National Deficit: The Ticking Debt Bomb
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

On the national debt, the money the government has spent without the tax revenues to pay for it has produced mind-numbing numbers so large as to be disconnected from reality. Zeros from here to infinity. The sums are hard to describe; it is hard to describe an elephant, but you know one when you see one. The public knows that, shuffle the numbers as you may, the level of debt is unsustainable

Confessions of a Class Worrier
Robert Reich

The decline of America's middle class can be charted directly. Starting in the 1980s -- and increasingly since then -- the economy has made the rich far richer without doing squat for the vast middle.

Home Builders Not Driving Economic Recovery
Luke Mullins

Despite an improvement in housing starts, broad weakness in residential construction persists. Home builders won't be spearheading a broad-based economic recovery any time soon, fresh data on the residential construction market suggests.

Third World America
Arianna Huffington

Clearly, we're not in the middle of a normal recovery. Wall Street may have its casino up and running again, but Main Street shows no signs of bouncing back anytime soon. From foreclosures to unemployment to household debt to bankruptcies, the American middle class is under assault -- and America is in danger of becoming a Third World nation.

States Don't Need a Bailout; States Need to Cut Spending
Carrie Lukas

According to Carrie Lukas, state government spending -- and, in particular, spending on education -- has ballooned in recent years. There is plenty of room to cut without sacrificing essential programs or hurting education quality. Here's what Carrie Lukas believes ought to be done

Federal Reserve Moves to Support Low Mortgage Rates
Luke Mullins

Acknowledging that 'the pace of economic recovery is likely to be more modest in the near term than had been anticipated,' the Fed's Open Market Committee said it would reinvest payments from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debt and mortgage-backed securities into longer-term government bonds

Jobs Report Paints a Picture of Nervous Employers
Liz Wolgemuth

July's Labor Department report will likely assuage the bulls and the bears. The economy lost 131,000 jobs, as 143,000 temporary census jobs came to an end. The more important number -- private sector employment change -- showed that private employers added 71,000 jobs, enough to indicate economic growth is at least still chugging along

Why We Shouldn't Keep the Bush Tax Cut for the Wealthy
Robert Reich

From a strictly economic standpoint -- as if economics had anything to do with this -- it makes sense to preserve the Bush tax cuts at least through 2011 for the middle class. There's no way consumers -- who comprise 70 percent of the economy -- will start buying again if their federal income taxes rise while they're still struggling to repay their debts

Magical Thinking in Washington
Paul Greenberg

Remember all those jobs 'created and saved' the administration was touting? Those numbers have proven about as solid as its claims that the president's stimulus package would keep the country's unemployment rate under 8 percent. Last time we checked, it was in the seedy neighborhood of 9.5 percent

Wake Up Washington
Jesse Jackson

You don't need a meteorologist to know this economy is befogged. We need jobs. Big companies are sitting on cash and not hiring. Small businesses have a hard time sustaining credit lines, much less getting more credit. Foreclosures are still coming. States and localities are starting to cut services and layoff employees. And Washington is virtually gridlocked because of partisan division.

What Year Is This?
Paul Greenberg

The calendar says this is 2010 -- I just looked -- but there are times when current events feel more like an historical re-enactment. It could be 1937 all over again

Germany's Good Fortune Tips the Scales Against its Neighbors
William Pfaff

The excellent second quarter export and growth results reported by Germany have set that country at an increasing, and increasingly dangerous, distance from the other members of the European Union, with jeopardy to the EU and the euro

Housing Market Takes Another Step Backwards
Luke Mullins

Americans again signed fewer contracts to buy homes in June, as the real estate market continues to deteriorate following the removal of a key stimulus from Uncle Sam. The pending home sales index -- a gauge of the housing market's health that measures signed sales contracts -- dipped nearly 3 percent in June from a month earlier to its lowest-ever level

Some Good News for Job Seekers
Liz Wolgemuth

Hiring is still so sluggish that Congress again extended unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed. But while the abundance of bad news is undeniable, there are also glimmers of hope to be found.

The Great Decoupling of Corporate Profits From Jobs
Robert Reich

Earnings reports are coming in, and they're making Wall Street smile. Corporate profits are up. The 500 largest non-financial American firms held almost a trillion dollars in the second quarter, and that money pile is growing larger. Profits that plummeted in the recession have bounced back. So with all this money and profit, they'll start hiring again, right? Wrong -- for three reasons

Three Key Ways to Drive Job Growth
Dean Garfield

Let's be honest: There is no silver-bullet to immediately stimulate job creation. Signs are everywhere that the economy's growth will be slow. In order to advance a pro-business, pro-Main Street agenda that helps put millions back to work, public and private sector leaders must rally around three critical and equally important measures

America's Worst Job Market: El Centro, California
Rob Silverblatt

At the moment, El Centro is home to the country's most underwater job market. Nationally, the unemployment rate sits at 9.5 percent. But in the El Centro metropolitan area, it's a staggering 27.6 percent. And as workers across the country struggle to navigate the anemic labor market, El Centro has emerged as a case study about just how fragile the economic recovery can be

Home Prices Improve But May Soon Begin Sliding
Luke Mullins

Home prices in 20 major U.S. cities increased 1.3 percent in May from the previous month on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, according to the most recent S&P/Case-Shiller home price report. May's stronger-than-expected reading pushes the annual growth in the index to 4.6%. Although home prices improved notably in May, real estate values are expected to deteriorate as we head into the fall

Home Sales Rebound From Record-Low Levels
Luke Mullins

Sales of new homes bounced back stronger than expected in June -- but not enough to erase concerns about the real estate market. New home sales increased nearly 24 percent in June from the previous month's record lows, but remained roughly 17 percent below year-earlier levels

Place the Blame Where It Belongs
Robyn Blumner

Prospects are not looking too peachy for Democrats this election season. President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress are getting tarred by the nation's entrenched unemployment and the cost of efforts to reverse the damage. The next election should be a contest over which economic worldview turned out to be the better one, and, on that score, the Democrats should win

Bernanke Carries Extra Burden for Economic Recovery
Jessica Rettig

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is a man on the spot. With Congress tied in knots over how best to boost a weak economy, there is an extra burden on the powerful Fed leader to keep the economy growing amid considerable uncertainty. So his words will undergo even more scrutiny than usual whenever he testifies on the outlook for the economy.

Downward Pressure on Home Prices Mounts
Luke Mullins

The tally of unsold homes on the market increased in June, a signal that real estate prices may face additional downward pressure in the coming months.

Dirt-Cheap Mortgage Rates: Here for How Long?
Luke Mullins

Although economists have grown increasingly concerned that the real estate market may slip into a double-dip economic recession, today's consumers are being handed a tempting incentive to buy property or refinance their home loans: ultra-low mortgage rates. Here's a look at the forces that have created the current mortgage-rate environment and the direction rates are headed

Weak Demand & Tight Credit Keeps Builders On Sidelines
Luke Mullins

Builders broke ground on fewer new homes than expected last month, as weak buyer demand continues to hogtie a revival in the residential construction industry.

Obama and Big Business Trade Blame on the Economy
Kenneth T. Walsh

The war between the White House and big business is getting worse. Tom Donohue, CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, fired the latest salvo when he warned that President Obama's policies, including new government regulations and vast government spending, are slowing growth and stalling job creation. The Obama Administration is fighting back

Why Start-ups Could Make or Break the Job Recovery
Liz Wolgemuth

Start-ups are particularly critical to job growth. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke noted last week the importance of small businesses to the job market, and in particular, the significance of start-ups.

Before the Wall Street Crisis, There Was 'Poverty, Inc.'
Caitlin Huey-Burns

For the most part, the narrative of the economic crisis has featured teetering banks from Wall Street to Main Street, a tide of bad mortgages, and countless distressed, middle-class homeowners. But in 'Broke, USA: From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc.-- How the Working Poor Became Big Business', journalist Gary Rivlin says there is another dimension to the story

New Finance Bill: Mountain of Legislative Paper; Molehill of Reform
Robert Reich

The American people will continue to have to foot the bill for Wall Street's mistakes because the legislation does nothing to diminish the economic and political power of big banks. It does not cap their size. It does not resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act. It does not even link the pay of traders and executives to long-term performance. It does nothing to change the basic structure

Financial Reform Another Talking Point for Obama & Democrats
Jessica Rettig

President Obama signed another major piece of legislation, as Democrats in Congress declared victory in their financial reform fight. What started as a bipartisan initiative to end the risky, and ultimately damaging, Wall Street practices that led to the nation's Great Recession passed with little Republican support

The Vanishing American Consumer and the Coming Trade War
Robert Reich

President Obama has vowed to double U.S. exports within the next five years. That's because exports are critical for rebooting the American economy. It's clear American consumers can't get the economy going on their own. They can't restart the jobs machine. They've run out of money and credit.

Why the Economy Isn't Quite as Bad as It Seems
Rob Silverblatt and Ben Baden

Some have sounded the alarm that a double-dip recession could be approaching. But even as the possibility looms that the economy could slide back into recession territory, economists are still by and large betting against it. Lifted by a handful of bright spots in otherwise bleak economic data, the prevailing sentiment appears to be that the ongoing slump is just a bump in the road

6 Reasons the Housing Market Hasn't Recovered
Luke Mullins

Four years after the housing bubble popped, the American real estate market has yet to launch a sustainable recovery. Although U.S. home prices have improved modestly since the spring of 2009, sales and values will face renewed downward pressure later this year in the wake of the expiration of the federal home buyer tax credit. Here are six reasons why the housing market hasn't recovered

Why Everyone Suffers When Job Seekers Give Up
Liz Wolgemuth

When able workers drop out of the job market, their households make do with less income, and their long-term financial health may be threatened, as savings are depleted. The aggregate economy suffers, too, as it chugs its way out of recession -- it loses their contributions as workers and their buying power as consumers

Depressed About The Economy? Maybe Because You're Earning Less
Ilyce Glink

Depressed about the economy? Maybe it's because you're earning less than you did before. If that's the case, you're not alone.

Obama's Anti-Business Policies Are Our Economic Katrina
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

In the midst of a weak economy accompanied by levels of unemployment unprecedented since the Great Depression, it is critical that the government appreciate that confidence is an imperative if the business community is to invest, take risks with start-ups, and altogether get the economy going again to put the millions of unemployed back to productive work

Republicans' Aversion to Financial Reform Misguided
Robyn Blumner

You would think financial reform -- after what bankers just put us through -- would be the one thing that Republicans would join in doing. However, GOP party leadership ducked its responsibility by fabricating a different narrative as to what caused the financial crisis. It's time to take on those myths and spell out the real reasons they did not support financial reform

Slouching Toward a Double Dip or Lousy Recovery at Best
Robert Reich

The economy is still in the gravitational pull of the Great Recession, and all the booster rockets for getting us beyond it are failing. The odds of a double dip are increasing. So what are we doing about it?

