LIFE IN THE OBAMA ECONOMY: ‘Panel Crasher’ Trying to Eat for Free at D.C. Think Tanks. “After losing his job, the Panel Crasher says he started joking with his friends about how to fill his time between now and the fall, when he enters grad school. Finding a full-time job for just a few months seemed unlikely. But with the loss of income, he needed to figure out how to feed himself, and remembered all the lunch events he attended.”