Sign In

nationaljournal.com > National Journal Magazine > Opening Argument

Sponsored Links

Advanced Search

by Stuart Taylor Jr.

Saturday, Jan. 31, 2009

This has been a good week, and may be a good year, for lawyers, civil-rights groups and others... More

Register Sign In

By Shikha Dalmia

At his recent confirmation hearing, Tim Geithner—Barack Obama's Treasury Secretary—pulled out his saber and rattled it at China's alleged currency-manipulating ways, testimony to the stiff protectionist headwind in the U.S. right now. But the real test of whether President Obama will resist the wind or blow with it will come when he decides what... More

CBO has released a cost estimate for H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which was introduced today in the House of Representatives. A link to the full cost estimate can be found here.

As summarized in the cost estimate, H.R. 1 would specify appropriations for a wide range of federal programs and would increase or extend certain benefits payable under the Medicaid, unemployment compensation, and... More

WSJ.com is available in the following editions and languages:

Thank you for registering.

We sent an email to:

Please click on the link inside the email to complete your registration

Please register to gain free access to WSJ tools.

An account already exists for the email address entered.

Forgot your... More

The Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its monthly Employment Situation report this morning, and you've surely already seen the headlines about 524,000 in job losses and a 7.2% employment rate.  But I thought it would be helpful to go through the basics, as in times like these lots of people who normally ignore the employment report are suddenly obsessed with it. (For those of you who know far more about this stuff than I do,... More

N. GREGORY MANKIW Published: January 10, 2009

WHEN the Obama administration finally unveils its proposal to get the economy on the road to recovery, the centerpiece is likely to be a huge increase in government spending. But there are ample reasons to doubt whether this is what the economy needs.

Arguably, the seeds of the spending proposal can be found in the classic textbook by Paul... More

The second reason this focus is puzzling is that there is a far more important inequality: that is the inequality in life expectancy. Precisely because income in excess of a fairly modest income (modest, at least, by U.S. standards) is not very important, what matters more for happiness is the amount of time we have on this earth to be happy. Few would deny that a few additional years of life would be more precious to most... More

Increase Font Size

Printer-Friendly

Email a Friend

Respond to this article

When it comes to fighting recessions, there's a tendency to see "fiscal stimulus" packages as wasteful, as a form of "throwing money at the problem." The critics have a point. But the conclusion that therefore we should do nothing is also wrong. Instead, careful attention should be paid to the details. Just as a family pinched... More

Edward L. Glaeser is an economist at Harvard.

How ethical should businesses be?

Two hundred and thirty years ago, Adam Smith made the case for selfishness when he wrote that "it is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest."� Right now, the public is more likely to view greed as a deadly sin than an engine of economic... More