Robert J. Samuelson

Will Obama's stimulus plan really work?

2008 was the year our high-flying economy fell to earth. What comes next?

4. Ben Bernanke 5. Jean-Claude Trichet 6. Masaaki Shirakawa

We're a collection of special interests. If people can't organize to influence the government, then democracy is dead.

Despite Obama's all-star team, Bernanke is the most powerful economic policymaker in Washington

The stock market is nothing if not a psychological barometer. The present signal is unmistakable: fear. It's not just that the market has dropped by more than half; that decline parallels some previous post-World War II bear markets (48 percent in 1973-74 and 49 percent in 2000-02).

How lower prices could actually hurt the economy.

Making the rich poorer doesn't make everyone else richer

It's not just the financial crisis: higher taxes, energy costs and health spending also threaten growth.

What we really need is an economic package with legs.

You need to appeal to the shame and guilt of older Americans

There are dangers in deleveraging too fast.

Unlike during the Great Depression the government is now a huge part of the economy. And officials have moved quickly, if clumsily, to contain the crisis.

Why the crisis will deepen and get harder to fix

Digging deeper into the bailout's economics

Why acting too hastily could create even more problems.

Every financial system depends on trust. We are in a full-blown crisis because investors and financial managers have lost that trust.

How greed and fear collapsed the market's business model

It's not about coverage. It's about costs.

Are Americans really better or worse off?

Obama and McCain have each taken symbolic steps to suggest that they've made tough budget choices. Don't believe them.

Will its takeover over the U.S. economy really matter?

Judged by their rhetoric, you might think McCain and Obama differ dramatically on energy. But their agendas overlap substantially.

Passionate partisanship is causing Americans to self-segregate into lifestyle ghettos.

As a society, we overinvest in real estate. We build (and buy) too many extra-big homes and strive to make almost everyone into a buyer.

Countries are becoming more interdependent and nationalistic. This combustible combination could lead to instability.

Candidates often avoid the big issues, because they involve unpopular choices and conflicts.

The candidates say financial slimeballs are piling into commodities markets and pushing prices to artificial and unconscionable levels. If only it were that simple.

An indecisive Fed risks repeating its previous blunder.

The world may have arrived at the equivalent of Peak Oil. Old fields are in decline, while governments limit new oil projects.