and distance learning programs.

Joyner's foundation has donated quite a bit of money to HBCUs. He is also a proud advocate for these campuses, which have struggled a great deal during the recent recession. Tapping into additional revenue provided through online programs would provide a much needed boost for many black colleges and universities.

From The Loop 21:

Forgive me for being silly, but in my book, "Financial Lovemaking 101," I enjoy connecting money to the thing that everyone understands from adolescence: Sex. It may seem like a strange relationship, but similar to sex, merging your money with another person means putting something valuable at risk. In fact, your emotional and physical health are more important than your financial health, so the investments we make in love are far more impactful than anything that happens on Wall Street. At the very least, any method of merging important assets with another person must be done with care and caution.

With that said, one chapter of my book asks the age-old question, "Does size really matter?" Now, you might have your own answer to this question based on the bedroom. But when it comes to money, the answer is almost always, "usually, yes." There are some who feel comfortable with a mate who is financially secure, while there are others who don't care much about a person's financial status.

There's good news and bad news on the employment front. First, the bad news.

According to the U.S. Labor Department, the jobless rate in America just crept up to 9.6%, from 9.5%. The good news, however, is that employers added 67,000 new jobs to their payrolls in the month of August. The results paint a mixed picture.

Even with though companies are slowly taking on more workers, there isn't enough hiring going on to knock down the stubbornly high unemployment rate. That spells trouble for the overall economy, especially when you consider that about 8 million of the country's roughly 15 million unemployed workers have been out of a job for six months or longer. Such chronic unemployment takes a toll on everyone, because people who don't have jobs won't spend money on things like cars, vacations, homes or consumer goods -- all of which stimulates the economy.

As this AP story notes, the economy shed nearly 8.4 million jobs in 2008 and 2009. So far in 2010, private employers have added back 763,000 jobs. But that hasn't made a dent in the unemployment rate. It was at 9.7% in January, and now it's at 9.6%. I wonder what the Obama Administration and the Federal Reserve Bank might try to do next to get a handle on this problem.

What do you think should be done to battle unemployment? Are you going through a layoff or have you ever been through a downsizing?