(Economist View - The Net)

Ben Bernanke says that when the economy starts to recover, the Fed will take the steps needed to prevent an outbreak of inflation (the substance of the arguments can be found in the full version):

The Fed's Exit Strategy, by Ben Bernanke, Commentary, WSJ: The depth and breadth of the global recession has required a highly accommodative monetary policy. Since the onset of the financial crisis nearly two years ago, the Federal Reserve has reduced the ... federal-funds rate ... nearly to zero. We have also greatly expanded the size of the Fed's balance sheet through purchases of longer-term securities and through targeted lending programs aimed at restarting the flow of credit.
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(The Times - U.K.)

Private sector workers are taking fewer "sickies" in the recession amid rising fears that taking too much time off work might cost them their job, according to new research.(...)

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(Business Week - U.S.)

Moving in with roommates and family: It's what happens to folks who lose their homes, and it ain't pretty. Downsizing their living spaces and doubling up with roommates and relatives: The housing collapse has left many victims of foreclosure looking for a place to call home. For many investors, the once-solid decision to invest in real estate has turned into a financial blunder, leaving the market awash with extra inventory and further depressing prices.

In 2006, 4 out of every 10 homes sold were investments or second homes, according to Alex Charfen, CEO of the Distressed Property Institute, an Austin (Tex.) company that teaches real estate agents how to deal with foreclosed properties. In the ensuing crash, that 40% now represents a wave of foreclosures by lenders.(...)

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(Wall Street Journal - U.S.)

A new face in Ukraine is gaining popularity among voters looking to reignite the hopes of the Orange Revolution and to end the political squabbling that has hamstrung efforts to grapple with recession.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a former parliamentary speaker and foreign minister, has seen a surge in support in recent months as voters in the presidential election early next year look for a candidate who can put an end to the political paralysis and turn around an economy that contracted 20.3% in the first quarter.

The mass protest in 2004 against an allegedly rigged presidential ballot swept pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko to power on a reformist, anticorruption platform at the expense of Moscow-backed Viktor Yanukovych. But integration with the West has hit the rocks with overhauls delayed amid political infighting and in the face of an increasingly assertive Russia.(...)

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(Naked Capitalism - The Net)

I just read a CNBC story which fails to mention CNBC's involvement in the apparently erroneous report that Nouriel Roubini has suddenly become more bullish. Is this omission justified?

The controversy centers on statements Roubini made regarding the timing of a technical recovery in the United States. Yesterday, it was reported on CNBC and elsewhere that Roubini had made a 'change' to his market view and was essentially more bullish on the U.S. economy. Many market participants believe this was a major factor in the rise in shares yesterday.(...)

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(China Daily - China)

Yi Gang, a former deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, or the central bank, was appointed as the new head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchanges(SAFE), according to a statement on the SAFE's website Friday. Hu Xiaolian, SAFE's former head became a deputy governor of the central bank, said the bank's website.(...)

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A Second Stimulus: Pro and Con (Economix - The Net)

...some economists conclude that the stimulus wasn't big enough (at least in the way the plan was executed), and that the country will soon need another round of stimulus spending. Others have taken this as a sign that the stimulus didn't work, was potentially a waste of money (at least in the way the plan was executed), and should not be followed up by a second round of spending and/or tax cuts.

There are heavyweights on both sides of the fight. Here's a roundup of some of the economists and public figures who have taken at least tentative positions on the matter:
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Club Wagner (Economix - The Net)

By David Leonhardt

With this post, we announce the formation of Club Wagner. It's a (fictional) organization of people willing to acknowledge a basic economic reality: Taxes in the United States must rise.

At their current levels, taxes are too low to cover the kind of government that Americans have made clear they want -- a government that includes Medicare, Social Security, a strong military and numerous other programs. (...)

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An update: More Members of Club Wagner

Global Banking Economist Warned of Coming Crisis (Der Spiegel - Germany)

By Beat Balzli and Michaela Schiessl

William White predicted the approaching financial crisis years before 2007's subprime meltdown. But central bankers preferred to listen to his great rival Alan Greenspan instead, with devastating consequences for the global economy.(...)

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(Foreign Policy - U.S.)

