September 10

What you need to know to navigate today’s most critical debates.

Top Adviser to Lead Panel on Economy (NYTimes)
Obama confidante and free market advocate Austan Goolsbee will succeed Christina Romer as head of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers.

Republican Nightmare: Putting Elizabeth Warren to Work Now (HuffPo)
Simon Johnson argues that while the president is feeling bold, he should bypass the Senate and appoint Elizabeth Warren as the CFPB’s interim leader.

Things Could Be Worse (NYTimes)
Paul Krugman warns that if Republicans get to set policy after November, America will long to match the economic performance of Japan’s Lost Decade.

American despond (Reuters)
Felix Salmon highlights a poll showing that…

September 9

What you need to know to navigate today’s most critical debates.

The Slump Goes On: Why? (New York Review of Books)
Robin Wells and Paul Krugman challenge the backward-looking nature of financial crisis literature and the “self-induced paralysis” of policymakers.

Fixing America’s Broken Housing Market (Project Syndicate)
Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow and Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz argues that cramdown could succeed where government efforts to assume risk have failed.

Will Obama’s Economic Medley Work? (MoJo)
Andy Kroll rounds up some mixed reactions to the president’s latest proposals, including a piece by Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow Marshall Auerback.

Debating the Economy (NYTimes)
With less than two months to go before the midterm elections that…

September 8

What you need to know to navigate today’s most critical debates.

The United States of Inequality (Slate)
Timothy Noah offers an in-depth analysis of America’s growing income gap and the forces contributing to it. Hint: Don’t blame immigrants.

Obama’s Jobs Crisis (New York Review of Books)
Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow Jeff Madrick warns that our economic malaise will continue unless the Obama administration takes more immediate action, and Americans may not stand for it much longer.

Rome is Burning (Modeled Behavior)
Karl Smith has some choice words for those politicians, pundits, and economists who fail to grasp the seriousness of the recession.

Obama to unveil more stimulus, tax breaks for…

September 7

What you need to know to navigate today’s most critical debates.

The true cost of the Iraq War: $3 trillion and beyond (WaPo)
Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes calculate the full price of the war and how it has contributed to other national crises.

Obama Offers a Transit Plan to Create Jobs (NYTimes)
President Obama used his Labor Day speech to call for $50 billion in new infrastructure spending in a last-ditch effort to boost the recovery and prevent a Democratic bloodbath this fall.

Obama to call for $100 billion business tax credit (WaPo)
The administration passed on a payroll tax holiday, but it will…

September 3

What you need to know to navigate today’s most critical debates.

How to End the Great Recession (NYTimes)
Robert Reich writes that after the bursting of the debt bubble, the only way forward is through shared prosperity.

White House considers pre-midterm package of business tax breaks to spur hiring (WaPo)
The administration will possibly, maybe, push for a payroll holiday, R&D credit, or some other uncontroversial measure before November. Feel that momentum shift!

The Real Story (NYTimes)
Paul Krugman notes that critics who warned that the stimulus was too small have been vindicated. Will President Obama learn the right lesson? See above.

Why the Stimulus Ran Out of Steam (The Atlantic)
Joshua…

September 2

What you need to know to navigate today’s most critical debates.

Obama was too cautious in fearful times (FT)
Martin Wolf reflects on Barack Obama’s missed opportunity to take bold action and steer the economy toward a robust recovery.

Stimulus Averted Depression, Romer Says (NYTimes)
Departing White House economic adviser Christina Romer used her farewell speech to call for more spending to alleviate unemployment.

Impediments to Rapid Recovery from Financial Crisis Are More Political Than Economic (Think Progress)
Matthew Yglesias disagrees with the suggestion that slow growth in the wake of a financial crisis is inevitable, as does one of the economists suggesting it.

Banks Playing ‘Foreclosure Roulette’ With Delinquent Homeowners (HuffPo)
Banks…

September 1

What you need to know to navigate today’s most critical debates.

Record number in government anti-poverty programs (USA Today)
As the recovery stalls, one in six Americans are relying on our public safety nets.

Will we ever recover from the financial crisis? (WaPo)
Ezra Klein highlights a study of the aftermath of severe financial crises that may make you regret getting out of bed today.

Tax Cuts Weighed to Spur Economy (WSJ)
President Obama’s economic advisers are considering business and payroll tax cuts and new infrastructure spending, but expect (surprise!) Republican obstruction.

Tax Cuts That Make a Difference (NYTimes)
David Leonhardt writes that tax cuts aren’t a long-term solution to America’s economic…

August 31

What you need to know to navigate today’s most critical debates.

Obama promises new efforts to boost economy (WaPo)
Yesterday’s speech offered few details, but the president called out GOP obstructionism and promised new measures to encourage hiring.

Meet the 18 People Who Could Determine the Fate of Social Security (TPM)
Brian Beutler has the rundown on the members of the deficit commission, their professional backgrounds, and their worrying views on Social Security.

Senator Simpson’s Quick Budget Quiz (HuffPo)
Dean Baker poses seven important questions to the deficit commission’s co-chair and supplies a helpful cheat sheet for the rest of us.

The case against reforming Social Security (WaPo)
Ezra Klein suggests that…

August 30

What you need to know to navigate today’s most critical debates.

Policy Options Dwindle as Economic Fears Grow (NYTimes)
With no one willing to spend, analysts like Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow Joseph Stiglitz see little hope of avoiding a Japanese-style economic malaise.

Obama and Jobs — He Should Look to FDR (HuffPo)
Saul Friedman recalls the success of the WPA and the CCC and suggests that they should serve as a model for modern-day recovery efforts.

It’s Not Over Until It’s in the Rules (NYTimes)
The rule-making process at the SEC and CFTC offers Wall Street lobbyists yet another opportunity to undermine the Dodd-Frank reforms.

Obama’s Old Deal (Newsweek)
Michael Hirsh writes that…

August 27

What you need to know to navigate today’s most critical debates.

This Is Not a Recovery (NYTimes)
Paul Krugman argues that the academic definition of recession is irrelevant if growth isn’t strong enough to bring down rampant unemployment.

Tough calls after bungee jump recovery (FT)
George Magnus writes that monetary tightening might make sense for some countries right now, but the U.S. isn’t one of them.

Fiscal Austerity and America’s Future (NYTimes)
Simon Johnson suggests that austerity proponents are encouraging greater social inequality and setting the U.S. back on the path to financial crisis.

A stickier problem (The Economist)
Increases in structural unemployment may require more narrowly tailored responses than the broad…