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The article focuses on Alan Greenspan, the former Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed). It considers how he has been blamed by many for the 2008-2009 financial crisis. It discusses his belief that he did not cause the crisis or could have prevented it, and that one day he will be able to exonerate himself. He talks of how he spends his days, research he is conducting about the economy and his tenure at the Fed, and his relationship with John Taylor of Sanford University.

The article reports on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by the U.S. President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. It highlights various medical coverage of ACA including preventive services such as mammograms and colonoscopies, public health programs and health insurance. It also notes that the law provide medical coverage to the insured and uninsured Americans in the country.

The article examines Chinese concern about economic policies within the U.S. With a significant amount of their national funds invested in the U.S. government, Chinese officials are interested to see how legislation and government policies within the nation will bolster U.S. creditworthiness. The author discusses a meeting between U.S. Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag and Chinese bureaucrats that focused on the progression of health care reform.

The article presents an interview with U.S. President Barack Obama, focusing on his evolving relationship with business leaders. Obama discusses the magnitude of the issues facing the country, the degree to which decision making involves working with probabilities, and perceptions among some business leaders that his policies could by construed as antibusiness.

The article discusses U.S. President Barack Obama, focusing on his evolving relationship with business leaders. Business leaders are said to have found that they have generally enjoyed considerable access to the President and his top advisers. The administration has been particularly engaged with the health care and energy sectors. INSETS: BUSINESS AND THE OBAMA AGENDA;ROBERT GREIFELD/T.J. RODGERS/JAMES GOODNIGHT;RICHARD A. SMITH/ROBERT WOLF/DANIEL R. DIMICCO.

The article discusses the efforts of U.S. President Barack Obama and his staff, led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, to rescue the economy from the financial crisis. Topics discussed in the article include the economic stimulus package, the work of Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, and the limited time Obama's team had to settle into their jobs once Obama took office.

In this article the authors discuss Barack Obama, in December 2008 the president-elect of the United States, and his need to act on economic policy prior to his January 2009 inauguration. A number of other issues are addressed in the article including the members of Obama's economic advisory team, a bailout for the U.S. automobile industry and the likely provisions contained in a national economic stimulus package.

An editorial is presented on the United States' need for an economic strategy that will offer long-term prosperity. The author feels that the U.S. needs to remain globally competitive despite the ongoing financial crisis. He also believes that the American political system is in a state which prevents the development of long-term strategies.

The speech "Lengthening the Projections of the Economic Horizons," delivered by Governor of the Federal Reserve Board Frederic S. Mishkin to the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington D.C. on July 28, 2008, is presented.

The article discusses a difficult choice facing U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke. A weak housing market and flagging job growth argue for a reduction in interest rates. But declining productivity suggests rate cuts could be inflationary. In the 1970s reduced interest rates during a time of low productivity growth produced stagflation. Central bankers of strong foreign economies would be unlikely to follow suit if the U.S cut rates, introducing further complications.

The article focuses on the history of the calorie, a measurement which determines the energy value of food products. Particular emphasis is given to the implications of the calorie during war time in the United States, when Herbert Hoover encouraged Americans to restrain their intake in order to face the difficulties of war. The application of the calorie in American culture is discussed. The invention of the calorimeter by Wilbur O. Atwater in 1896 is also discussed.

The author discusses the economic policy responses to previous depressions. He mentions the depressions of 1920-1921 and the Great Depression, the effect of changes in taxation and regulations, and how the lessons learned then can be applied to the economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis. He also mentions the closure of most New York City restaurants and mentions three new novels.

The article reports that the unchecked conservative capitalism of the 1980s and 1990s is no longer running a functional economy, leaving Republicans at a loss for economic policy and giving progressives a chance to try something new. An alternative economics would ensure that the government supported Americans with decent wages, progressive taxes, regulated industry and a guarantee that their essential needs will be met.

