The very first email I got [was] from a women's group saying 'We don't want this stimulus package to just create jobs for burly men.'

Tax increases appear to have a very large sustained and highly significant negative impact on output.

In the four decades after World War II, manufacturing jobs paid more than other jobs for given skills. But that is much less true today. Increased international competition has forced American manufacturers to reduce costs. As a result, the pay premium for low-skilled workers in manufacturing is smaller than it once was.

What I desire to point out is that I wish the law was not so, but that being the law, I must follow it.

Cold-turkey deficit reduction would cause a significant recession. A recent analysis by the Congressional Budget Office estimated that going headlong over the cliff would cause our gross domestic product, which has been growing at an annual rate of around 2 percent, to fall at a rate of 2.9 percent in the first half of 2013.

As a former member of President Obama's economic team, I have a soft spot for the fiscal stimulus legislation he signed just a month after his inauguration.

Making labor less expensive helps firms hire people.