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Ted Williams, a homeless US man with a deep, refined voice has become an overnight online sensation after being "discovered" by a local reporter on a street corner in Columbus, Ohio. The 53 year-old has now been offered a job by the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers and is being pursued by NFL Films for possible work. Williams said the team had offered him a two-year contract and said they would pay his living expenses. Williams was recently living in a tent and whose past includes a lengthy list of... Read Full Story

There’s a myth in the USA that just won’t go away. It’s this idea that a household balance sheet is somehow comparable to that of the federal government’s. Few myths are more destructive and lead to greater confusion and/or misguided government policy. In recent months this has become a particularly public subject as the debt ceiling debates have raged and the European debt crisis continues. The problem is, the analogy between a sovereign government’s balance sheet and a household’s balance... Read Full Story

If you hadn’t noticed over the course of the last few weeks, Paul Krugman appears to be making a move closer to the Modern Monetary Realism position that government debt is not something that constrains a government in the same way that it constrains a household. He writes: “People think of debt’s role in the economy as if it were the same as what debt means for an individual: there’s a lot of money you have to pay to someone else. But that’s all wrong; the debt we create is basically... Read Full Story

Jobs numbers were released today for the month of January and compared to what we've seen in the last few years, the signs are pretty positive. Official unemployment fell to 8.3% the lowest since February of 2009. But long term unemployment remains a major issue, with the share of the jobless who have been out of work for more than 6 months at 43% and 1.2 million people dropped out of the labor force in just the past month. Campaign For America's Future's Richard Eskow breaks it all down... Read Full Story

The Top 10 Global Economic Challenges report focuses on the most critical issues facing America’s 44th president. From restoring financial stability to establishing a U.S. policy on climate change and engaging the emerging economic powers, the report contains timely analysis and recommendations by Brookings leading global economic experts. Given its enormous stake in a strong and resilient economy, it will be critical for America to lead on today’s main global economic challenges. In this... Read Full Story

Almost half the world — over 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day. The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen. 1... Read Full Story

America is getting poorer. The U.S. government has just released a bunch of new statistics about poverty in America, and once again this year the news is not good. According to a special report from the U.S. Census Bureau, 46.2 million Americans are now living in poverty. The number of those living in poverty in America has grown by 2.6 million in just the last 12 months, and that is the largest increase that we have ever seen since the U.S. government began calculating poverty figures back... Read Full Story

Nearly one in six Americans was living in poverty last year, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, a development that is ensnaring growing numbers of children and offering vivid proof of the recession’s devastating impact. The report portrays a nation where many people are slipping backward in the wake of a downturn that left 14 million people out of work and pushed unemployment rates to levels not seen in decades. As poverty surged last year to its highest level since 1993, median... Read Full Story

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos a few days ago, said the “critical risks” facing the American economy this year were a worsening of Europe’s chronic sovereign debt crisis and a rise in tensions with Iran that could stoke global oil prices. What about jobs and wages here at home? As the Commerce Department reported Friday, the U.S. economy grew 2.8 percent between October and December – the fastest pace in 18 months and the first time growth... Read Full Story

After the scuffles over the raising of the debt ceiling ended with a final rise of the most awaited debt limit and after S&P cut off a notch from the pristine credit rating of the US (AAA), President Barack Obama has finally rolled off his plan to help the US get back on track. Unless the Obama administration slashes off the national debt, nothing positive can ever happen to the economy. Though a number of groups have published their own debt reduction plan, nothing has ever been effective in... Read Full Story