Blogs: Making It In America

I knew it was going to be a good day when the first thing I saw at CPAC was Herman Cain's bus.

I'm going to give Herman the benefit of the doubt that he sat in the front of the bus this time.

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Christina D. Romer, the former chairwoman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, took U.S. more »

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In my previous post, I wrote that I'm likely to hear an old favorite conservative talking point repeated over and over again while I'm at CPAC: Married cures poverty, economic inequality, and just about any other economic complaint you can name — especially for black folks. The 9th circuit court's ruling that California's Proposition 8 — which prohibited same-sex marriage in the state — is unconstitutional guarantees I'll hear a lot about same-sex marriage while I'm at CPAC.

What I won't hear at CPAC, besides any specific plans for job creation, is how declining marriage rates are not to blame for economic decline, but economic decline is really to blame for declining marriage rates. I won't hear that the best way to increase marriage rates is improve Americans' economic prospects by growing the economy and putting people back to work. I probably also won't hear that marriage would actually improve the economic standings of one group of Americans: gay couples.

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"You gotta have a J-O-B, if you wanna be with me."

- Gwen Guthrie, "Ain't Nothin' Goin' On But The Rent"

I'm off to cover CPAC tomorrow, where — in light of a federal court ruling California's Proposition 8 unconstitutional — I'm likely to hear a favorite conservative talking point repeated: Marriage cures poverty, unemployment, and another economic problem. Ask any conservative, and they'll tell you as much — even though that particular talking point has no basis in reality.

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PBS NewsHour took a look at why Germany's economy is doing so well, while much of the rest of Europe is not doing so well.

Here are a few notable excerpts from the transcript:

With just a quarter of America's population and a quarter of its GDP, Germany exports more than the United States in total, notes Norbert Walter, the former chief economist of Deutsche Bank.

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Economist Christina Romer had an op-ed in the NY Times this weekend, Do Manufacturers Need Special Treatment? The question that keep coming back to me is why did she feel the need to write an op-ed to diss manufacturing? Is it just an economist thing? more »

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This week three new reports described even more continuing damage to our economy caused by China's trade cheating -- and our own lack of response. Even as the auto industry recovers and auto-assembly jobs are returning, the auto-parts industry and jobs are not. more »

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On the menu this morning:

• MORNING MESSAGE: China Cheats—Push May Come To Shove
• Trade Battles with China
• Florida Vote: From SuperPACs to Super Crash
• More Mortgage Fraud Settlement Fears
• Freddie Mac's Bets against Homeowners
• Unemployment Compensation Fight
• Breakfast Sides

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China cheats – it openly flouts trade laws – and routinely denies it. It restricts access to its markets, forces companies that want to sell in China to transfer technology and manufacture there, and then often steals the technology. It purposefully underprices its currency to keep the down the price of its exports. more »

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Servitude: "a condition in which one lacks liberty especially to determine one's course of action or way of life" more »

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