The article looks at how some Americans are doing business with the government of North Korea. North Korea's economy is a shambles: At an estimated $18 billion, its GNP has dropped 36% since 1989. And while foreign investment is permitted under some circumstances, investors must navigate a perilous course among corrupt officials, cumbersome foreign-exchange controls and a legal vacuum. Along with the fund's two British executive advisers--Colin McAskill, a 66-year-old marine engineer and former banking consultant to the North Korean government, and Anthony Moody, 63, an investment banker who once headed Zurich Scudder Investments' asset management unit in Asia--he is trying to raise money from institutional and wealthy investors. North Korea, they insist, is rich in mineral resources and cheap skilled labor. So why not invest in capital equipment and technology, sell gold, magnesite, molybdenum and the like overseas and offer a cut to shareholders? That's the plan. Few Americans know that it's legal to do business with North Korea, with which the U.S. is technically still at war.

The article argues that U.S. Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben S. Bernanke will preside over a diminished central bank. Bernanke will succeed chairman Alan Greenspan. Global interest rates follow the lead of the Federal Reserve. The U.S. is dependent on foreign investors to fund its trade deficit, so the Federal Reserve will not have as much clout in international financial flows. The article discusses monetary policy decisions that Bernanke will face. INSETS: DOWN FROM MOUNT OLYMPUS;THE BUZZ ABOUT BERNANKE.

This article presents an interview with Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. When asked about the growing U.S. trade deficit, Gates expressed concern that the reaction to this imbalance is to put on trade restrictions to bring imports down, which would lead other nations to do similar things. Buffett considers high tech one of America's huge advantages. He believes that, economically, the U.S. is going to be fine. Both men talked about their different philosophies on philanthropy, their investments, and where they see themselves in the future. Gates explained why he is investing in Berkshire Hathaway. INSETS: Buffett speaks out…;Gates speaks out….

Focuses on the economic and management challenges facing the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) following Hurricane Katrina. Controversy surrounding FEMA's no-bid contract with the Carnival Corp.; Review of how the rebuilding effort will be the most expensive government building exercise in history; Economic statistics related to the cost of the recovery effort; Political controversies stemming from government contracts involving Halliburton Co. and Kellog Brown & Root.

Presents the author's view on the changes to the American social security system proposed by U.S. President George W. Bush. Review of comments made by Bush during his Republican nomination acceptance speech; View that Bush is proposing an ownership society and changes to Social Security that would shift the risks and costs of the system onto the workers most disadvantaged by the social and economic shifts of the last generation; Suggestion that the major domestic challenge of the twenty-first century is to give workers economic security in a transformed world; View that Republican plans for tackling insecurity continually promise one thing and do another.

Examines the history of liberalism in the U.S. in an attempt to put the plight of present-day liberalism in perspective. Structural factors underlying why recent Democratic presidents, including Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, failed to enact liberal programs, whereas past Democrats, like Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon, were successful; Franklin D. Roosevelt's definition of himself as a liberal, making him the first U.S. president to do so; Basis of Roosevelt's liberalism, which included the Wilsonian belief that a strong government was needed to regulate a complex civilization and the Jacksonian belief in economic equality. INSET: 'Liberal' enters the American political lexicon, thanks to TNR..

Presents a speech by George W. Bush, President of the U.S., delivered to the Detroit Economic Club in Detroit, Michigan on February 8, 2005. Commitment of the Bush administration to economic development; Challenges posed by the national security initiative of the government; List of economic reforms aimed at reducing the federal budget deficit.

Looks at the impact of interest rates on economic policy in the U.S. Impact of the Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on interest rate policies; Report that some policy makers anticipate an interest rate increase; Economic impact of current slow-increase policies; Predictions for U.S. monetary policy in 2005.

The Editors: In an effort to help develop a progressive position on outsourcing--one that reflects a concern about the well-being of American workers and those in the countries to which many US jobs have fled--we have solicited three views on the subject. Sarah Anderson and John Cavanagh: Global outsourcing of service jobs is one of the most disturbing manifestations of the US government's corporate-friendly approach to globalization and requires a fundamental reorientation of policy that will aid workers at home and abroad. The key impediments to rising pay appear to be rampant unemployment, labor repression and increased employer power to play workers off against one another in a globalized economy. Jeff Madrick: No one really knows how many jobs are being outsourced these days, and odds are that the numbers are less alarming than those bandied about. But one survey found that more than 40 percent of US businesses say the weak job market is due to outsourcing of domestic jobs. And job outsourcing is now moving up the skills ladder, meaning America's high level of education may no longer protect workers. Even if we are not already outsourcing as many jobs as is feared, the nation may be on the verge of a far faster growth in the trend. Doug Henwood: So what's up? We can never know for sure, but it's likely that this is what a postbubble economy looks like. After its bubble burst in 1989, Japan lived through more than a decade of economic stagnation, and it was years before people realized that the problem wasn't a matter of a short-term business cycle but something more profound.

