Robert J. Samuelson

Top White House economic aide Larry Summers gave a major policy speech at the Peterson Institute for International Economics today, but it had more to do with public relations than economics.

Get ready for 10 percent unemployment. That's the message from the Fed.Every quarter, the five members of the Federal Reserve Board and the presidents of the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks give their best guesses about the economic outlook.

Just don't ask us to pay for it.

The rich really aren't like you and me: They're historically recession-proof. But this time they've been hit hard—and we may all be the poorer for it.

Why Obama's financial 'reforms' won't prevent future crises.

We won't even admit we have one.

In the elaborate roll-out of its proposed overhaul of financial regulations, the one thing that President Obama, Timothy Geithner, and their economic advisers have not done is explain how their recommendations--if they had been in place four or five year ago--would have prevented the present financial and economic crisis.

It's hard to know whether Obama's healthcare proposal is naive, hypocritical or simply dishonest.

If President Obama thought he'd score some easy political points by endorsing new PAYGO legislation to control deficit spending, he was sadly mistaken. Although PAYGO--budget-speak for "pay-as-you-go"--seems to limit Congress' ability to cut taxes or raise spending, the initial reviews were unkind and sometimes harsh."This is like qutting drinking, but making an exception for beer and hard liquor," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, an advocacy...

The Fed could end up facing both.

The most interesting part of Fed chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony this morning before the House Budget Committee was his unambiguous emphasis on the need to reduce future federal budget deficits.

Is the press giving the president a free pass?

Solving Social Security and Medicare.

My column earlier this week

The president takes another economic gamble.

Are multinationals not paying their fair share?

Expanding any fossil-fuel production offends many Americans. But policies placating this prejudice aren't in our national interest.

Environmentalists maximize the dangers of global warming while pretending we can conquer it at virtually no cost.

Almost all the errors of the 1930s were rooted in the economic orthodoxies of the time. Could the same be true today?

Does Obama's recovery plan ignore economic logic?

The world economy is suspended between the lofty rhetoric of last week's G20 summit and the gritty realities of domestic politics.

The treasury secretary's plan carries risk.

The story of American capitalism is, among other things, a love-hate relationship. We go through cycles of congratulation, revulsion and revision. Just when the latest episode of revulsion and revision began is unclear.

Why we're better off than we were in the 1930s.

Uncertainty (too much) and confidence (too little) define this crisis. Investors have surely noted the gap between Obama's rhetoric and his actions.

Why the president's housing priorities won't work

Can Obama's economic plan avoid Japan's missteps?

Inept bankers may not deserve help, but that's not the point. If the financial sector isn't revived, then the economy will stay depressed.

As Americans save more of their incomes, Asians should save less, and spend more, to generate growth as opposed to exports.

For Obama, today's misery is a political opportunity.