Heather Boushey, Chief Economist at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, writes about the economy failing to go over the cliff and the deficit. She says:

In their report, How We Ended the Great Recession, Economists Alan Blinder and Mark Zandi estimates the effects of the financial and fiscal policies enacted since the crisis began in 2008 on the economy. Their conclusion is that had the combined financial and fiscal policies not been enacted, “GDP in 2010 would be about 6.5 percent lower, payroll employment would be less by some 8.5 million jobs, and the nation would be experiencing deflation.”

An Ancient Jewish Avatar and a Contemporary Buddhist King unite old money religion and new money religion in an eternal ethos. “My deepest concern is that as the world changes we may lose these fundamental values on which rest our character as a nation and people. It is critical that we are able to recognize Bhutanese character irrespective of how far we look back into the past or into the future.”

Senate Republicans say they’re against both the bailouts and the Democrats’ proposed legislation to end them. They say that Sen. Dodd’s bill would “actually guarantees future bailouts.” It’s time for the Republicans to put up or shut up. Will they make Dodd’s bill better by breaking up the too big to fail banks and putting new rules in place that never let them get so big and systemically risky, or will they shill for Wall Street?

Cross-posted at River Twice Research.

This week, the Chinese government announced that China’s economy had expanded by a stronger-than-anticipated 10.7 percent in the last quarter of 2009 and that it had grown 8.7 percent for the entire year. This news, however, was not greeted with relief but with the skepticism that has typically met such news emanating from China in recent years. The Wall Street Journal ran a story on its front page with the headline “China Seeks to Tame Boom, Stirs Growth Fears.”

Nearly all European countries have better health care systems in place than the U.S. But that’s rather easy, it’s no big deal, as democracies over here still know what “a human right” is and what “solidarity” actually means.

Of course, you’re in recovery–your tapeworm’s twice as big as it was before!

Cross-posted at River Twice Research.

With Wall Street – and the Federal Reserve – in a headlong rush to declare the recession over, the economic data has indicated that the simple binary recession-no recession framework obscures more than it reveals. Yes, defined purely in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the recession looks to be winding down, with strong indications that GDP is about to turn positive after a long and painful swoon.

But GDP alone is a pretty poor proxy for the lived experience of many millions of people. Wall Street may be booming, the market rising, and many companies reporting strong profits relative to weak global economies. Yet that says little about any one national economy, even one as large and prominent as the United States (see my recent Wall Street Journal piece here http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052970203517304574306414148814226.html).

Cross-posted at River Twice Research.

Each month, the Federal Reserve releases its latest minutes of its last meeting along with its projections of economic activity (www.federalreserve.gov). The minutes just released indicate that its prior forecasts have been tweaked a bit, with update projections for unemployment over the next two years, GDP growth, and inflation. As new data become available, the hundreds of economists at the Fed revise and recalculate numbers, which means that any forecast rarely lasts more than a few months.

And yet, the Fed’s forecasts – along with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Office of Management and Budget, the Congressional Budget Office and various others – are used to frame every single meaningful discussion about the economy. They become the fodder for media reports, for budgetary decisions made by companies, and for individuals who digest the sound-bites – “Fed predicts unemployment will level off at 9% next year” – that shapes their sentiment. Investors also turn to these signposts as markers to navigate a complex world.

An analysis of the current fiscal crisis and the steps necessary to address it

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