8 Problems That Could Trigger a Double-Dip Recession
Ben Baden and Rob Silverblatt

With stock prices spiraling downward and treasury yields tanking, the market has been sending a clear message recently: The fragile economic recovery is in trouble. But just how bad is the outlook? In the aftermath of a bleak second quarter, experts are still divided about the likelihood of a double-dip recession. Here's lingering issues that could send the economy reeling

Why Congress Cannot Afford Not to Extend Unemployment Benefits
Liz Wolgemuth

In a move that may have spelled financial crisis for nearly a quarter of the 9.2 million Americans living on unemployment checks, Congress adjourned for July 4th recess without extending emergency benefits. When Congress returns July 12th, some 2.14 million out of work Americans will have lost their benefit checks

Distressed Home Sales to Sandbag Housing Revival
Luke Mullins

Distressed properties made up 3 in 10 homes sales in the first three months of the year, as the foreclosure onslaught continues to sandbag a real estate recovery

Home Sales Poised to Drop in Coming Months
Luke Mullins

Americans signed far fewer contracts to buy homes than expected in May, the real estate market's first month of functioning without a key federal stimulus.

The Economy's Lasting Impact on Your Retirement
Emily Brandon

The economic downturn has changed the way Americans think about retirement. Instead of chasing the highest possible investment returns, many people are seeking a measure of safety. This will certainly help middle-aged and younger retirement savers to better weather future stock market declines. But for the oldest baby boomers already on the verge of retirement, it may be too late

Forget Obama - Fear the Real State Capitalists
Ian Bremmer and Sean West

Since President Obama has taken office, a chief assertion from his critics has been that he is socialist. But there is little evidence that he wants to dramatically revise the U.S. economic system. While imprecise accusations of socialism score political points for the accusers, in listening closer to Obama's critics they seem to actually be accusing him of being a state capitalist

Imperative Need for America to Become an Innovation Nation
Arianna Huffington

On a recent flight, I started reading 'Innovation Nation,' the new book by John Kao. It was both frightening and inspiring. Frightening because of the details it provides about the ways America is falling behind the rest of the world; inspiring because Kao imbues it with a sense of optimism and great possibility. Yes, there is much to be concerned about

Jobs Bill a Tough Call for Democrats
Jessica Rettig

With the unemployment rate stuck at around 9.7 percent, a Senate vote on a bill to extend unemployment benefits and boost job creation should be an easy 'yea,' a way to win points with voters in a tough economy. But this year is different

What Soldiers at War Can Teach Us About Surviving Financial Warfare
Arianna Huffington

Right now, the perils we are facing are not as tangible and immediate as those faced by our soldiers. I don't mean to draw an equivalency to the deadly threat our men and women in uniform are bravely facing every day. Yet, This economic crisis has put into question the American Dream and threatens the very survival of the middle class as the economic and cultural engine of our country

5 Things to Know About the Newest Jobs Bill
Liz Wolgemuth

When it comes to jobs, the White House and Washington have managed to plug the leak, but they haven't yet found a way to jumpstart hiring. And that's a problem, as 15 million unemployed Americans continue to search for work, nearly 7 million of whom have been hunting for more than six months. Here are five things to know about the newest jobs bill

New Home Sales Plummet to Record Low
Luke Mullins

Home sales activity plummeted in May, as a key housing stimulus was removed from the market.

The Housing Market's Unexpected Drop
Luke Mullins

Home sales declined unexpectedly in May, even as federal stimulus efforts kept transaction levels artificially elevated.

When Obama Trades Jobs for a Higher Priority
Liz Wolgemuth

If there's one message that has tolled consistently from the mouth of nearly every White House official over the past two years, it's that 'jobs are our top priority.' But the administration's strict moratorium on deepwater drilling would seem to trade jobs for a higher priority

When National Politics and Home-State Economics Collide
Rob Silverblatt

What do a Democrat from Arizona, a Republican from Massachusetts, and a judge from Louisiana have in common? In a nod to home-state economics, all three have recently made moves to upset often-fragile compromises at the national level.

Reasons -- and Ways -- to Splurge This Summer
Kimberly Palmer

We live in an era of frugality. Splurging has become somewhat passŽ. Tips for saving on everything from groceries to home purchases abound. But what if we've gone too far? What if we should be spending more, not less? Some intriguing new research from the world of behavioral economics suggests that we might be better off with a slightly looser grip on our cash. So what is the "right" amount of indulgence?

What China's Currency Reform Means For Investors
Rob Silverblatt

The Chinese government's move to allow its currency, the renminbi, to appreciate against the dollar provided a big boost for U.S. stocks as investors expressed their confidence that American companies will be able to gain a firmer foothold in China's notoriously protective economy.

The Democrats' Economic Vision Problem
Jonah Goldberg

We are constantly told that the American working man is so much worse off than he used to be. And if you measure income one way, you can make that case. Indeed, the Democratic Party in recent years has become obsessed in looking at the economy only in that one negative way to justify its avocation: giving more stuff to the poor and middle class because they are falling behind. However, ...

Urban Abandonment
Jesse Jackson

America's cities are in trouble -- and desperately needed help may not be on the way. Will America's cities turn into cauldrons of poverty, desperation and fear? Or will we revive our cities and rebuild the broad middle class in the process?

Coping With China's Financial Power
Ken Miller

It is true that China's approach to economic development has turned that country into a lopsided giant, an export juggernaut with one huge financial arm. Never before has China had this much financial might, and it is now experimenting with how best to use it in its relations with other states. Although China sometimes sounds ambitious, it is being prudent.

Is the Recession Over?
Ilyce Glink

Chairman Ben Bernanke of the Federal Reserve made the latest Beige Book results sound great: The recovery is spreading across all sectors of the U.S., and Americans are spending fractionally more. On the other hand, 8.5 million people remain unemployed and overall unemployment is really more like 18 percent

Managing Debt Remains Key in Face of An Uncertain Economy
Andrew Leckey

Easing out of recession amid the economic and market ambiguity of 2010 is the uneasy position that average consumers find themselves in these days. Piling up home-related debt and betting on immense financial-market gains -- the popular game plan of a few years ago -- is no longer in step with the times

Chamber of Commerce Aims to Boost Trade With China
Paul Bedard

It seems fitting that Avis, the 'We Try Harder' car rental firm, advertises on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce website, including on the page that features bios of top execs. Because nobody tries harder to promote the cause of America's companies than the chamber's President Thomas Donohue. But Donohue has an additional job: boosting fair trade with China

Home Repossessions Hit New Record High
Luke Mullins

Banks repossessed a record number of homes last month, an ominous sign for a real estate market that has seen demand slide substantially in recent weeks

2010 Elections Will Turn on Jobs and the Economy
Kent Garber

Over the past year, Republicans had been optimistic that the slow rebound of the economy would do them well in November. That may hold true. But the narrative is in flux. After the economy grew three quarters in a row at the start of the year, many economists declared the recession over. But slow growth may be just as problematic for Democrats as no growth

Why May Jobs Report is Better and Worse Than it Looks
Liz Wolgemuth

Census hiring made last month's employment picture look pretty good, as total employment grew by 431,000. But tear off the 411,000 temporary jobs added to the federal government's payrolls for the census, and the picture gets fuzzy

America Has Two Sets of Rules
Arianna Huffington

The bracing reality that America has two sets of rules -- one for the corporate class and another for the middle class -- has never been more indisputable. The middle class, by and large, plays by the rules, then watches as its jobs disappear -- and the Senate takes a break instead of extending unemployment benefits. The corporate class games the system

Jobless Economic Recovery Remains Issue Number One
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

We are drifting. We take comfort in bits of good news, but we are in dangerous waters. The Great Recession is being starkly revealed as a global crisis with the United States, the traditional engine of recovery, sputtering on every cylinder. Personal income of Americans is still declining, the housing market remains stagnant at best and consumer growth is nominal

What Financial Reform Means For Consumers
Ben Baden

Congress will work to merge the different language in the House and Senate bills. Both bills establish a new consumer financial protection agency to serve as a government watchdog that enforces rules to protect people from predatory practices. Here is what we know about how the bill will affect consumers going forward.

Financial Reform Legislation Gives Shareholders More Say
Kathy Kristof

Financial reform seems certain to usher in rules that shareholder advocates have been trying to win for decades as a way to rein in runaway executive pay and make corporate boards more responsive to shareholders.

Financial Reform: Win for Wall Street - Cold Shoulder for Main Street
Arianna Huffington

The Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 will do no such thing. First, it doesn't do enough to rein in Wall Street. It doesn't end too-big-to-fail banks, doesn't create a Glass-Steagall style firewall between commercial and investment banking, keeps taxpayers on the hook for future bailouts and leaves open dangerous loopholes in the regulation of derivatives

Fiduciary Provision May Be Most Important Part of Financial Reform Bill
Kathy Kristof

Financial professionals are waging a heated battle over a little-noticed part of the financial reform bill moving through Congress that's all about one word: trust. For individual investors who pay professionals to help them invest or plan for retirement, it may be the most important piece of the legislation.

Unfair Trade Practices Are Wiping Out Jobs
Robyn Blumner

'It's the trade deficit, Stupid.' Maybe if people walked around with signs and T-shirts with that slogan rather than rail against the federal budget deficit, the American worker wouldn't be in quite the fix he's in. More people need to be mad that America is a sucker when it comes to global trade. Even as millions of Americans have lost jobs because of it

In a Welfare State How Much Is 'Enough'?
Jonah Goldberg

The flames from Greece's debt crisis protests have cast new light on the perils of our own overspending and overborrowing. California is imploding. Public sector unions across the country are swallowing budgets. In California alone, pension costs have gone up 2,000 percent in a decade. At the national level, ObamaCare has done little to fix America's long-term entitlement mess

Should Investors Sit This One Out?
Rob Silverblatt

Perhaps the most daunting aspect of the recent market turmoil is the simple fact that whenever stocks shoot up, a whole army of rally-killing scenarios seems poised to swoop in and drag prices back down. As this confluence of factors injects a sense of unpredictability into the stock market, it's no surprise that many jittery investors have opted to sell some holdings and hang onto the cash

Why Jobless Teens May Have More to Blame Than the Recession
Liz Wolgemuth

As summer rolls around, lawmakers in Washington are preparing to vote on a jobs bill that would include $1 billion for summer jobs for teens. Much of the urgency for the program stems from the private-sector plunge in summer jobs for teenagers over the past few years. It's no secret that the recession walloped teens' jobs as much as it did their parents.

What Home Sales Jump Means for Economic Recovery
Luke Mullins

A key gauge of housing-market activity came in much stronger than expected in April, as sales of newly-built homes hit a two-year high. The strong sales report is rooted in several factors. But even if new home sales manage to hang on, a recovery in the overall real estate market still faces a towering obstacle. Here's why

Home Prices Have Further to Fall: Here's Why
Luke Mullins

After increasing last summer, U.S. home prices are drifting lower again -- a disconcerting development for property owners who had hoped that the real estate market had finally bottomed out.

Why Housing is Headed for Second-Half Headaches
Luke Mullins

Although home sales increased more than expected in April, real estate experts are expressing concern that the market may face renewed downward pressure in the second half of the year.

