With the general election kicking off yesterday, we will have seven more months of the kind of “I know you are but what am I” politics we saw on display yesterday. It’s almost too depressing to even contemplate. Mr. Romney fought back on his preferred turf, jobs and the economy, making the case that women [...]

I was waiting for some enterprising conservative to make the argument that global warming improved the jobs landscape, because it turned certain industries like construction into more year-round pursuits. Of course, to make that argument, they’d have to acknowledge the existence of global warming. But they would have been missing what happens after the catch-up [...]

The US enacted the Clinton-Gingrich welfare reform in the midst of the largest postwar expansion in four decades. It was not put to the test for many years, and really not until the Great Recession. And now we’re seeing that it doesn’t work for most of those who need it. The simple problem is that [...]

Sadly, the Presidential election will tempt all sides to spin monthly jobs numbers rather than give a realistic portrayal of them. So today you have the Obama campaign straining to read more into the figures on the good side, and the Romney campaign straining to read more on the bad. Only Mark Zandi is pressing [...]

I’m not suggesting that convicted con men should perpetually give testimony in Congressional hearings. But on something like the JOBS Act, it wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Because they could tell you in a matter of minutes why you wouldn’t want to relax restrictions on capital formation to this degree. Mark L. Morze knows [...]

A disappointing 120,000 jobs were added to the economy in March, well below expectations. However, the topline unemployment rate fell again to 8.2%. The revisions for January and February were mixed, with employment revised down a bit for January (to +275,000 from +284,000) and up in February (from +227,000 to +240,000). The drop in the [...]

Mark Zandi now predicts that the job market will come back at a much stronger clip than he previously expected, with the jobless rate under 8% by the end of 2012 and under 7% by the end of 2013. Zandi is the guy who predicted a bottom in housing prices in 2008, 2009, 2010 and [...]

We knew that organizers had gathered more than enough signatures to force a recall election for Scott Walker, and Walker gave up on challenging the signatures. But it became more official yesterday, as the staff of the Government Accountability Board in Wisconsin completed their review of petition signatures, a prelude to the announcement of election [...]

Ben Bernanke made a speech today about the economy and the labor market that I’ve seen variously described as too pessimistic and too optimistic. I think both sides are right. You can see that in the first paragraphs: My remarks today will focus on recent and prospective developments in the labor market. We have seen [...]

As long as the news media devotes massive amounts of space to a fantasy budget, why can’t they turn their attention for just a minute to a more legitimate one? Sure, the Congressional Progressive Caucus’ Budget for All isn’t likely to get much more than the 100 or so votes of its members, short of [...]

The Senate’s transportation bill, which passed earlier this week, is more bipartisan than good. The bill lasts for two years rather than the 5 years requested by the White House, and it funds at about 2/3 the level in the President’s budget request, which itself is relatively low according to infrastructure experts. That said, it [...]