By David J. RothKopf

Talent is important. There is no doubt about it. But character and attitude are defining. Yesterday, nearing the end of the longest set in the 133-year history of Wimbledon, locked in a titanic struggle with an opponent who was playing heroic tennis, Roger Federer said he told himself that "at 13-13 in the fifth set, I'm exactly where I want to be, just a few points from victory." Sure, you can look at things negatively, but my positive side is important and I really believed right until the end." 

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(Time Magazine - U.S.)

By Ajay Gupta

The 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' financial guru's new book is 'Conspiracy of the Rich.' Robert Kiyosaki take questions

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...He would be Noriko Hama(Slate - The Net)

By Daniel Gross

"Please do not believe all the talk about the green shoots of the Japanese economy, which I suspect you might have heard. We are in pretty bad shape."

Noriko Hama, a professor of economics at Doshisha University in Kyoto, is a sort of Japanese version of Paul Krugman--if Paul Krugman were a woman with a purple rinse, pink jacket, funky blue jeans, black patent leather pumps, and a vague British accent. Hama, who lived in the United Kingdom as a child in the 1960s, is something of an intellectual celebrity in Japan. (...)

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(The New York Times - U.S.)

Health insurance is supposed to offer protection -- both medically and financially. But as it turns out, an estimated three-quarters of people who are pushed into personal bankruptcy by medical problems actually had insurance when they got sick or were injured.

And so, even as Washington tries to cover the tens of millions of Americans without
medical insurance, many health policy experts say simply giving everyone an insurance card will not be enough to fix what is wrong with the system.

Too many other people already have coverage so meager that a medical crisis means financial calamity. (...)

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(The Huffington Post - The Net)

On the financial crisis and health care reform:

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Paul Krugman's fear for lost decade(The Guardian - U.K.)

As analysts and media hailed the tentative emergence of green shoots last week, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman caused international shock with a prediction that the world economy would stagnate just as badly, and for just as long, as Japan's did in the 1990s. In an exclusive interview, he talks to Will Hutton about his anxiety for the future - and how Gordon Brown might have saved Britain from the blight that hangs over the West. (...)

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Part One(The Atlantic - U.S.)

I've spent the last six months, off and on, trying to interview Paul Samuelson. Samuelson has a long list of accomplishments -- A John Bates Clark Medal, a Nobel Prize -- that I won't try to recap here. But by most accounts he is responsible for popularizing Keynesian economics in Post-Second World War America, and I wanted his thoughts on the current administration's fiscal policies and the modern Keynesian resurgence.

I finally spoke with Dr. Samuelson yesterday morning. (Then my crummy RadioShack recorder -- caveat emptor -- spent yesterday afternoon trying to destroy the file.) Sameulson is an energetic 94 years old and the conversation ran for about an hour, so I've decided to break the transcript into two parts. I'll publish part two tomorrow morning.

The first part of the conversation is mostly economic history -- the rise and fall (and rise) of Keynes, the influence of Milton Friedman, and the era of Alan Greenspan. Part two covers current events -- the need for a more stimulus spending and how his nephew (one Larry Summers) is doing running the economy. My questions are in bold. (...)

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Transcript of Obama's Interview With the Journal (Washington Wire - U.S.)

And so the question for us is how do we create the foundation for a more sustainable model of economic growth, one that doesn't impinge on the dynamism of the free market, the innovative products that are critical and the entrepreneurship that creates jobs, but also recognizes that the levels of debt and a model that's premised on an endless supply of foreign dollars is not one that is going to be sustainable over the long term.

And then just to wrap it up then, that's why, in addition to financial regulation, we think that health care reform, creating a clean energy economy, ramping up our education system, our investment in science and technology and infrastructure -- why all those things are so important, because if we get the fundamentals right, then the market will work its magic, but we won't have sort of house-of-cards economy that crashed over the last year.(...)

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(The New York Times - U.S.)

MESA, Ariz. -- She had seen the advertisements for the new government program offering relief. She had heard President Obama promise that help was on the way for homeowners like her, people who had lost jobs and could no longer make their mortgage payments. But when Eileen Ulery called her mortgage company -- Countrywide, now part of Bank of America -- the bank did not offer to alter her mortgage. Rather, the bank tried to sell her a new loan with a slightly lower monthly payment while asking her to pay $13,000 toward the principal and a fresh $5,000 in fees.(...)