Nancy Pelosi Will Lead America to National Ruin
Jan Larimer

Thanks largely to deficit spending pushed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, America's budget deficit today equates to nearly 10 percent of our GDP

Financial Reform's Uncertain Promise
Sebastian Mallaby

Politically, the Senate's financial reform bill is a victory for President Barack Obama. Substantively, the Senate bill could be significant or insignificant, depending on how it is implemented. Its main provisions are likely to mitigate financial risk without solving the threat posed to the ultimate insurers of the system -- governments and taxpayers.

The Way We're Working Isn't Working
Arianna Huffington

From Wall Street, to the lagging economy, to Greece and the 'euro zone,' to our broken regulatory system, to the high-speed computer trading system that might have played a role in the recent stock market mini-meltdown, to those two wars we're still in a decade later, it's clear that something is wrong.

What Gold Can and Cannot Do For You
Ben Baden

While the Euro has taken a hit, gold has shot up to all-time highs, above $1,200 per ounce. Investors must decide for themselves whether or not commodities like gold belong in their portfolio, but for those who want to know what all the fuss is about, here are a few things to know

Why Some Women Skirt the Wage Gap
Liz Wolgemuth

Take a look through the Labor Department's data on wages and you'll see an astonishing pattern. Nevermind modernity and women's liberation, men still make more than women in nearly all occupations. If a woman must work but she cannot provide the necessary level of income, her entire household suffers the cost.

The Crippling Price of Public Employee Unions
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

The American public feels it is drowning in red ink. It is dismayed and even outraged at the burgeoning national deficits, unbalanced state and local budgets. There is a mounting sense that taxpayers are being taken for an expensive ride by public sector unions. The extraordinary benefits the unions have secured for their members are going to be harder and harder to pay.

European Union Funding Proposal Is Only the Beginning
Ian Bremmer and Preston Keat

The dramatic European Union funding proposal is an important first step. Next comes enforcement of tough fiscal reform guidelines, which introduces a series of new political challenges and risks.

Why Wall Street's Gain Has Been America's Loss
Arianna Huffington

Jobs -- everybody is in such total agreement that we need more of them that the word is in danger of becoming meaningless, of going from tangible policy to talking point. In Washington, saying you're for jobs has become just another obligatory, perfunctory throat-clearing preamble. However, not all jobs are created equal when it comes to the economy

Euro Crisis has American Fingerprints
William Pfaff

The obituaries written of the European currency, the euro, have demonstrated the divergences in national and cultural temperaments, the European funereal and laden with gloom about the future, but unyielding, and the American and British cheerfully and self-satisfiedly shoveling earth onto a casket of euros already six feet into the ground. Defy the markets, will they, these Europeans!

Wall Street Probes: Collateralized Debt Obligations
Rob Silverblatt

Collateralized debt obligations, once hailed as the ingenious brainchildren of a Wall Street that knew no bounds, are now at the center of a widening government probe into the nation's most prominent banks. And as the focus gradually shifts from Goldman Sachs to all of Wall Street, CDOs have become the rallying cry for those who see the need for regulators to erect walls between banks' divisions

Voters See Debt Crisis. Why Doesn't Washington?
Mary Kate Cary

It should come as no surprise that politicians spend even as families have to cut their budgets. That's because to an elected official, the biggest 'toxic asset' on the books these days is the federal budget deficit. No one wants to touch it. For years, both parties engaged in pandering, finger-pointing, and overheated rhetoric on the subject of taxes, spending, and the national debt

Social Security Inflation Adjustment Debate
Luke Mullins

Should the government create a distinct consumer price index for older Americans to protect the purchasing power of Social Security checks from inflation?

European Debt Crisis Affects Investments
Rob Silverblatt and Ben Baden

Despite the initial confidence boost, a number of questions remain unanswered. Chief among them is what European Union countries will do to keep the problem from spiraling out of control after this temporary stopgap expires. Here you'll find explanations as to what has already happened and tips for what's on the horizon

Greece: Model of Socialistic Excess
Ross Mackenzie

Greece is one of the poorest kids on the European bloc. It also is one of the most carelessly socialistic, which largely explains why it is so poor. The birthplace of democracy, today it is a model of socialistic excess. Unable to reduce its debt by inflating its own currency, Greece has had to call upon other EU countries to bail it out.

Who Got Hit Worst in the Market Crash
Mark Miller

Media coverage of the 2008 market crash often focuses on investors close to retirement age. The story line is that pre-retirement investors took some of the worst hits and compounded their difficulties when they panicked and sold at market bottom. All true. But, the overall record of these close-to-retirement investors actually is considerably better than those of other age groups

Expeditionary Economics: Spurring Growth After Conflicts and Disasters
Carl J. Schramm

The United States' experience with rebuilding economies in the aftermath of conflicts and natural disasters has evidenced serious shortcomings. The economies of Iraq and Afghanistan continue to falter and underperform. Meanwhile, the earthquake in Haiti revealed deep economic problems. Yet there is a proven model for just such economic growth right in front of U.S. policymakers' eyes

Why More Diplomacy Won't Keep the Financial System Safe
Marc Levinson

The global financial crisis that began in 2007 marked the failure of an ambitious experiment in financial diplomacy. International agreements on the regulation of banking and securities did little to protect against a financial meltdown that severely damaged the world economy

Muddling through Greece's Tremors
Marc Levinson

Global markets plunged as investors continued to react with nervousness to the prospects of Greek's debt crisis spreading to other countries on the European Union's periphery. This is primarily because Greece remains in a murky situation despite its parliament's approval of tough new austerity measures linked to its bailout

Greece Financial Crisis Raises Doubts About European Union
Bonnie Erbe

The European Union's woes over Greece's financial crisis strikes me as neither odd nor unexpected

Bigger Is Better: Case for Transatlantic Economic Union
Richard Rosecrance

The 27 states that now compose the European Union will soon be accompanied by almost ten others, making Europe stretch from the Atlantic to the Caucasus. Something similar, if more gradual, has been occurring on the other side of the Atlantic as well with the formation of NAFTA. Perhaps, the time has come for establishing a transatlantic free-trade area.

European Union: A Fragile Partnership
William Pfaff

The present crisis of the European Union was inherent in the creation of the institution itself. It is a political-economic hybrid and was intended to be an alliance of mutually supportive qualities. The qualities have instead proven a contradiction

Goldman Sachs Testimony Boost for Financial Reform
Jessica Rettig

The characters were prepped and suited, props were set prominently in place and cameras went live. The 11-hour showdown between senators and top officials of Goldman Sachs may not have quite lived up its billing, but it was dramatic political theater. And it did produce political fallout: Senate Republicans dropped opposition to opening debate on financial regulatory reform legislation

A Culture of Criminality on Wall Street
Robyn Blumner

As the financial reform bill wends its way through the Senate, one has to wonder whether lawmakers understand the true nature of the massive fraud that was perpetrated on this country. They should be listening to William Black.

Greek Debt Crisis May Hurt Latin America Economy
Andres Oppenheimer

I don't want to be a party pooper, but I'm not convinced by the latest headlines projecting that foreign investments in Latin America will soar by up to 50 percent this year. If the problem remains restricted to Greece, the forecast for Latin America stands. However, if the financial crisis spreads to other European countries, especially Spain, it's a different story

Why April's Unemployment Rise Shows Workers Hopeful Again
Liz Wolgemuth

On the day following the U.S. stock market's nearly 1,000 point intraday plunge, the Labor Department reported that employers added 290,000 jobs in April, the biggest monthly gain since March 2006. While it remains to be seen what effect it will have on investors who are focused on the sovereign-debt crisis in Europe, this is good news for recession-weary job seekers.

Smart Moves for Tomorrow's Higher Interest Rates
Luke Mullins and Rob Silverblatt

As the financial system imploded, yields on 10-year treasury notes fell to 2.18 percent at the end of 2009. That was the lowest level in nearly 50 years. But as the economic recovery picks up steam, longer-term interest rates are expected to steadily march higher. Here is a look at seven moves consumers can make ahead of the upcoming rate increases

Still the Optimist
Paul Greenberg

It is difficult now to conjure up the semi-hysterical atmosphere hovering over the American economy this time last year. All was lost, the end was near. Or at least nearish. Every day brought another harbinger of doom

The Global Glass Ceiling: Why Empowering Women Is Good for Business
Isobel Coleman

When women are educated and can earn and control income, a number of good results follow: infant mortality declines, child health and nutrition improve, agricultural productivity rises, population growth slows, economies expand, and cycles of poverty are broken. But the challenges remain dauntingly large

Life in the Age of 'Much Worse Than We Thought It Would Be'
Arianna Huffington

What was just a troubling oil spill is now, according to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, 'a very grave scenario,' and 'potentially . . . very catastrophic.' In other words, it's much worse that we thought it would be. Has there been a crisis in the last decade that turned out to be better than we thought it was going to be?

What 3.2 Percent GDP Growth Says About Our Contradictory Economy
Rob Silverblatt

The Commerce Department's announcement that the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 3.2 percent during the first quarter has touched off a veritable mixed bag of reactions. These divergent viewpoints raise a number of fundamental questions. Namely, are we all talking about the same economy? And if so, how can growth be brisk, disappointing, and mediocre all at once?

Congress Had a Role in the Financial Crisis
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

Corn and hogs in the Midwest seem a long way from condos in Florida. There is, in fact, a direct link and it's one worth contemplating in light of the pursuit of Goldman Sachs by Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Just a Few Questions for the SEC
Paul Greenberg

Maybe only someone woefully ignorant of high finance -- like me -- would still be trying to understand the basis, if any, of the case filed against Goldman Sachs by our suddenly awake Securities and Exchange Commission. Among the many questions the SEC's case raises ...

Financial Crisis - Somebody Must Pay!
Paul Greenberg

It happens with partners. So long as the business is growing, the money's rolling in, and everything's coming up green, they're the best of friends. But when business sours and profits wither, the other partner becomes the cause of it all, a total incompetent and maybe a thief to boot. What was once mutual admiration turns into mutual litigation

Is Latin America Booming? Not Quite Yet
Andres Oppenheimer

If a Martian had descended on earth last week and read the headlines, he would have thought that Latin America is the world's new superpower.

Guns vs. Butter 2010
Arianna Huffington

We hear endless talk in Washington about belt-tightening and deficit reduction, but hardly a word about whether the $161 billion being spent this year to fight unnecessary wars of choice in Afghanistan and Iraq might be better spent helping embattled Americans here at home.

Your Guide to the Goldman Sachs Lawsuit
Rob Silverblatt

As the Securities and Exchange Commission thrusts the Goldman Sachs case onto the national stage, Americans are once again getting acquainted with the most controversial members of the recession-era cast of characters: the subprime mortgage, the 'too big to fail' doctrine, the Wall Street bailout, and the housing bubble, just to name a few.

Time to Break up the Big Banks
Jesse Jackson

Amid a flood of revelations about Wall Street fraud and corruption -- from mortgage brokers peddling loans they knew couldn't be paid back, to rating agencies dressing up junk with AAA ratings, to Goldman Sachs creating and selling a security designed to fail. The major question is whether the Senate will step up and vote to break up the big banks

Resisting Wall Street Reform
Jules Witcover

In the approaching Senate vote on Wall Street financial reform, the Republicans who marched in lockstep against President Obama's health care legislation have a much less comfortable political decision to make.

