The missive that House conservatives issued early Friday may be called an "economic recovery plan," but it is as threadbare as the big discount goods store that went belly-up in my neighborhood a few weeks ago and is now in the final days of bankruptcy liquidation.

When it comes to reviving the economy, tax cuts do not work as well as smart public spending. That is economic common sense proven true by the past two attempts at tax-cut stimulus, in 2008 and in 2003-04.

The latest figures indicate that the Canadian economy is becoming more deeply entrenched in recession, with no recovery in sight. Another 34,400 jobs were lost in December, on top of 70,600 in November, for a two-month total of 105,000.

As the economic crisis drags on, more people in the United States are struggling to get the food they need, turning to food pantries and food stamps for help at a greater rate than at any time in recent history.

Dick Cheney tried to re-write history this week. Surprised? Well, no. But the subject he tried to revise and the way he did it gives a snapshot of the mindset of the ultra right and its disastrous policies.

Employers cut 524,000 jobs in the months of December, the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed Friday, Jan. 9th. Altogether the jobless rate jumped to 7.2 percent, the highest in 16 years.

In a meeting with his top economic advisors, Jan. 6th, President-elect Barack Obama pledged to ban earmarks from his economic recovery package and to establish an oversight group to ensure the money would be spent wisely.

In an otherwise excellent article debunking Bush as a phony socialist [as he is being dubbed on right-wing talk radio], Joel Wendland writes the following theses that I think deserve "a deeper look."

In his weekend video address to the nation, President-elect Barack Obama called on Congress for fast action on a plan to stimulate the US economy. Obama re-stated his plan to invest in rebuilding infrastructure, including roads, bridges and schools in order to quickly create about three million jobs.

The US economy is already in recession for a year and is expected to hit bottom in mid-2009, which would make it the longest recession since World War II, Standard & Poor's chief economist David Wyss said in a recent interview.

The Republican Party is lashing out again. This time at itself. Several media sources recently reported that at an upcoming Republican National Convention meeting a resolution has been submitted that accuses George W. Bush of promoting socialism through the Wall Street bailout.

The economic outcomes of 2009 for working people, one year from now, is in the hands of the acutest political struggle which is emerging over how exactly government should intervene in the US economy to avert a depression?

Former US government officials often become either lobbyists or high paid executives for corporations over whom they previously had some regulatory power. They then often return to government much richer than when the left to serve the interests of those corporations.

Some $350 billion in taxpayer cash has been handed over to the biggest banks in the country without oversight or even the slightest curiosity by the US government about what has been done with the money.

Corporate Welfare, corporate communism, call it what you; let's not make a deal. Let's indict. The probelms that have led to today's recession were cause by bad regulators and the short-sighted members of Congress who enabled them.

There have been various calls to let the domestic automakers fold. That bad decisions have led them to this juncture and if bankruptcy comes, so be it – why shouldn’t they be allowed to fail goes the argument.

What will be impact of the Wall Street bankruptcies, bailouts and blunders on working people in this country and worldwide? What's the solution to the crisis?

Last Tuesday, December 16 (2008), the Bernanke Fed took the most unusual step of lowering the overnight inter-bank lending rate, the federal funds rate, to a level never reached before, i.e. zero percent with an upside limit of 0.25 percent.

The collapse of the congressional short-term bailout of the imperiled US auto industry brings us to a crossroads. The immediate cause was right-wing Republican demands to kill the UAW as the price tag for its support.

Paul Krugman has launched a determined ideological campaign for the return of the ideas of John Maynard Keynes as the best and most effective framework, for both economic theory and policy, to address the rapidly spreading global financial and economic crisis.