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An Interview with Angela Merkel(Der Spiegel - Germany)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, 54, discusses government bailouts for companies, her achievements during her term in office and the legacy of the East German secret police, the Stasi.(...)

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Revenge of the Nerd (Newsweek - U.S.)

These are the people Warren Buffett was talking about when he said, "Beware of geeks bearing formulas" in his letter to shareholders this year. The quants aren't entirely to blame for the financial meltdown; there's plenty of guilt to be shared by regulators, top executives and the investors who bought the instruments the quants created. Yet while aeronautical engineers who willfully designed a faulty plane might be on trial for criminal negligence, Wall Street's math gurus are, for the most part, still employed. Strangely, the banks need quants more than ever right now. If anyone's going to figure out how to price these toxic assets, it's them. Quantitative finance isn't going away, but it is in desperate need of reform. And one man--a math geek himself--thinks he knows where to start. (...)

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(The Economist - U.K.)

India's new government will have to grapple with a slowing economy and growing budget deficit, says its chief economic advisor (...)

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(Foreign Policy - U.S.)

In contrat to vlogging, live-journaling Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimiur Putin has generally preferred to let his actions do the talking. But this Friday, Putin will make his debut as a magazine columnist in the monthly magazine Russian Pioneer. But don't expect an ideological pean to the glories of sovereign democracy. (...)

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The cultural contradictions of J. M. Keynes (The New Criterion - U.S.)

John Maynard Keynes is the economist of the hour, returned to favor in consequence of the financial collapse. This is a "Keynesian moment" after three decades in intellectual exile, as some have said, the occasion for a Keynesian revival in which popular faith will be restored in government's capacity to engineer prosperity through tax and spending policies. As if to accelerate that revival, two publishers have recently gone into print with new editions of Keynes's most influential works, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, originally published in 1920,[1] and The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, which appeared first in 1936.[2] The reappearance of these two works, which express the different poles of his intellectual personality, provides a good occasion to review Keynes's thought in relation to the current slump. (...)

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Tight Times Loosen Creativity (The New York Times - U.S.)

This singer's story is just one of hundreds that poured into The New York Times Web site in response to a request asking artists to share how the economy is affecting their lives and work. Perhaps most striking about the comments was the considerable number who were defiantly upbeat despite grim circumstances. Many artists echoed Ms. Holland, testifying that the recession had strengthened their commitment to their work or allowed them to concentrate on their art -- since the time spent on side jobs had diminished -- or had even been a source of creative inspiration. (...)

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Global hunt for accidental millionaires (CNN - U.S.)

An international manhunt was under way Thursday for a New Zealand couple who fled after a bank mistakenly paid them NZ$10 million (US$6 million) when they applied for a loan of just NZ$10,000. New Zealand authorities said they had sought help from Interpol in locating the couple who disappeared May 7, two days after an employee error at Westpac bank paid them 1,000 times the amount they asked for. The accidental millionaires, who have not been identified by authorities but are believed to come from the resort of Rotorua, were thought to have left the country, police said.. (...)

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The Italian solution (The Economist - U.K.)

HIS company is among the smallest of the global volume carmakers. But right now Sergio Marchionne is without question the most talked-about car executive in the world. The chief executive of Fiat Group has been alone in seeing an extraordinary opportunity in the meltdown in Detroit. By seeking to take over the running of both Chrysler and Opel, the European arm of General Motors (GM), Mr Marchionne is attempting not only to transform Fiat into a car group almost of the scale of mighty Toyota and Volkswagen (VW), but also to change the face of a perennially troubled industry.

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(BBC - U.K.)

Economic conditions are at the forefront of many of India's voters' minds as Karishma Vaswani discovered when the BBC's election train stopped at Hyderabad. Millions of people in 107 constituencies are casting their votes in the third of five stages of the country's marathon general election.

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Seeking a Hollywood Ending in Sacramento (The New York Times - U.S.)

It has been a while since hordes of bedazzled constituents lined up outside pancake breakfasts in rural California to get a peek at their governor. The magazine covers once decorated with his butterscotch-hued visage have been replaced with images of the president, or, in recent days, swine.

Those convivial cigar breaks with lawmakers in the tent outside his office are now part of Sacramento history.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose mere name once stirred calls for lifting the constitutional ban on foreign-born presidents, is facing the most difficult period of his political career.