Shorting The Middle Class: The Real Wall Street Crime
Arianna Huffington

The press is all abuzz with news of the SEC suing Goldman Sachs for fraud. While this is certainly big news in itself, even more important is what it says about what the financial elite has been doing to America for the last 30 years: shorting the middle class.

Obama Edge on Financial Reform
Jules Witcover

As the Senate gears up to debate and vote on reform of the financial industry, the Democrats find themselves in a much more advantageous position than they were in the health-care fight they barely managed to win.

10 Cities Facing Double Whammy of Default Risks
Luke Mullins

Today, some particularly hard-hit markets are in the unenviable position of having both elevated unemployment and high concentrations of negative equity. Here is a look at 10 cities that face a double whammy of default risks.

Capitalism vs. Capitalists
Jonah Goldberg

For Willi Schlamm 'The trouble with socialism is socialism. The trouble with capitalism is capitalists.' Schlamm's point is still relevant, even though the kind of socialism we're dealing with is less doctrinaire. But it also distorts the issue somewhat. One might just as easily say that the problem with socialism is capitalists, too.

Summer Gas Prices to Spike but Not to Record Highs
Kent Garber

Global crude oil prices hit an 18-month high as the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline reached $2.85, the highest it's been since October 2008. This is both good news and bad news. The bad news is that the economic recovery could slow if gas prices rise too fast. The good news, though, is that the United States is almost certainly not headed toward another summer of $4-a-gallon gas

Bank Bailout: Who Counts the Cost?
Jesse Jackson

Was the bank bailout successful? The Treasury Department, in a report leaked to The Wall Street Journal, is arguing that the bank bailout cost much less than expected -- less than $100 billion, while saving the entire global financial system from collapse. But the Treasury is leaving out far more than it is including.

Business Schools' Great Ethics Debate
Matthew Bandyk

Faced with a recession-trashed job market, students have been applying to M.B.A. programs in greater numbers since 2008. That's bad news for the many critics who charged that it was graduates of these M.B.A. programs who helped create the recession in the first place. Recognizing that they are now under a microscope, many business schools are re-evaluating the importance of business ethics

Can SEC Beat Goldman Sachs?
Rob Silverblatt

News that the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil suit against Goldman Sachs has sent the investment bank's stocks reeling. But are investors overreacting? To be sure, the case is bad news for Goldman, which has come under fire recently for its handling of mortgage-backed securities during the downturn

Finding Summer Jobs in a Tough Economy
Rebecca Kern

With the teen unemployment rate reaching a record 26 percent, high schoolers searching for summer jobs face daunting tasks. Compared to the prerecession unemployment average of 15 percent for 16-to-19-year-olds in 2007, these recent numbers are the highest for this age group since 1948, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Income Investors Face Challenges as Economy Shifts
Andrew Leckey

The search for high yields presents a quandary for income investors. If interest rates rise in the future, the value of high-yield, longer-term bonds bought now will decline. But if a high-dividend-paying stock is chosen, the investor needs to be relatively sure that today's impressive dividend is here to stay. Here's high-quality large-cap companies with predictable futures

Why Unemployment Rate Refuses to Budge
Rob Silverblatt

In a sign that the labor market is inching toward a recovery, employers tacked a net total of 162,000 workers onto their payrolls in March, according to the Labor Department's monthly jobs report. But even with this spike, the unemployment rate remains unchanged at 9.7 percent. And chances are it won't budge anytime soon. Here's why

United States - 5 Ways to Keep America Great
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

Altogether Americans are a little sadder. Everyone seems to be talking about decline and recession, about an aging America that no longer leads the world and is falling behind a rejuvenated China. Worry has always preceded reform in America. We have had periods of decline and loss of confidence. But America has always bounced back. And, there is a developing consensus on what we have to do

Why Fight for Financial Reform Needs to Get Much More Personal
Arianna Huffington

The biggest mistake of the health care fight was the White House's failure to put the effect reform would have on lives of real Americans front and center. Democrats are repeating the same mistake regarding financial reform. We need to overhaul our financial system to make sure that system isn't rigged to destroy the lives of millions of middle class Americans.

If We Europeanize Europe Is in Trouble
Jonah Goldberg

America is on its way to becoming another European country. Now, by that I do not mean that we're moving our tectonic plate off the coast of France or anything. But rather, that a century-long dream of American progressives is finally looking like it might become a reality. The recently passed health-care legislation is the cornerstone of the Europeanization of America

Obama's Offshore Oil Decision Has Political Dimension
Kent Garber

Obama's off-shore oil drilling decision has multiple motivations. On one level, he is acknowledging that the United States requires oil for transportation and will continue to for some time. But there is a political dimension, too. Obama wants to pass a major climate and energy bill soon, and a bipartisan group of senators is expected to unveil one later this month

Mass Transit: Move America to Work
Jesse Jackson

One key to any prosperous economy is a transportation system that works -- that allows workers to get to their jobs and goods to move efficiently. But this essential economic building block is now under severe pressure. What should be getting stronger is getting weaker -- and our economy will suffer the consequences

Obama Housing Rescue Tackles Unemployment & Underwater Loans
Luke Mullins

The Obama administration has announced fresh changes to its housing initiative to address two key impediments to a real estate rescue: unemployment and negative equity. The changes offer temporary relief for borrowers who lose their jobs and provide additional incentives to lenders who reduce the loan balances of borrowers with negative equity.

How Payroll-Tax Holiday Affects Small Businesses
Matthew Bandyk

Supporters in Congress claim that the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act will create jobs by making it cheaper for businesses to add new employees. The good news is that small businesses may be more likely to use the incentives to add jobs that would not have otherwise been created. The bad news is that not many small businesses will find the jobs bill's incentives appealing.

Greek Financial Debt Crisis Only Part of EU's Woes
William Pfaff

Today's European crisis has been precipitated by Greece acting with possibly reckless honesty, and Germany behaving badly toward Greece. The latter a case of the pot calling the kettle black; Germany itself is running a deficit of some 3 percent over the EC stability pact limit -- promising, like Greece, to do better in the future.

When It Comes to Innovation Is America Becoming Third World Country
Arianna Huffington

Is America turning into a Third World country? That was the provocative topic of a panel I took part in recently at a conference sponsored by The Economist entitled 'Innovation: Fresh Thinking for the Ideas Economy'

Time to Act on a Bleak Fiscal Future
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

There is gridlock in Congress, and it is most troubling in the Senate. Senators are supposed to take a long view of the national interest. Then there's the unproductive partisanship from the wing nuts on both sides whose venom spews continuously in the news media. They would be mildly entertaining were it not that America is in the grip of a severe financial crisis.

Most Americans Getting Whacked by High Energy Costs
Paul Bedard

A new study from a key energy coalition finds that poorer Americans are spending a huge amount of their income on energy, a finding the group hopes will spark renewed attention on Capitol Hill to energy reform and legislation.

Energy Race: United States Needs Coherent Clean Energy Strategy
Kent Garber

It's easy to see inaction. In the Senate, everything crawls. At the climate change talks in Copenhagen, the outcome was disappointing. For those who wanted bold action on energy, the past year has left much to the imagination. But things are changing, incrementally.

Reality Check: Energy Powers That Be
Jessica Rettig

The world must face a glaring fact: Demand for energy is growing, and countries need to expand their energy sources if they want to keep up. The Obama administration made a commitment to clean energy. But here's a source-by-source look at nine types of energy that could change the landscape in the United States.

Jolt for Energy Innovation: Government Investing
Kent Garber

The United States, as pretty much anyone will tell you, is racing China to develop clean energy technologies -- the wind turbines and solar panels and advanced batteries and energy storage devices of the future -- and there are a lot of people who are worried that the country is lagging, even losing, when it comes to innovation.

Source of Sunny Optimism: Obama Touting Solar Power Potential
Alex Kingsbury

Solar power has long been the holy grail of energy production. It is clean, and sunshine is free and in inexhaustible supply. Of course, solar power has made some gains from the days of powering just calculators. However, the conversion of solar energy into electric power on an industrial level, on the other hand, has remained a distant and elusive goal.

Side by Side in Need for Green Growth: China and America try cooperation
Joshua Kucera

When President Obama took office last year, two of his top priorities were stronger action to stem global warming and a more collaborative, cooperative approach to solving international problems. By making climate change a primary focus in America's relationship with China the president sought to accomplish two goals in a single stroke.

National Power Grid That Thinks
Alex Kingsbury

As part of the economic stimulus package, the Obama administration pledged $3.4 billion toward smart grid technology -- the next generation of infrastructure, meant to stabilize the grid in the event of a failure, incorporate green technology, and vastly improve efficiency. But those billions are a drop in the bucket toward bringing the entire national grid into the 21st century.

Home Sales Flat Before Spring Buying Season
Luke Mullins

After falling sharply in previous months, sales of existing homes stabilized in February as the market prepared for the much-anticipated spring home-buying season. Existing-home sales in February declined by less than 1 percent from January, roughly in line with economists' expectations.

America's Most Underwater Housing Markets
Luke Mullins

Negative equity is one of the defining features of the still-unfolding mortgage crisis. It's a particularly nasty problem because it can lead to all sorts of unpleasant outcomes for the real estate market and the economy as a whole. To get a better sense of the cities with the greatest concentrations of negative equity we compiled this list of America's most underwater housing markets

The Google Syndrome: China's Corporate Woes
Rob Silverblatt

As business relations between the United States and China sour, many see Google's partial exit from the Chinese economy--the company still hopes to maintain a limited presence in mainland China--as a test case that other foreign firms will use to evaluate whether they can afford to ruffle Beijing's feathers.

Companies Learning How to Capture Power of the Oceans and Seas
Thomas K. Grose

As the push to develop clean alternatives to greenhouse gas-emitting, nonrenewable fossil fuels accelerates, most money, research, and development remain focused on wind and solar technologies. But marine power, particularly wave and tidal energy, might also eventually provide consumers with large amounts of affordable, renewable electricity.

Consumers who go green may qualify for federal credits and deductions
Debra Bell

Recent legislation provides plenty of tax incentives to eco-friendly individuals and businesses, making right now a great time to save money by going green. Here are some ways to take advantage of federal tax credits (dollar-for-dollar tax reductions) and deductions (reduction in taxable income)

Many clean energy stimulus projects have yet to get off ground
Anna Mulrine

Last year, Congress set aside $80 billion for clean energy ventures. But one year later, the money is caught in the pipelines. Critics point out that the Obama administration has actually spent less than one third of the $80 billion allocated for green energy ventures. And administration officials estimate the number of jobs created from the energy portion of the stimulus to be 60,000.

Return of the Three-Generation Household
Mitch Albom

A new census report raised a lot of eyebrows. In the past decade, there has been a reshuffling of the family deck: a 30 percent rise in U.S. households with at least three generations of family members. People are moving back in. Generations are consolidating.

