• Deficit
• Energy
• Federal Reserve
• Food
• Green Economy
• Healthcare
• Housing
• Jobs and Worker Rights
• Local Economy
• Military Spending
• Safety Net
• Taxes
• Trade
• Transit

By Robert B. Reich
Politcio

Mitt Romney is smart enough not to join Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin in using the proposed mosque at ground zero to to lauch a presidential bid. While Gingrich is busy comparing Muslims to Nazis (“Nazis don’t have the right to put up a sign next to the holocaust museum in Washington”), and Palin is calling on New Yorkers to “refudiate” the plan (she subsequently corrected her word choice), Romney is offering an economic plan.

That’s a wise choice. Mitt knows Americans don’t care about mosques in Manhattan. They care about money in their own mitts.

By Paul Wiseman
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Federal housing policy offers the wealthiest Americans billions in tax breaks without delivering much bang for the buck in increased homeownership, critics told government policymakers Tuesday.

"We aren't getting our money's worth," Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, said at a government conference on reforming housing policy.

By Robert Field
NewsLanc

An article “Past Peak Prosperity” from a prominent Sunday News columnist reflects:

By Bob Willis - Aug 11, 2010 4:30 PM ET
Bloomberg

The U.S. trade deficit unexpectedly widened in June by a record $7.9 billion as imports rose and shipments abroad declined.

The $49.9 billion gap was the biggest since October 2008 and followed a $42 billion shortfall in May, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. Exports dropped by the most in more than a year.

How: Gold. Tax cuts. Debts. Wars. Fat Cats. Class gap. No fiscal discipline

It's going to get worse -- a whole lot worse

By Paul B. Farrell
Market Warch

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- "How my G.O.P. destroyed the U.S. economy." Yes, that is exactly what David Stockman, President Ronald Reagan's director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote in a recent New York Times op-ed piece, "Four Deformations of the Apocalypse."

- if so, then how about following the advice of an honoured Canadian and "go where the money is"

By Paul Jay
Canada.com

"It's a stinker," says Bill Gross about the latest report on Canadian unemployment. As manager of the world's largest mutual fund (based in California), I guess Gross knows a thing or two about money. As reported in Bloomberg, Gross also said commodity-based economies like Canada's aren't doing as well as expected. The median forecast of 22 economists in a Bloomberg News survey was for 12,500 more jobs.

By THOM SHANKER
New York Times

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Monday that he would close a military command, restrict the use of outside contractors and reduce the number of generals and admirals across the armed forces as part of a broad effort to rein in Pentagon spending.

By Rebecca Abrahams
Huffington Post

Election fraud attorney Bob Fitrakis is sending letters today to attorneys representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Crossroads requesting that they retain all documents, emails, accounting records and other records. This "document hold" is the first step toward legal action based on the groups' alleged laundering of illegal campaign contributions from large corporations.

A Research Study on Investment and Deficit Reduction

Democracy Corps

By letsgetitdone
FDL

By Allen W. Smith
Dissident Voice

In December, the Obama deficit-reduction commission will make recommendations for budget cuts that will then be voted on, with an up or down vote, by the lame-duck Congress. Already, there is much speculation that Social Security will be one of the big targets. The rationale for cutting Social Security seems to be that, during such difficult economic times, everything should be a candidate for the chopping block, and that the public should support such cuts out of a sense of patriotism.

The Daily Beast

Economists Manifesto

Does the G-20 Show the Shape of things to Come -- austerity and extreme police actions?

By Paul Jay
Real News Network

With all the public attention during G20 on the 1000 arrests and such, something critical was overlooked. That's the paradox the assembled heads of governments created for ending the global economic crisis.

The G20 leaders recognize that "demand" needs to grow. That means people must have the means to buy stuff. Do a search in the G20 Toronto Summit Declaration and fourteen times you'll find a reference to boosting or increasing "demand".

By Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge

As we close on another week replete with ugly economic data and the usual bizarro counterintuitive market, here is a summary of the 50 most underreported facts about the state of the US economy, courtesy of the Coto report [1]. After reading these it almost makes sense that the market has become completely desensitized to the sad reality now pervasive in this country. Readers are encouraged to add their own observations to this list. Surely if the list is doubled, the market will go up to 72,000 instead of just 36,000.

By Ezra Klein
Washington Post

Financial reform has passed. The sprawling legislation is meant to be an air bag protecting us from the next major crash, which of course raises the question: Will it work?

"We would have loved to have something like this for Lehman Brothers," said Hank Paulson, who served as Treasury secretary when the financial system melted down in 2008. "There's no doubt about it."

Debt commission leaders paint gloomy picture

By GLEN JOHNSON
Associated Press

BOSTON – The heads of President Barack Obama's national debt commission painted a gloomy picture Sunday as the United States struggles to get its spending under control.

Republican Alan Simpson and Democrat Erskine Bowles told a meeting of the National Governors Association that everything needs to be considered — including curtailing popular tax breaks, such as the home mortgage deduction, and instituting a financial trigger mechanism for gaining Medicare coverage.

Are you still looking for a great summer activity? Here is one that will be fun and build your advocacy skills.

Agence France Presse

The International Monetary Fund on Thursday urged the United States to put its budget deficit "on a sustainable path," that would not hurt the "modest" economic recovery.

"The central challenge is to develop a credible fiscal strategy to ensure that public debt is put -- and is seen to be put -- on a sustainable path without putting the recovery in jeopardy," the IMF said in a report.

Road to Perdition

By Jim Willie
Financial Sense