This article discusses the current state of NAFTA ten years after it was implemented and focuses on it's future. Ten years ago, the North American Free Trade Agreement was sold to the people of the United States, Mexico and Canada as a simple treaty eliminating tariffs on goods crossing the three countries' borders. But NAFTA is much more: It is the constitution of an emerging continental economy that recognizes one citizen--the business corporation. The business-backed politicians who pushed the agreement through the three legislatures promised that NAFTA would generate prosperity that would more than compensate "ordinary" people for its lack of social protections. Foreign investors would make Mexico an economic tiger, turning its poor workers into middle-class consumers who would then buy US and Canadian goods, creating more jobs in the high-wage countries. Every day, more intracontinental connections in finance, marketing, production and other business networks are being hard-wired for a consolidated North American market Ford pickup trucks are assembled in Mexico with engines from Ontario and transmissions from Ohio and Michigan Canadian, Mexican and US investors have created a labyrinth of interconnected corporate assets. Indeed, given the influence of the United States in setting the rules for the global economy, a visible, sustained challenge to the NAFTA model here may be the most important contribution progressives on this continent can make to the building of a more just global economic system.

Robin Hanson is a married, 44-year-old father of two who teaches economics at George Mason University in Virginia, and he thinks democracy should be replaced with a system he calls "futarchy," in which government policies are determined largely by a futures exchange. His work has been published mostly in off-the-beaten-track journals or on the Internet discussion boards of a group called the Extropians, the members of which combine boundless enthusiasm for technology with an extreme form of libertarianism. This summer one of Hanson's "viewquakes," as he likes to call them, became a genuine national sensation, and being associated with it cost retired admiral and former National Security Advisor John Poindexter his Pentagon job. This seemingly toxic idea was what came to be known as the "terrorism futures market." The official name for it was the Policy Analysis Market, a Pentagon-sponsored experimental online futures exchange that would have allowed traders to speculate on wars, assassinations, and terrorism in the Middle East--as well as more innocuous matters like Iran's GDP growth and Egypt's level of political stability--as a way to improve intelligence forecasting. The exchange was assailed as immoral, a "futures market in death," and a ghoulish way for terrorists to profit from their evil acts. INSET: Oscar, Saddam, and other tradable goods.

Abraham Lincoln would have well understood the challenges facing many modern emerging nations. In Lincoln's America, as in many developing nations today, sweeping economic change threatened older industries, traditional ways of living, and social and national cohesion by exposing economies and societies to new and powerful competitive forces. Yet even in the midst of the brutal and expensive American Civil war--and in part because of it--Lincoln and the Republican Congress enacted bold legislation that helped create a huge national market, a strong and unified economy governed by national institutions, and a rising middle class of businessmen and property owners. Figuring out how to maximize the benefits of globalization while minimizing its disruptions is a formidable challenge for policy makers. How do you expand opportunities for the talented and the lucky while making sure the rest of society doesn't fall behind? It may be helpful to look at the principles that informed the policies that Lincoln and the Republican Congress instituted after they came to power 1861: • Facilitate the upward mobility of low and middle-income groups to give them a significant stake in the country. • Emphasize the good of the national economy over regional interests. • Affirm the need for sound government institutions to temper the dynamics of the free enterprise system. • Tailor policies to the national situation. • Realize that a period of turmoil may present a unique opportunity for reform. These principles drove the reforms that helped Americans cope with and benefit from rapid technological advances and the fast integration of the American economy in the nineteenth century. They may be instructive to today's policy makers who are struggling to help their own citizens integrate into the fast-changing global economy of the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]