How Greece's Debt Crisis Affects America
Matthew Bandyk

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou traveled to the United States to promote a message: We're in this together. The debt crisis that has threatened the Greek economy and the stability of the European Union's monetary policies very much involves America's interests, Papandreou stated in a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Euro's Fiscal Policy Will Give Pause to Reserve-Currency Allocators
Ian Bremmer & Jon Levy

The Greek crisis is making clear a reality long ignored or glossed over: Eurozone fiscal policy is messy and opaque. This is not a short-term phenomenon, nor can any concerted action change this fact. Global central banks, sovereign wealth firms and other major entities are going to revise their currency-allocation strategies based on this new recognition.

New Frugality Emerging for Retirement
Mark Miller

Chris Farrell is an optimist, so when he talks about the Great Recession he looks for the silver lining. The economics editor for public radio's Marketplace Money, Farrell thinks the recession is ushering in some very healthy changes in our consumer behavior and personal financial habits. The debt-and-consumption driven 1990s are giving way to a more sustainable lifestyle.

Millennials Seek Jobs and Real Economic Change
Mary Kate Cary

Since economists are predicting that high unemployment could be with us for a while, those underemployed and unemployed young people could stay that way for a long time. That's big news for our economy and our politics.

Some Latin Currencies May Be Too Strong
Andres Oppenheimer

Just when Latin America had come out relatively unscathed from the world economic crisis, a new threat could endanger the region's growth: its increasingly strong currencies. On the surface, the steady appreciation of most Latin American currencies has a feel-good domestic effect. But, at the same time, strong local currencies will hurt the region's exports.

Obama's Healthcare Focus Is Misguided
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

By initiating yet another public debate on healthcare instead of focusing on jobs and the economy, the Obama administration has once again gone off message. Almost every poll shows that the economy is, far and away, the major personal worry for most Americans. Unemployment is the singular issue that they feel demands bold, unrelenting, and detailed attention.

Home Foreclosures Approach Peak Range
Luke Mullins

Although the U.S. housing market witnessed its smallest annual increase in foreclosure activity in four years last month, distressed-property tallies are expected to remain in an elevated range for some time. Foreclosure filings were reported on more than 308,000 American homes in February

'Undercover Boss' Most Subversive Show on TV
Arianna Huffington

Is reality TV finally living up to its name? Most of what we are served up under that rubric is actually the furthest thing from reality. Enter 'Undercover Boss,' the new CBS reality show in which corporate CEOs don disguises and spend a few days experiencing what it's like to be a low-level worker at their companies.

In World's Economic Crisis, Competition in Ignominy Remains Keen
William Pfaff

I read about the vultures making serious money out of the poorest national economies in the current international crisis. They buy debt from very poor countries in the expectation that generalized debt relief will eventually be organized by the international community. These speculators then elude such debt settlements through various subterfuges, mainly by reassigning the debt

Throw This Bone to American Workers
Robyn Blumner

America's roaring, future-is-bright middle class is gone. Its memory is a precious keepsake that America stores in an attic trunk, hoping that the cut of dress will be back in style one day. Meanwhile, real income for working-age households continues to fall, as it has since 2000. Even people with jobs -- those of us left -- are paddling backward.

Leaders Must Deal With National Debt or Future Generations Will Pay
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

The only gleam of hope in this dark scene is that Democrats and Republicans have agreed to take part in a bipartisan commission to tackle the deficit. Established by President Obama's executive order (weeks after its rejection on a Senate vote), the commission has no executive power, but it does have two good men as cochairs

Alan Simpson on Bipartisanship and the Deficit Commission
Mary Kate Cary

Alan Simpson, who served as U.S. senator from Wyoming from 1979 until 1997 and was the Republican whip from 1985 to 1995. Recently, President Obama named him cochair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Obama has charged this commission with recommending changes for balancing the federal budget by 2015 and publishing its report by the end of 2010. Here's Simpson's take

Obama Needs to Focus on Housing, Not Health Reform
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

Remember the housing crisis? It hasn't gone away. It's gotten graver. Today, median prices for single-family houses nationwide are down by slightly more than 30 percent from their early 2006 peak. Over the near term, excess inventories are expected to push prices down by a further 10 percent.

What Tanking Home Sales Mean for Economic Recovery
Luke Mullins

After a big drop in December, sales of existing homes fell again in January -- a development that renewed concerns about the real estate recovery outlook. Sales of previously owned homes fell more than 7 percent in January. This puzzled many economists, who had expected sales to be stronger in the wake of December's 16 percent month-over-month plunge.

Global Energy After The Economic Crisis
Christof Ruhl

Commercially traded energy is what classical economists used to call a 'basic good': directly or indirectly, it enters the production of every other produced commodity or service. Because these resources are finite and unevenly distributed, they seem to become increasingly hard to come by when global economic activity expands. This is the logic behind the concept of energy security.

5 Things to Know About February's Jobs Report
Liz Wolgemuth

While there isn't much to celebrate in the Labor Department's news that February brought yet another month of job losses, the report does not leave exasperated job seekers without hope. Employers cut 36,000 jobs in February and the unemployment rate remained at 9.7 percent, a good deal less than expected. Here are five things to know about February's job market

To Fix Economy and Unemployment Rate, First Help States
Richard Ravitch

The 50 states and their localities are the units of U.S. government that directly affect Americans' daily lives. It is the states that bear primary responsibility for ensuring adequate infrastructure, education, and healthcare for their citizens. These conditions are the foundations of the national economy and its ability to provide jobs.

The Stimulus: States Getting the Most Money So Far
Matthew Bandyk

The Obama stimulus bill is now one year old, and it is as controversial now as it was when it first passed. Last week, in the wake of the anniversary, the White House released the first Annual Report to the President on Progress Implementing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which defends the stimulus against criticisms that it has failed to produce jobs.

Rate of Home Price Declines Slows, But More Drops May Be Ahead
Luke Mullins

The real estate market continued to heal in the final three months of 2009, as lower home prices, cheap mortgage rates, and a federal tax credit worked to juice demand. While the news is encouraging, it's unlikely that home prices have bottomed. A handful of forces appear to be poised to drag values still lower. Here are three things you need to know about the development

The Future of Home-Price Appreciation
Luke Mullins

After historic declines brought the global economy to its knees, the U.S. housing market is gearing up for a long-awaited recovery. Real estate experts expect home prices to hit bottom in late 2010 or early 2011. But what shape will the rebound take? Are we in for another boom? Or will we have to settle for sluggish growth? Here's the outlook for home price appreciation through 2020.

Housing Crisis is Getting Worse
Jesse Jackson

While economists declare the recovery at hand, more Americans than ever are losing their homes. The financial bailout rescued the banks, but it has done precious little for homeowners faced with collapsing home values, ballooning mortgages and increasingly lost jobs that make it impossible to stay up on payments.

How Not to Deal With the Jobs Crisis
Arianna Huffington

On the first anniversary of the passage of the stimulus bill, the country's best economic research firms agree that the often-derided bill has added 1.6 million to 1.8 million jobs -- with more on the way. This is obviously good news. But it shows how monumental a chasm we are facing that, even with those jobs, unemployment is still hovering around 10 percent

Selling and Debunking Economic Recovery
Jules Witcover

President Obama took the occasion of the first anniversary of passage of his economic recovery stimulus package to proclaim its success. But with unemployment still hovering around 10 percent, it has been a very hard sell.

How to Solve the National Debt Crisis
Jessica Rettig

Alice Rivlin is a renowned expert on U.S. economic policy. Now, as she and her cochair, Pete Domenici, launch the Debt Reduction Task Force, a nongovernment initiative backed by the Bipartisan Policy Center, will step up to the plate yet again to develop a strategy to confront the national debt. She recently spoke about the problems associated with a large debt.

What Could Derail Economic Recovery
Rick Newman

Large chunks of the U.S. economy remain addicted to financial painkillers or dependent upon dysfunctional institutions like Fannie and Freddie. As the government begins to withdraw vast amounts of aid this year, it will test whether the economy can stand on its own. However, we'll be lucky if we can avoid the following complications

Job Search Grows Cold, Creating Reluctant Retirees
Emily Brandon

A growing number of people who want to work into their 60s are pushed into early retirement due to the weak job market. The number of unemployed Americans ages 55 and older expressing interest in finding a job has grown by 60 percent since the end of 2007. However, finding work has proved difficult. In fact, the unemployment rate for older job seekers has more than doubled since 2007.

The Great Retail Revolution
Rick Newman

A facade of calm may be returning to the consumer landscape as a thrashing recession finally subsides. But behind the cheerful window displays are deeply worried retail executives who fear that shopping may never be the same again.

Surviving the American Economic Makeover
Rick Newman

Many Americans feel they're going in a different direction these days -- but too often, it's reverse. As the Great Recession of 2007-2009 finally winds down, millions of Americans face diminished lifestyles, with no obvious way to regain the wealth and prospects they enjoyed just a few years ago. If so, Americans may need to reconsider the unwritten rules that have governed upward mobility

What the Economic Bust Left Behind
Kirk Shinkle

The Great Recession is subsiding, but there's no doubt that today's economy is a much-damaged version of its formerly robust, bubbly self. Near-term worries dominate headlines, but a host of other seismic economic shifts caused by the housing and credit crises will be with us for years. Economists are already touting the "new norm" -- a generally unpleasant mix of economic trends

Tough Economic Times Molding Tough Consumers
Philip Moeller

More than 3 million individuals and families sought credit counseling in 2009 according to the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. While credit counselors, economists, and other experts throughout the United States agree that things are slowly getting better, they also believe that the American economic landscape is the financial equivalent of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Careful Planning and Discipline Can Pull Consumers Out of Debt
Philip Moeller

Consumers forced to cut their spending are most likely to succeed when they build a financial plan, create a budget, and have the discipline to stick with that budget. four credit counselors who work for ClearPoint Credit Counseling Solutions share their expertise and advice on credit counseling and debt-management programs

Green Jobs Can Spur Economic Recovery
Jerome Ringo

Green jobs are touted by the Obama administration and others as a cure for the economy, a spur to American innovation, and an ecological boon that cannot be shipped overseas. But doubters label them as too expensive to create, unsustainable, and even employment wreckers. Are green jobs a panacea or a pipe dream?

Green Jobs and Market Meddling Will Not Work
Kenneth P. Green

Green jobs and a green economic recovery is feel-good blather. It makes no economic sense whatsoever, and where it has been tried most extensively, evidence shows that it's a job-destroying, economy-weakening fiasco.

Obama's Mixed Economic Signals Won't Create Jobs
Don Nickles

The recent unemployment report reflected a slight improvement in the overall jobless figure, but did not inspire a lot of optimism as 'long-term unemployed' and 'discouraged workers' figures again ticked upward. The mixed signals contained within the Obama administration proposals are doing nothing to bolster employer confidence.

Obama's Budget Gives a Boost to Science
Kent Garber

The Obama administration budget request would significantly increase spending across many of the government's science agencies, from the National Science Foundation to the Department of Energy's Office of Science, even as other federal agencies tighten their belts. It's a deliberate move that speaks to a long-term strategy.