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(The Economist - U.K.)

Students and universities are strapped for funds, with little relief in sight

The class of 2009 will be almost the largest in America's history. More than 3m students are getting their high-school diplomas in late spring. Those who plan to go on to university have been told for years to expect a rough time: with so many students applying, winning admission to their college of choice will be a challenge. But those who clear that hurdle will find that their problems are just beginning. (...)

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SEC Charges Pang With Fraud (The Wall Street Journal - U.S.)

By KARA SCANNELL and MARK MAREMONT

The Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that financier Danny Pang defrauded investors of hundreds of millions of dollars and obtained a temporary order freezing his assets. As part of the SEC's civil lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles, U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez froze the assets of Mr. Pang and the Irvine, Calif., businesses he ran, Private Equity Management Group Inc. and Private Equity Management Group LLC. The judge also appointed a receiver, Robert P. Mosier, to safeguard the existing assets...

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Simon Johnson isn't a populist. He just thinks bankers run the country. (The American Prospect - U.S.)

By Tim Fernholz

The global economic crisis has produced far more villains than heroes among the economic experts in academia, journalism and business. Nonetheless, a few outspoken economists have become central to the national conversation, including Paul Krugman, who has actively critiqued the current administration from the left, Mark Zandi, whose research drove the stimulus debate, and Nouriel Roubini, who faced derision as "Dr. Doom" for his pessimistic but accurate pre-crash forecasts. None though, have created such a stir as Simon Johnson, the British-born economist and emerging markets expert who took a look at the United States and didn't see an economic powerhouse, but a banana republic.

"In its depth and suddenness, the U.S. economic and financial crisis is shockingly reminiscent of moments we have recently seen in emerging markets (and only in emerging markets)," Johnson writes in a piece published this month in The Atlantic...

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The Reeducation of Tim Geithner (Portfolio - U.S.)

In his worst moments, when the camera lights are ­burning and the doubt, the contempt, in the Capitol Hill hearing rooms become palpable, Tim Geithner has a look in his eye--at once wary and alarmed, even as he speaks quickly, sometimes interrupting, sometimes repeating his talking points. It has become a look that he owns. It is his. It has made him famous in all the wrong ways. The Geithner Look.

Perhaps it's the policy he is expounding--enough of an embrace of free markets and a disavowal of nationalization to alienate critics of Wall Street, but enough of a move toward "socialism" to infuriate the right. Perhaps Tim Geithner will be the Harry Truman of his generation, unappreciated by his contemporaries, awkward in public, but judged by history to have cured the nation's economic ills and, in comic-book fashion, defeated the media bullies who kicked sand in his face. Perhaps all he needs is some TV coaching and a better haircut.(...)

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An Interview with CEO Kenneth Lewis (Businessweek - U.S.)

April is turning out to be a cruel month for Bank of America (BAC) CEO Kenneth D. Lewis. Despite reporting a $4.2 billion first-quarter profit on Apr. 20, investors drove the bank's stock down 24%--a drop that contributed mightily to a 289.6-point decline in the Dow. The following day, the state treasurer of Connecticut called on Lewis to resign; on Apr. 23 he and other credit-card chieftains will be jawboned at the White House by President Obama about high interest rates and predatory practices; and on Apr. 29 he must face shareholders at BofA's annual meeting. I talked with Lewis twice this week, first for CNBC on Monday and then again the next day.(...)

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India's growing rural-urban divide (Al-Jazeera - Qatar)

India's economy has boomed in the past 15 years, but in many parts of the countryside that has made little difference.

In the cities, the manufacturing and services industries have grown by about 10 per cent a year in recent years, whereas agriculture has lagged far behind with a growth rate of just over 2 per cent.

Of course, it is difficult to generalise about a country as diverse as India, and there are some signs of new rural prosperity, such as increased sales of mobile phones.

But, in many places, villagers still feel they have been left behind.(...)

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Billionaires Reluctant to Give Up Their Toys (The Moscow Times - Russia)

For most of the decade, the country's billionaires spent hundreds of millions of dollars on boats, jets, expensive art and the occasional football team. But, despite strained bank accounts and public outrage, the tycoons have been loath to part with their expensive trinkets, choosing instead to hunker down and wait for better days.

