Stimulus

Goldman Sachs drew some undeserved ire when it recently pointed to proposed cuts in federal spending as a key near-term risk. While the proposed cuts are modest, they could still undermine the rebound at a critical time.

President Obama's proposed spending plan seeks to slash $1.1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade. Republican House Speaker John Boehner says that's too little. In this case, both Obama and Boehner are wrong. The nation doesn't need to spend less. It needs to spend more -- a lot more.

Want to see how the construction industry will do in 2011? Look at how architects did in 2010. By that gauge, last year's thin uptick in building design and engineering services foretells a similar small gain ahead for builders -- after two years of steep declines.

Though most Americans wish that Congress would rein in excessive pay on Wall Street, that won't happen while the huge campaign contributions keep flowing. And the financial industry's big money shell game drains away something more precious from our society than money -- it siphons off talent.

The biggest question many investors have about President Obama's compromise tax cut deal is how it will benefit the economy. But so far, there is little agreement on Wall Street about what the stimulative effects of the deal will be.

The tax cut compromise between Obama and the GOP is now being touted as a back-door stimulus plan, one that some economists predict will create or save 3.1 million jobs. Unfortunately, the model on which those forecasts are based makes some flawed assumptions.

The initial public offering of General Motors last week netted $11.7 billion for the U.S. Treasury, which invested taxpayer money into keeping the then-struggling automaker solvent during the financial crisis as part of its Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The Federal Reserve bought $7.3 billion worth of U.S. Treasuries Friday as it started a second round of quantitative easing meant to stimulate the nation's economy, media reports indicate. The QE2 plan, designed to boost job creation and prevent deflation, has been highly criticized.

Some of the best reads for investors from around the Web, including posts evaluating how consumers spend their money, whether Google could be considered a monopoly and the debate about the Fed's policy on quantitative easing.

After initially voting for the QE2 plan, Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh said in a speech Monday that the government's decision to buy $600 million worth of bonds to spur the economy is a bad idea.