Generous unemployment benefits can increase both structural and frictional unemployment. So government policies intended to help workers can have the undesirable side effect of raising the natural rate of unemployment.

You know that Republicans will yell about the evils of partisanship whenever anyone tries to make a connection between the rhetoric of Beck, Limbaugh, etc. and the violence I fear we’re going to see in the months and years ahead. But violent acts are what happen when you create a climate of hate. And it’s long past time for the GOP’s leaders to take a stand against the hate-mongers.

A message to progressives: By all means, hang Senator Joe Lieberman in effigy.

The real danger with debt is what happens if lots of people decide, or are forced, to pay it off at the same time.

People who are complaining about the Fed are people who've been predicting runaway inflation for five and six years, and it hasn't happened.

It's a funny thing, by the way, how people who love free markets are also quite sure that they know that investors are being irrational.

What our economy needs is direct job creation by the government and mortgage-debt relief for stressed consumers. What it very much does not need is a transfer of billions of dollars to corporations that have no intention of hiring anyone except more lobbyists.