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nytimes.com — The United States economy expanded at an annual rate of 2.4 percent in the second quarter, after expanding 3.7 percent in the previous three months, the Commerce Department reported on Friday.

Nonresidential fixed investment, which covers items like office buildings and purchases of equipment and software, was a key driver of growth in the second quarter, rocketing up at an annual rate of 17 percent, compared with a 7.8 percent increase in the first. The equipment and software category alone grew at an annual rate of 21.9 percent, the fastest pace in 12 years.

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politico.com — When the president travels to Michigan on Friday, he’ll tout the revival of General Motors and Chrysler since the auto companies received billions in federal aid and government-assisted bankruptcies.

“This is a bit of a metaphor for how the president has approached the overall economic picture – making tough decisions that may or may not poll well at the moment in order to create a foundation for economic growth going forward,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told a handful of reporters on Wednesday.

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nytimes.com — States are putting hundreds of thousands of people directly into jobs through programs reminiscent of the more ambitious work projects of the Great Depression.

But the new efforts have a twist: While the wages are being paid by the government, most of the participants are working for private companies.

The opportunity to simultaneously benefit struggling workers and small businesses has helped these job subsidies gain support from liberals and conservatives. Congress is now considering whether to extend the subsidy, which would expire in September, for an additional year. A House vote is expected on Thursday or Friday.

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nytimes.com — At the core of some of the major policy fights in Washington these days is a ferocious competition between Republicans and Democrats over which party is the champion of America’s small businesses — a mantle that each side views as crucial to shaping economic policy and winning the November elections.

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wonkroom.thinkprogress.org — Last week, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, called for a temporary extension of all the Bush tax cuts, including those for the wealthiest two percent of Americans, which the Obama administration would like to see expire. Conrad even suggested waiving pay-go rules (which apply to those cuts for the richest two percent) in order to extend the cuts without paying for them.

Conrad quickly clarified that he wasn’t embracing the Republican approach, which is simply extending all of the tax cuts forever, calling that a “formula for the decline of the United States.” Today, Conrad appeared on CNBC to keep on trying to explain his position. “Can you clarify what’s more important to you: the revenue you would generate by letting them expuire on the wealthy or the damage that it would do to a nascent economic recovery if you raise taxes,” asked CNBC’s Joe Kernen. “What should we do?” Conrad replied that taxes need to eventually go up on the rich but “I don’t think this is the moment“:

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bloomberg.com — Christopher Dodd and Barney Frank, authors of the U.S. financial overhaul, plan hearings on the status of global talks to revise bank-capital standards amid worries that proposed rules are being watered down.

“I am concerned the recent proposals out of Basel will result in weak and perhaps even nonbinding provisions that provide credit to banks for holding forms of capital that have little or no value in absorbing losses,” said Senator Ted Kaufman, Democrat of Delaware. “The financial reform bill includes only a promise of higher capital requirements for U.S. banks, which we were told were going to be negotiated on an international level.”

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washingtonpost.com — For more than a year, General Electric has been notable among U.S. corporations for enjoying generally friendly relations with the White House. The company was broadly supportive of President Obama's stimulus efforts, and its chairman, Jeffrey Immelt, sits on a White House economic advisory board.

But now the White House and GE are clashing publicly over a fighter-jet engine -- built by the company and its British partner, Rolls-Royce -- that has been on the Pentagon's chopping block for years, only to be rescued repeatedly by Congress. The issue is poised to come to a head Tuesday during a House subcommittee markup for the annual defense appropriations bill, which Obama has threatened to veto if it has the $485 million for the engine.

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nytimes.com — Despite increasing calls from lawmakers for deficit reduction, one military program opposed by the White House and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates — an alternate engine for the joint strike fighter — so far refuses to die.

Even as Mr. Gates steps up his efforts to tighten Pentagon contracting, House members are expected to rebuff him once again on Tuesday on the engine, one of the main programs he has vowed to kill.

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salon.com — Hundreds of stimulus-funded projects under way in national parks across the U.S. are long-overdue upgrades to the country's neglected "national jewels," Vice President Joe Biden said Monday.

Biden began a two-day tour highlighting Recovery Act projects in Yellowstone and Grand Canyon national parks by speaking to about 100 park workers, contractors and their families in the scenic Madison Valley, where the famous Madison River is formed in the shadow of 7,500-foot National Park Mountain.

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washingtonpost.com — A panel of world financial officials has reached "broad agreement" on new rules to govern the global banking system but has postponed some key elements for as long as seven years while the impact is studied, the Switzerland-based group said Monday.

The group includes representatives of the world's major central banks, including the Federal Reserve, and the accord marks an important step forward in efforts to build a system less susceptible to the sort of shocks that occurred during the recent financial crisis and more able to weather any downturn.

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