To be sure, these are not happy days for the country's superrich. In Forbes magazine's latest ranking of the world's wealthiest people, Russia's billionaires had an estimated collective loss of $369 billion last year, and two-thirds fell from the list altogether. Moscow, which had 74 billionaires a year ago, more than any other city in the world, now finds itself with only 27.

Even those who have managed to hang on have not had an easy time of it. Oleg Deripaska, owner of RusAl, the world's largest aluminum company, has seen his net worth tumble from $40 billion to about $4 billion, and he ceded his spot as Russia's richest man to investor Mikhail Prokhorov, who himself is worth half of what he was in 2008.

The country's tabloids, trade unions and politicians have expressed outrage that the billionaires have been so reluctant to part with personal assets, especially as jobs and wages are being cut.(...)

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(The Wasinghon Post - U.S.)

This chairman set out to lead as a civil servant rather than a celebrity economist. Facing a thundering financial collapse, he has reinvented the Federal Reserve. By invoking emergency powers, Ben Bernanke has drawn criticism. He has transcended usual limits on the central bank and stretched its legal authority, committing vast sums of taxpayer dollars.

Every six weeks or so, around a giant mahogany table in an ornate room overlooking the National Mall, 16 people, one after another, give their take on how the U.S. economy is doing and what they, the leaders of the Federal Reserve, want to do about it. (...)

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(Matthew Yglesias - The Net)

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford has emerged as the current economic crisis's greatest sadist, not just refusing to help victims of economic distress in his state, but going the extra mile to ensure that the federal government can't help people either. Some say this is just a cynical play for Republican presidential primary votes, but it seems to me to reflect a very authentic strain of Dixie conservatism that simply takes a vindictive attitude toward the poor. You saw a lot of this in the Depression, when the locus of resistance to New Deal programs that transferred wealth from the prosperous northeast to the poor south was actually in the South.(...)

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Job seekers swarming to Atlantic provinces (The Globe and Mail - Canada)

Unemployed drawn to opportunities, quality of life in region hit less hard by slumping economy

George Halliwell has been a headhunter in Charlottetown for the past seven years and has never seen such a wave of Canadians clamouring to move east.
"I'm searching for an engineer in Halifax right now - and everyone from the automotive industry in Ontario is applying for the job. They might make $60,000 in Toronto or Guelph, but they're willing to take $50,000 here because of the housing costs, the way of life is a lot simpler, there are no traffic jams and it's more family oriented."
Businesses are benefiting because they can choose from a wider pool of skilled talent, says Mr. Halliwell, who does recruiting across Canada. "We're able to relocate people now who otherwise wouldn't think of coming to the Maritimes."(...)

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Obama's Nobel Headache (Newsweek - U.S.)

If you are of the establishment persuasion (and I am), reading Krugman makes you uneasy. You hope he's wrong, and you sense he's being a little harsh (especially about Geithner), but you have a creeping feeling that he knows something that others cannot, or will not, see. By definition, establishments believe in propping up the existing order. Members of the ruling class have a vested interest in keeping things pretty much the way they are. Safeguarding the status quo, protecting traditional institutions, can be healthy and useful, stabilizing and reassuring. But sometimes, beneath the pleasant murmur and tinkle of cocktails, the old guard cannot hear the sound of ice cracking. The in crowd of any age can be deceived by self-confidence, as Liaquat Ahamed has shown in "Lords of Finance," his new book about the folly of central bankers before the Great Depression, and David Halberstam revealed in his Vietnam War classic, "The Best and the Brightest." Krugman may be exaggerating the decay of the financial system or the devotion of Obama's team to preserving it. But what if he's right, or part right? What if President Obama is squandering his only chance to step in and nationalize--well, maybe not nationalize, that loaded word--but restructure the banks before they collapse altogether?(...)

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Splitting bears (Free Exchange - The Net)

IT SEEMED, not long ago, that the bears and doomsayers were racing to see who could present the most apocalyptic scenario for the global economy (and indeed, it seemed for a while that facts on the ground would eventually catch up to their predictions). But as deterioration in economic variables has ceased accelerating, splits in outlooks are appearing.(...)

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Homecoming (NEWSWEEK - U.S.)

For the last four decades, international migration has been a one-way journey. Now the human tide is slowing and even starting to reverse itself.(...)

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