Who to Blame for the Financial Crisis
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

Class warfare, American style, is being waged between Main Street and Wall Street. With President Obama and Democrats in Congress turning up the populist heat against Wall Street, the financial community is losing. Its back is up against the wall. But the administration is also getting its share of the public's rage. So, Who's really to blame?

Partisan Stimulus Poisoned the Well
Jonah Goldberg

If there's a single event for which Obama himself is to blame, one decision that explains his predicament, it is his mishandling of the stimulus at the dawn of his administration. Obama made a rookie mistake outsourcing his first major domestic policy decision to Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and the Old Bulls of the Democratic Party, and that blunder has done lasting damage to his presidency.

The Future of the U.S. Economy: 2050
Matthew Bandyk

Think back to 1967. The job you have today may not even have existed. The Internet, and all the jobs that have come with it, were decades away. The Detroit automakers were dominant. Quality of life was different, too. The lifestyle of the average American may change just as much from 2010 to 2050 as it did from 1967 to 2006. The economy will especially undergo change.

Reading the Economic Tea Leaves
Jules Witcover

On the weekend when the first National Tea Party Convention was held in Nashville, plenty of political tea leaves were being read by economists around the country, with mixed interpretations.

Obama's Federal Budget Looking Backward and Ahead
Jules Witcover

The new Obama budget is a two-headed creature that looks in opposite directions -- back at the deep hole created by fiscal irresponsibility and ahead with wishful thinking toward desirable social gains.

Breaking Down Obama's Budget
Rob Silverblatt

Perhaps the most obvious of financial truisms is that there's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all national budget. And with the economic forecast looking more incoherent than ever, it's also the most problematic of truisms for President Barack Obama and his $3.8 trillion spending plan for 2011

Home Sales Stable After Tax-Credit 'Hangover'
Luke Mullins

The number of Americans signing home sales contracts flattened out in December after plunging the previous month. The National Association of Realtors' pending home sales index -- which gages signed contracts but not transaction closings -- inched up 1 percent from November to December and stands at nearly 11 percent above its year-earlier level.

Future of Housing Demand: 4 Key Demographic Trends
Luke Mullins

Demographic shifts and changing values will increase demand for pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use communities in both urban and suburban settings, according to John McIlwain of the Urban Land Institute. In his report, McIlwain points to four key demographic trends in regards to future housing demand to watch going forward

Predicting the Fed's Next Move
Rob Silverblatt

The Federal Reserve didn't pull out any surprises when it blandly announced that it will keep interest rates near zero as the economy continues to recover. But even as the Fed remains fairly tight-lipped about when it will begin ratcheting up rates, economists have been quick to speculate about what's in store. Here are some predictions

Home Prices Stabilize Further, But More Drops May Be in Store
Luke Mullins

Although home prices continued to stabilize in November, real estate experts believe we have another 5 or 10 percent of declines in store before values finally hit bottom. Home prices in 20 major cities declined 5.3 percent in November 2009 from a year earlier, a significant improvement over the 13.3 annual drop posted in July

Home Sales Tank: What it Means for You
Luke Mullins

Existing home sales plunged in December, falling nearly 17 percent from November in their largest month-over-month drop since record-keeping began. December's inventory represented a 7.2-month supply of unsold homes, notably higher than the 6.5-month supply in November. Here's a look at what the December existing home sales report means for homeowners, home sellers, and home buyers

Obama - Trashing the Job Makers
Victor Davis Hanson

A year ago Obama inherited a recession brought on by the collapse of the housing bubble. The crash was made worse by recklessness on Wall Street. Job losses followed, and in response, Obama pushed through an epic stimulus bill. Yet despite the stimulus, unemployment soared from 7.6 percent to 10 percent. Now, an embarrassed administration continues to cite jobs saved, rather than jobs lost

Prosperity Isn't Coming Without Structural Rebalancing
Robyn Blumner

President Barack Obama did a fine job with his first State of the Union address. His basic theses were: The middle-class is suffering. We must create more jobs. Banks have to pay more. Democrats and Republicans should get along. Nice. But to reignite a constituency for a progressive vision, Obama should be talking in broader strokes.

The Economy, Jobs and Justice
Jesse Jackson

The effort to save America's financial system and big banks has succeeded. However, the clot in financing remains. Finance is the blood of the economy. When there is a clot, the economy can't work and people suffer. Republicans contewnd that Obama's recovery plan has failed. Yet, they want to prescribe the same poison that created the breakdown in the first place.

 

Financial Fat Cats
(c) Matt Davies

Rising Yachts Lift No Tides
Jesse Jackson

The government argued that they had to resuscitate the banks in order to save the U.S. economy. So, they rescued the banks not to save the banks, but to save the economy. It 'worked.' Banks are back, making profits and gearing up bonuses. However, unemployment and home foreclosures are rising and personal bankruptcies are at record levels. Obviously, there is a fundamental disconnect ...

Global Economy: 7 Countries Spooking Investors
Matthew Bandyk

Despite federal spending consuming 27.2 percent of GDP, the United States maintains a Aaa rating. But you can't say the same about many countries in both the developed and developing world where continued fallout from the economic crisis is hurting their credit ratings. As a result, investors have viewed the economic situations in these countries as increasingly risky bets.

How to Get Americans Working Again
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

There is no silver lining to the dark cloud that has enveloped America. A slight decline in the rate of job losses at the end of 2009, coupled with a rise in the GDP, gave hope that the U.S. was at the beginning of a recovery from the Great Recession. However that hope was. So, how can America accelerate job growth and the economy? There is no snap answer, but I do have a few proposals

Real Estate - Strategic Defaults and the Foreclosure Crisis
Luke Mullins

Foreclosure tallies continue to break records and even more homeowners appear headed for foreclosure this year. However, as the housing crisis rumbles forward, an additional driver of home foreclosures has become clear: Strategic Defaults -- borrowers able to pay their mortgage are simply walking away because they believe it's best for their finances

Wall Street CEOs
(c) Walt Handelsman

Wall Street CEOs: The Mea Culpa That Wasn't
Robyn Blumner

Here is the testimony I would have liked to have heard from the CEOs of Wall Street's largest banks -- institutions whose irresponsibility and greed nearly brought down the economy

 

Let Us All Now Bail Out the States
Ross Mackenzie

Most states must balance their budgets by constitutional stipulation -- a concept also viewed with a federal sneer. In the depression year of 2009, the feds bailed out the states to the tune of $87 billion. In the current fiscal year, state budget shortfalls are expected to total about $180 billion, with a like amount (or more) anticipated for fiscal 2011.

Detroit - Who's Your Tiger
Mitch Albom

In the last 18 months, the auto industry has become something bigger than just the buying and selling of cars. It has become an ideological ground zero, a tug of war with many hands on the rope, labor, manufacturing, nationalism, elitism, environmentalism, jobs, the survival of a shrinking but vital American city: Detroit

Politics Behind Hugo Chavez's Currency Devaluation
Andres Oppenheimer

A lot has been written in recent days about the economic impact of drastic devaluation of the Venezuelan currency announced by Venezuela's authoritarian-populist President Hugo Ch‡vez. But the measure's political impact may be just as important, if not more.

Why December Jobs Report Is Such a Bust
Liz Wolgemuth

For economists and job seekers expecting to end the year with a little good news, the last month of 2009 turned out to be a major disappointment. Even after adding 4,000 jobs in November, according to revised Labor Department figures, employers could not sustain the confidence necessary to add jobs in December. Instead, they sliced 85,000 jobs from the nation's payrolls

2010 Discounting Forecast: Retail and Auto
Rebecca Kern

For consumers, 2010 may not look very different from 2009 when it comes to discounts. Companies in the apparel, jewelry, and home furnishing industries are planning to keep their inventories low to cut operating costs, which means fewer large discounts for customers

Jobless Overwhelm Retraining Programs
Kim Clark

The crowds of unemployed people trying to get retraining have so swamped long-underfunded community colleges and other job skills programs that many communities now have waiting lists of six months or more.

United States The Corporate State of America
Paul Greenberg

Can anybody be surprised at the latest development in the saga of U.S.A., Inc.? The government now has advanced GMAC, the financial arm of Government Motors, formerly General Motors, another $3.8 billion in cash, acquiring a majority stake in that lending agency, which is laden with debt itself.

Global Political-Risk Outlook for 2010
Ian Bremmer and David Gordon

The biggest risk for 2010 comes from the point at which these trends converge: U.S.-China relations, Iran, European Fiscal Divergence, U.S. Financial Regulation, Japan ... Our top 10 geopolitical concerns for 2010 and their impact on the world

Capitalism Fingered as Fiend of the Past Decade
Jonah Goldberg

On the last day of 2009, that awful year, I was listening to National Public Radio. Reporter Tamara Keith presented a by-now-familiar recap of the worst financial and corporate scandals of the decade, from Enron and Martha Stewart to Tyco and Bernie Madoff. It was a depressing slog of greed, venality and theft. However, there have been positives ...

The Caring Economy and Healthcare as Human Right
Anna Mulrine

'Health care is a human right, and that every citizen ... should have access to health care, just as every citizen has access to the fire department, the police or public schools.' And for a moment the fog of jargon and compromise lifted and a vision of what's possible hovered over Congress. America could return to the task of creating what economist Riane Eisler calls 'the caring economy.'

The New Energy Order
David G. Victor and Linda Yueh

The last decade has seen an extraordinary shift in expectations for the world energy system. After a long era of excess capacity prices for oil and most energy commodities have risen sharply and become more volatile. As such, a crisis is looming which will be difficult to resolve.

The War Against the Wannabe Rich
Victor Davis Hanson

There is class warfare going on in this country -- but it's not against the established rich. It's against those who are trying to become wealthy. Most of those targeted are not the already rich like Warren Buffett or Bill Gates. And they 're not the multimillionaire speculators on Wall Street who wrecked the American economy. Instead, it's professionals and small-business owners.

Latin America: Economy Risks a Chicken's Flight in 2010
Andres Oppenheimer

The good news is that Latin American economies are expected to do reasonably well in 2010. But economists warn that unless they become more competitive, their recovery will look like a chicken's flight -- they get a few feet off the ground, and fall

Why International Aid Does Not Alleviate Poverty
Jagdish Bhagwati

The African silence has been broken by Dambisa Moyo, a young Zambian-born economist with impeccable credentials. Educated at Harvard and Oxford and employed by Goldman Sachs and the World Bank, Moyo has written an impassioned attack on aid that has won praise from leaders as diverse as former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

An Elegy for Journalism? The Future of the News and Journalism
Peter Osnos

The twenty-first century has been a traumatic one for journalism. Changes in how people consume news combined with the Great Recession have produced a dark era in journalism. In Losing the News, Alex Jones, addresses how the rise of the Internet and the precipitous decline in advertising have left print journalism in desperate straits.

Why Failing to Complete Green Revolution Could Bring Next Famine
Carlisle Ford Runge

Rising food prices have intensified the risks of large-scale hunger. The reasons are complex, but one of them is that demand for food is increasing as populations and incomes grow even as the supply of food is increasingly being diverted to other uses, such as the production of biofuels. As a result famine is again stalking the world's poor

New Economic, Market Trends Merit New Approach to Once Shunned Investments
Andrew Leckey

Investors seeking industries they can count on in 2010 will have to think outside the box. New economic and market trends require a reexamination of previously-avoided groups, such as regional banks, insurers, shipping companies, utilities, consumer staples firms and auto component companies. All could take a turn for the better in the coming year.

