In addition to hinting at a change of heart on a payroll tax holiday, the President made a pretty shocking admission, I thought, or at least a severe vote of no confidence in his economic team: MR. HARWOOD: Mr. President, let me ask you a question about course correction. Sometimes a leader, even if you [...]

A week or so ago, observers arched their eyebrows at Tom Perriello’s statement in a town hall meeting that Tim Geithner should be fired. They shouldn’t have been too surprised – Perriello had said it before. And he went further this week, responding to the notion that he was “following” John Boehner’s lead: “Though he [...]

I mentioned the President’s Rose Garden remarks from earlier today, but looking at the transcripts, he gave some hints about what “additional measures” his Administration would support to reverse the economy. And it’s pretty thin gruel: So, as Congress prepares to return to session, my economic team is hard at work in identifying additional measures [...]

The economy grew in the second quarter at just 1.6%, a revision downwards from earlier estimates. New data on trade explains the drop. The nation’s gross domestic product — the broadest measure of the economy’s output — grew at a 1.6 percent annual rate in the April-to-June period, the Commerce Department said Friday. That’s down [...]

When you recognize that GDP growth in the second quarter of 2010 was only 2.4%, and could revise to just 1% after all the data comes in, this estimate from CBO is horrifying: The massive stimulus package boosted real GDP by up to 4.5 percent in the second quarter of 2010 and put up to [...]

During the stimulus debate, the White House emphasized “shovel-ready projects,” things that could begin construction immediately so that the impact of the funding could be felt right away. At the same time, they exercised caution, demanding no waste or fraud in the money they appropriated, with strict oversight of all the projects. These two mandates [...]

The White House released a report on the stimulus package today, with the familiar pronouncements, that it created or saved millions of jobs and contributed significantly to GDP. It did, that’s all true. Without the Recovery Act, smallish though it may have been, the economy would be well over double-digit unemployment and still contracting, in [...]

The President announced 66 nationwide broadband projects, as part of the Recovery Act, that will increase high-speed Internet access to, according to the press release “tens of millions of Americans and over 685,000 businesses, 900 healthcare facilities and 2,400 schools in all fifty states.” These grants total $795 million dollars, still only a fraction of [...]

After finding out what President Scott Brown is thinking with regards to financial reform, I’m sure you’re waiting with bated breath to hear his thoughts on unemployment insurance. As you may know, Sens. Reid and Baucus introduced a substitute amendment to the tax extenders bill that would extend unemployment for 6 months and also extend [...]

Nancy Pelosi is sticking to her guns and refusing to move a bill that only helps doctors avoid a pay cut for Medicare and Medicaid patients and not folding it into one helping create jobs and tend to the unemployed. So the Senate must go back to the drawing board and find a way to [...]

In a letter to leaders of the G-20, President Obama called for a renewed focus on fiscal stimulus, rather than the austerity measures being promoted in Europe and around the world. He said that the economy risked a stunted recovery if government supports were kicked out at this crucial juncture, and that nations should “reaffirm [...]