Economy

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Paul Solman: Today’s unemployment data are grim. I began to write “startlingly grim” but then realized that, for those of us on-the-record pessimists with regard to green shoots and recovery, the numbers aren’t startling at all. Having been on the…

Testifying before lawmakers Thursday, Ben Bernanke reiterated a call for the Fed to be given supervisory powers over institutions that pose a systemic risk to the financial system, and proposed that a council of regulators help monitor risk.

Editor’s note: We were only able to air sections of Paul’s wide-ranging interview with Brazilian President Lula da Silva at the G-20 late last week. In the interest of letting viewers see Lula’s complete takes on global warming, the situation…

Paul Solman: When in Pittsburgh last week for the G-20 meetings, we interviewed Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs, 23 years after our first interview with him. In all these years, Sachs has been a champion of both the verities…

Paul Solman: Meetings like the G-20 can be astonishingly ungratifying to cover. Top officials are, for the most part, intent on talking to one another and impossible to buttonhole. Legions of subalterns try to protect their bosses (and bosses’ bosses,…