The Over-indulgent Self-Centered Generation
Mark Miller

Pollster John Zogby posed this question last summer to 4,000 Americans: 'What will be the historic legacy of Baby Boomers?' The responses were startling. The Greatest Generation. . . the Silent Generation . . . And now, the Over-indulgent, Self-Centered Generation? It doesn't sound too good ...

The New Population Bomb
Jack A. Goldstone

Averting this century's potential dangers will require sweeping measures. Policymakers must adapt today's global governance institutions to the new realities of the aging of the industrialized world, the concentration of the world's economic and population growth in developing countries, and the increase in international immigration.

President Obama's Surprising Relationship With Lobbyists and Big Business: Tim Carney discusses Obamanomics
Jessica Rettig

Barack Obama campaigned for president, says Tim Carney, as an advocate for big government, claiming that more federal regulation and spending will protect American consumers against the excesses of big business. But, Carney argues the president's push for more intervention actually favors big business and lobbying

Keep Congress Away From the Fed
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

The Federal Reserve has to be protected. If global financial markets came to believe that Congress and political pressure was determining monetary policy, there would be dangerous consequences.

The Case for a National Infrastructure Bank
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

The costs of long neglect of our infrastructure and our precious land -- and the commensurate benefits of doing something about it -- are manifest to every commuter, every driver, every airline passenger, every flood victim. Now, the vital rebuilding of America must begin with federal government money

Latin America: Chile Now One Step Closer to First World
Andres Oppenheimer

Recently, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) -- the club of the world's richest democracies -- formally invited Chile to become a member. Chile had applied for membership two years ago. Chile will become the first South American member of the OECD

With Dollar Down and Out, New IMF Reserve Currency May Be Answer
William Pfaff

Although Washington is the home of fiscal orthodoxy, in theory, in practice it has been playing the deficit game for a considerable time now, in what the economist Joseph Stiglitz calls a kind of bizarre reverse foreign aid, by which poor countries loan the United States trillions at zero interest rates by buying U.S. Treasury bills.

Time For Financial Institutions to Give Back
William Pfaff

It seems plausible that payback time has arrived for the international financial community. The principal obstacle to this happening is, at the moment, the Barack Obama administration's Treasury Department, which thus far in the financial crisis has been mistaken for the executive committee of Goldman Sachs in disguise

Attacking the Jobless Economic Recovery
Jules Witcover

Combatting high unemployment in times of recession is a complicated task. But there is certain simple justice in taking Uncle Sam's dollars originally slated to bail out banks that helped dig the economic hole and giving it to the consequently idled working stiffs of the country.

Obama's Innovation Strategy: Behind the Curtain
Matthew Bandyk

How can this economy create jobs? As one of many answers to that question, the Obama administration has championed giving loans and awards to innovative companies through programs. But it is not a simple journey from funding these programs to actually creating jobs. There are many hiccups along the way. For example, ...

Housing Wealth Declines Stabilize
Luke Mullins

The real estate slump sucked nearly $500 billion in value from American homes through the first 11 months of the year -- a notable improvement from the $3.6 trillion of housing wealth that evaporated in 2008, according to new data. But that doesn't mean the housing market has hit bottom quite yet. Here are four things you need to know

New Year's Resolutions for Home Buyers
Ilyce R. Glink

At the end of 2008, I said I wouldn't be surprised if that year went down as one of the worst ever for housing since the Great Depression. But as we get ready to say goodbye to 2009, it's clear that this year hasn't been much better. We've had another record year of foreclosures. So what's in store for 2010 ...

Why We Should Be Worried That Washington Is the New Job Creator
Matthew Bandyk

While entrepreneurs have usually placed their business development first and foremost, there is some evidence that the increasing role of the federal government has forced many to emphasize lobbying, politicking, and jumping through administrative hurdles.

Why Businesses Can't Create Jobs Even if the Recession Is Over
Matthew Bandyk

The lack of lending is putting their abilities to employ additional workers in jeopardy. The recession is supposed to be over, but unemployment is still high, and the freeze in small-business lending might be a big reason.

5 Surprises in the November Jobs Report
Liz Wolgemuth

The unemployment rate fell by 0.2 percentage point to 10 percent. The data were far better than economists' forecasts of 125,000 jobs lost and an unchanged unemployment rate.

U.S. No Longer the Great Job Creation Machine
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

The nervousness of millions of Americans is entirely justifiable. They see economic head winds all about them. The biggest economy in the world is held hostage by shoppers and consumers who are scared and pessimistic. What are our job prospects? The problem in the job market going forward is not so much layoffs in the private sector, which are abating, but a lack of hiring.

Mending the Job Market
Reader Comments

Unfortunately, I believe Mort Zuckerman is right on about the U.S. failure to create jobs. The U.S. is in a financial and leadership crisis

Obama: How to Create Jobs Without Really Trying
Cal Thomas

President Obama delivered his latest speech on job creation and the economy Tuesday at the liberal Brookings Institution in Washington. As with all of his speeches, this one was loaded with first-person references and blame of the Bush administration for America's economic troubles.

What Happens When Free Markets Fail
Rick Newman

Those who fancy themselves free marketeers are aghast as they watch the Obama administration taking the wheel at failed automakers, drafting a sweeping overhaul of healthcare, dictating salaries at bailed-out banks, and preparing stringent new rules for the whole financial sector. Americans have historically been skeptical of big government, with a preference for market solutions and private initiative. But Americans also reject free markets when ...

Free Market Failure
Reader Comments

Neither capitalism nor fire should be allowed to burn out of control. Both have basic requirements for their continued existence, and both can be destructive if not carefully managed

A Visit with China's New Moguls
Clarence Page

As a guy who was raised in Cold War America, the dazzling ease with which communist China has accommodated capitalism is hard for me to fathom, but I was there to learn.

Financial Crisis, Enron, Hurricane Katrina Examples of Leadership Gone Wrong
Tamara Lytle

The New Orleans masses who huddled in the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina, the Enron retirees who lost their life savings, and the laid-off workers buried under the economic ruin of financial companies all live with a simple truth. Just as spectacularly as great leadership can spark success, failed leadership can bring down cities, businesses, and economies

How to Fix the Financial System: Let Federal Reserve oversee new regulations for finance giants
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

In the grip of our Great Recession, with more job losses to come, we have yet to fix the broken financial system that is an underlying cause of this whole mess. How can we do it?

Triumph of the Hysterical or A Word from the Little Old Lady
Paul Greenberg

I had this powerful urge to proclaim that The End Is Near, and generally do a Paul Krugman. They were placing all their bets on black -- dark, funereal black -- when the Panic of 2008 hit, which they insisted on confusing with the Great Depression.

Will Unemployment Disaster be Obama's Katrina
Arianna Huffington

Just as Katrina exposed critical weaknesses in the priorities and competence of the Bush administration, the unfolding unemployment disaster is threatening to do the same for the Obama White House.

Memo to Warren Buffett: Put Down Pompoms and Tell Us Truth About Economy
Arianna Huffington

It was deeply distressing to watch Warren Buffett's recent CNBC town hall meeting, followed the next night by an hour spent talking about the economy with Charlie Rose, and see Buffett joining in the economic victory lap the Obama administration -- and much of the media -- are taking.

Where The Stimulus Is Working
Matthew Bandyk

The ripple effects created by stimulus spending have consequences that are hard to calculate in the short-term. Nevertheless, we can identify certain winners from these ripple effects.

In a Global Economy, American CEOs Are a Different Breed
Thomas K. Grose

If you think of global business styles as a continuum, U.S. executives are at one end, their Asian counterparts at the other. American executives, and the companies they lead, are generally more comfortable with risk and uncertainty than those in Europe and, particularly, Asia.

4 Stages of Market Recovery: Is economy finally catching up with market?
Katy Marquardt

Talk about mixed messages. Stocks are blasting off, yet unemployment remains stubbornly high. The economy grew in the third quarter -- posting the first increase in a year -- so why all the gloomy talk? And exactly where are we in the current economic cycle? Jason Pride believes we've entered stage three of four in a market recovery. Here's his rundown of each stage and his assessment.

Why It's Wrong When Wrongdoers are Allowed to Admit No Wrongdoing
Arianna Huffington

As part of the settlement, JPMorgan neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing -- despite ample evidence that it had engaged in plenty of wrongdoing. Things like paying off local officials with millions to win no-bid contracts worth billions and convincing county officials to switch from fixed-rate bonds to bonds hedged with risky derivatives -- a switch that has driven Jefferson County to the brink of bankruptcy

Beginning of a New World Epoch
Paul A. Samuelson

President Barack Obama's 2008 electoral landslide victory averted a global financial meltdown. Had Republican Sen. John McCain won that election, present U.S. GDP would have been even lower than it is now, by more than 15 percent! And similar losses in global productivity would also have taken place.

Unemployment Rockets

October Jobs Report: A True Witches' Brew
Liz Wolgemuth

In what will no doubt boost skepticism over the Obama administration's message of stimulus success, the unemployment rate in October rocketed to 10.2 percent, a figure much higher than economists had expected and just 0.6 percentage points away from the post-World War II high seen in 1982. While unemployment snapped back down swiftly in the early-1980s recession, it is widely expected that job creation will be slow in this recovery.

Economy: Cities Where Jobs Recovery Will Be Slowest
Liz Wolgemuth

While the nation's job market is awful overall -- thousands of Americans are exhausting their unemployment benefits daily -- it's clear that the true jobs picture is as varied as the nation's topography. With the promise of a recovery on the horizon, new data show that the employment upturn will be regional as well

Forget Inflation, Deflation Is a Bigger Danger
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

Inflation typically results from 'too much money chasing too few goods.' Today, too much supply is chasing too little demand. That, coupled with consumers' need to save money to rebuild their finances, raises the risk of deflation, not inflation. And as workers compete for scarce jobs and companies underbid one another for sales, both wages and prices will remain under pressure.

Economy: Finding Opportunity in the Recession
Matthew Bandyk

Of all the industries devastated by the recession, the media has been one of the most notoriously affected. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 65,000 media jobs were cut in 2008 -- nearly 4 percent of the industry's total. Newspapers are perhaps the biggest loser, with more than 9 percent of jobs eliminated in 2008. However, ...

Unemployment and Foreclosure: If You Don't Have a Job, How Will You Pay the Mortgage
Ilyce Glink

When it comes to foreclosure, the problem isn't just the 7.2 million jobs that have been lost during this great recession. There are millions of Americans who took a huge pay cut to keep their companies going. Unpaid furloughs and 10 to 25 percent pay cuts mean tens of millions of Americans are having a much harder time paying their bills -- and their mortgages are at risk as well.

