The Chicago Tribune's Mary Owens has a good piece on one consequence of the recession -- the lack of summer jobs for teenagers. Jobs that teens in Chicago, and elsewhere, used to get at fast food restaurants or retail stores either no longer exist or have been taken by ...

The Washington Post's Michael A. Fletcher and Dana Hedgpeth have a report on unemployment benefits that includes Arizona Sen. John Kyl doubting that the continual extension of these benefits helps the economy. The Post frustratingly doesn't point out that Kyl is probably wrong. Almost every economist agrees that these benefits do, indeed, stimulate the economy by putting money into the hands of people likely to spend that money immediately.

Harper's Magazine, one of the best publications in America today, continues to expose hypocrisy in American government and the violence that is integral to our country today.  Read Scott Horton's shocking investigation into the deaths of three detainees at the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Naval Base.  These three men each "committed suicide" in one night, in the same way:  by first (somehow) stuffing rags down their own throats and then (improbably) hanging themselves.

Pro Publica's Christopher Flavelle reports that only $309 billion of the $787 billion in stimulus bill money has been spent. The federal government has decided how to spend $153 billion of the remaining $478 billion. Meanwhile, state governments and federal agencies have yet to claim $237 billion of the ...

Here's an interesting bit from a New York Times' editorial today critical of Barack Obama's home foreclosure prevention policies: The administration’s $75 billion antiforeclosure program, which subsidizes lenders to rework bad loans, has been a big disappointment. One reason is that its usual method of modifying loans — lowering the ...

The Wall Street Journals's Michael R. Crittenden and Marshall Eckblad report: U.S. banks posted last year their sharpest decline in lending since 1942, suggesting that the industry's continued slide is making it harder for the economy to recover. While top-tier banks are recovering at a faster clip, the rest of the industry is still suffering, according to a quarterly report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Banks fighting for survival, especially those plagued by losses on commercial real estate, are less willing to extend loans, siphoning credit from businesses and consumers.

The New York Times' David Leonhardt has a pretty good column today that points out the success of the stimulus bill and calls for another, smaller stimulus package. But in praising the stimulus, Leonhardt makes a confusing distinction: Just look at the outside evaluations of the stimulus. Perhaps the best-known economic research firms are IHS Global Insight, Macroeconomic Advisers and Moody’s Economy.com. They all estimate that the bill has added 1.6 million to 1.8 million jobs so far and that its ultimate impact will be roughly 2.5 million jobs. The Congressional Budget Office, an independent agency, considers these estimates to be conservative. Yet I’m guessing you don’t think of the stimulus bill as a big success. You’ve read columns (by me, for example) complaining that it should have spent money more quickly. Or you’ve heard about the phantom ZIP code scandal: the fact that a government Web site mistakenly reported money being spent in nonexistent ZIP codes. To be clear -- and Leonhardt is not clear about this -- saying the stimulus is a big success and then saying that the stimulus should have spent money more quickly aren't contradictory claims.

[caption id="attachment_6739" align="alignleft" width="159" caption="Fannie Mae's not-quite-spartan headquarters"][/caption] ProPublica has a new page tracking what has happened to the $700 billion in "bailout" money Congress appropriated back in 2008 to the Troubled Asset Relief Program. What's made clear is that this is now a bailout of government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Most of the mega-banks that have received bailout money have returned it, however prematurely. But Fannie and Freddie have returned just $4 billion of their original $110 billion bailout. And according to Barack Obama's budget proposal, Fannie and Freddie will need $77 billion more in bailout money. When the financial meltdown happened, many Congressional Republicans claimed that Fannie and Freddie, not investment banks like Lehman Brothers, were the real reason behind the collapse.

The Wall Street Journal's Louise Radnofksy reports: Democrats, stung by criticism of their $787 billion economic-stimulus plan, are targeting Republicans who have attacked the program and then lobbied to get money for their districts. More than a dozen Republican lawmakers supported stimulus-funding requests submitted to the Department of Labor, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Forest Service, in letters obtained by The Wall Street Journal through the Freedom of Information Act... Mr. Obama warned Republicans last month at their annual retreat that Democrats were ready to spotlight representatives who touted stimulus funds in their districts. "Let's face it, some of you have been at the ribbon-cuttings for some of these important projects in your communities," Mr. Obama said. This seems dumb on the part of the Democrats.

As Ian Talley and Stephen Power report in the Wall Street Journal, the Energy Department has expended only 7% of stimulus funds the Department received in 2008 -- funds that are supposed to go to job creation and innovative energy projects.  The tension at Energy is between vetting proposals ...