Latin American Economy Will Do Well, but Not Great
Latin American Current Events, News & Affairs - Andres Oppenheimer

The news that Brazil and Mexico have come out of the recession and are poised for solid growth in 2010 should be celebrated, and both countries' leaders should be given credit for their sound economic management. But in the global economic context, the two Latin American giants' recovery will be modest.

The Dollar and the Deficits
C. Fred Bergsten

The dollar is under attack on two fronts. Private investors are driving it lower in the foreign exchange markets. Monetary authorities are questioning its role as the world's key currency. There is an obvious linkage between the two attacks: expectations of further falls in the dollar's value will accelerate the prospect that foreign central banks will switch to euros

Economy: End of The Recession Around the Corner?
Paul A. Samuelson

The 2006-2009 recession is likely over now (or very soon). So says Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. At most central banks around the globe the same story is now being proclaimed. Just what does this mean? And what does it not necessarily mean?

Economic Recovery   (c) Matt Davies

Reports Show Mixed Results for Obama's Stimulus
Amanda Ruggeri

One report shows that the GDP rose about 2.3 percentage points. In Washington, talk of the $787 billion stimulus package has been largely overshadowed by healthcare reform. A recent report by the Council of Economic Advisers could help the Democratic cause, at least when it comes to defending the administration's decisions on fiscal recovery. But taken in conjunction with a Government Accountability Office report that examines states' use of stimulus funding the overall picture remains a mixed bag.

Free Enterprise is Key to Economic Recovery
Kenneth T. Walsh

Tom Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has big plans. In mid-October, his organization, which is one of the most influential advocates for business in the United States, will launch a 'Campaign for Free Enterprise,' a multiyear effort (at an estimated cost of at least $25 million annually) to educate Americans about capitalism and explain the importance of free enterprise.

Pecora Hearings a Model for Financial Crisis Investigation
Amanda Ruggeri

Congress could learn from Pecora's 1930s investigation of the stock market crash. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission -- created by Congress in May to determine and analyze the origins of the current financial crisis -- is charged with examining no fewer than 20 of its specific causes, including the roles of fraud and abuse, credit rating agencies, and corporate compensation structures. The commission must also examine the collapses of major financial institutions like Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns.

The Case for Economic Irrelevance
Paul Greenberg

A recession may stunt more than material growth. It can also drain intellectual curiosity. For economic pressure can lead people to settle for what only seems to be security instead of following their dreams. Which can be a tragedy for both the individual and a society that depends on people reaching ever higher, rather than not settling for what only seems safe.

Selling the Economic Recovery
Jules Witcover

To counter the pessimistic observations of Republicans who haven't been able to come up with their own answer to the economic mess they left to President Obama, he trotted out ever-optimistic Vice President Joe Biden the other day to declare a solid start to a job only barely getting underway.

Why Obama Won't Be Able to Reform Wall Street
Arianna Huffington

Listening to President Obama's heartfelt, well-intentioned, but ultimately naive speech on financial reform, my mind kept flashing on a story I heard the last time Washington, in the wake of the Enron scandal, promised to reform Wall Street.

Barack Obama Must See Michael Moore's New Movie (and So Must You)
Arianna Huffington

With his new movie, 'Capitalism: A Love Story,' Michael Moore is riding the wave of the collapse of trust in our country's financial system. The film is a withering indictment of the current economic order, covering everything from Wall Street's casino mentality to for-profit prisons, from Goldman Sachs' sway in Washington to the poverty-level pay of many airline pilots, from the tidal wave of foreclosures to the tragic consequences of runaway greed.

The Emerging Economic Order
(c) Jack Ohman

U.S., China and the Emerging Economic Order
Henry Kissinger

The assumption that the end of the recession will restore the familiar global economic system ignores the psychological and political upheaval that has taken place.

A vast tide of liquidity coupled with America's appetite for consumer goods had sent enormous amounts of dollars to China that, in turn, China lent back to us for still more buying.

Economy: Past Stormy Weather and What May Follow
Paul A. Samuelson

The Fed and the majority of the consensus forecasters fear that this expected recovery might be a weak one that does little to reduce Main Street's unemployment. And it may also imply that future private consumer and investment spending will continue to be anemic. That would mean that at the global level there might not be the replay of the old-time drama in which the American locomotive comes to the rescue of depressed economies.

Divine Debt Trumps All
Victor Davis Hanson

In modern America, debt -- whether national, state or trade -- now plays the same overarching role as the ancient Greek notion of fate. And the president, Congress and the states for all their various agendas are impotent since they must first pay back trillions that have long ago been borrowed and spent.

Joseph Stiglitz Left's Favorite U.S. Nobel Economist
Andres Oppenheimer

U.S. Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz has become a sort of rock star in left-of-center Latin American countries for his vocal criticism of free-for-all capitalism. But in a wide-ranging interview, he offered some advice that many of his fans in the region may not want to hear.

The Dollar's Fate, in the Longer Term
Paul Kennedy

There is a most interesting debate going on at present in the academic community about the longer-term fate of the U.S. dollar as the supreme reserve currency for foreign-exchange transactions and, more importantly, for the currency holdings of national governments, global companies and the producers of oil, gas and other raw materials.

The Dilemmas of the Dollar
by Barry Eichengreen

Legions of pundits have argued that the dollar's status as a reserve currency has been damaged by the credit crisis of 2007-9. The crisis has not exactly enhanced the attractions of the United States as a supplier of high-quality financial assets. It would be no surprise if the disfunctionality of U.S. financial markets diminished the appetite of foreign central banks for U.S. debt securities.

Low and Behold the Price of Oil
by Edward L. Morse

The rapid fall and then rebound in oil prices over the past year surprised many people. But it was not unusual: commodities markets are cyclical by nature and have a history punctuated by sudden turning points. Although this generally makes it difficult to forecast prices, it is safe to say that commodities markets will remain lower over the next few years than they have been over the past five.

Beware of False Hopes on the Economy
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

Is there light at the end of this very long tunnel of a recession? Government spokespeople, keen to encourage confidence, say there is (their metaphor is "green shoots"). Many private business people concur. Let's do a reality check ...

Budget Cuts Hit Nation's Public Colleges Hard, Even as Demand for Well-educated Workforce Soars
Kim Clark

The recession, state budget cuts, and hidebound bureaucracies are endangering some of the most important foundations of the American dream -- the low-cost, high-quality public colleges created to provide anyone with smarts and diligence the training needed to succeed.

General Motors: 'Cash for Clunkers' a Huge Success
Amanda Ruggeri

Not everyone supported the Senate's passage of a bill that boosted "cash for clunkers" by $2 billion, effectively extending it through Labor Day. But it's hard to argue that the program, which gives rebates to people who trade in old cars for more fuel-efficient vehicles, hasn't made the auto industry happy. That's true for General Motors ...

Maybe Cash For Clunkers Helped The Economy After All
Matthew Bandyk

Daniel Gross at Slate makes the case that the evidence is in, and cash-for-clunkers gets a pretty good return as stimulus: If we use Taylor's estimate, about 250,000 extra cars were purchased (40 percent of 625,000). And if each cost $29,000, those sales generated about $7.3 billion in revenue in the space of a few weeks. That's a pretty good return on $2.6 billion in government spending.

Auto Dealers: Cash for Clunkers a Needed Boost
Amanda Ruggeri

John McEleney is the chair of the Virginia-based National Automobile Dealers Association, which represents more than 90 percent of new-car dealers nationwide and lobbied hard for the program. He recently spoke about how dealers have been reacting to the program and what the problem was with reimbursements.

Hidden behind the unemployment rate are some startling numbers
Matthew Bandyk

The "Great Recession" is the name that has stuck for the economic decline that began in late 2007. But there's some reason to think that using the word recession is being kind. The U.S. gross domestic product has shrunk 3.9 percent in the past year, the worst drop since the Great Depression. Plenty of observers are willing to say that this recession is much deeper than anything we've seen since the 1930s

Keep Back-to-School Shopping Costs Down
Zack Miners

The National Retail Federaton predicts the worst back-to-school shopping season for stores in more than a decade, with a spending drop of 8 percent. But many retailers are doing everything they can to win back business, and you can do your part to stretch your dollar by considering these recommendations ...

Government Bailout
(c) Paul Tong

Opportunity Cost of the Bank Bailout
Arianna Huffington

The lopsided 'recovery.' Banks that received billions in taxpayer handouts now reporting massive profits and setting aside record amounts for executive bonuses, and the American people continuing to face 9.5 percent unemployment, 10,000 foreclosures a day and vital services being cut.

 

What Enron & WorldCom Can Teach Us About Goldman & AIG
Arianna Huffington

Newsweek's latest cover story declares that The Great Recession is over. A Merrill Lynch report concurs, saying, 'The recession is over... We are bullish on global equities.' Goldman Sachs is placing riskier bets on the market than it did before the financial meltdown (and setting aside huge amounts of money to pay its executives). The problem is ...

Smoke Billowing Out of Our Economic Mount Vesuvius
Arianna Huffington

There is currently plenty of alarming smoke pouring out of our economic Vesuvius, but it is being dismissed. Don't worry about economic tremors, we're told, our financial system is back on track, the bailout worked and we'll start our slow but steady climb to recovery. But warning signs are all around us ...

Working to Improve the Economy
Kenneth T. Walsh Interviews Christina Romer

Christina Romer -- chairwoman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers -- recently spoke with Kenneth T. Walsh about what has gone wrong, when an economic recovery might occur, and what it's like to work with President Obama.

 

Real Estate Matters
(c) Nancy Ohanian

Sell High and Buy Low Is Trickier Than It Sounds
Ilyce Glink

It's really difficult to sell high and buy low under the current economic climate -- unless you're moving to a different part of the country or from a neighborhood that has appreciated greatly to another that has not.

 

Housing Crisis Conundrum: Which America Do You Live In
Ilyce Glink

It almost feels as though there are two economies.

First, we have the so-called 'good news' from Wall Street, where the big financial companies are crowing about billion-dollar profits, paying $100 million bonuses, and repaying warrants. Then we have the Main Street economy, where people can't get lenders to call them back, where jobs continue to be lost, home values continue to fall, net worths shrink and foreclosures continue to rise.

Small Businesses Hold on Despite Economy
Matthew Bandyk

Conventional wisdom holds true when it comes to small businesses struggling in an economic recession. Small businesses drive the nation's economy so when the economy slows down, they take the brunt. Compared with large businesses, they have less of a cushion of capital. Tight credit makes business expansion difficult. And economic slowdowns can expose fundamental flaws in business plans. But despite all these disadvantages, the number of small businesses as a whole seems to be recessionproof.

Editorial Cartoon by David Horsey

Happy Economic Recovery vs. An Anemic One
Paul A. Samuelson

The number-one question preoccupying economists, policy agents of government and Main Street families is this:

Will "recovery" from the current U.S. financial meltdown arrive before the end of 2009? Or, failing that, will it at least arrive early in 2010?

 

Whistling Past the Economic Graveyard
Arianna Huffington

Is it possible to have too much hope? To be too optimistic? Yes, if that hope keeps you from facing -- and dealing with -- unpleasant realities. That seems to be what's happening regarding the financial institutions responsible for the economic meltdown.