economy

One of the biggest problems in getting Americans engaged on the nation's fiscal challenges is that the problem is so hard for most people to get their arms around. The numbers are so huge, the issues so arcane and the problems so daunting that people may get angry about it, but have no idea how to grab onto it.

You wouldn't think the bottom line on the $1.6 trillion federal budget deficit and $11.9 trillion national debt crisis could be summed up in a single sentence, but when the right words whizzed by, the Wall Street Journal's Tags:

• deficit
• economy
• federal budget
• national debt

The economic crisis is taking its toll on all sorts of things, and it turns out Social Security and Medicare are no different.

Media pollsters of late have noted the remarkable uptick in public optimism about the economy since President Obama's inauguration.

A recent piece in Time Magazine acknowledges the sad truth: when it comes to numbers in the trillions, the human mind slips into brain freeze at a speed faster than a field of dry ice. But that doesn't mean we can't understand what's going on.

More and more economists are arguing that a global financial crisis isn't the time to worry about the federal deficit.

A new study shows that the public is capable of facing facts about the nation's fiscal problems – which is a good thing, because they're probably going to have to take a big bite of a reality sandwich in the coming week.

It looks like the powers that be got the message Fed chairman Ben Bernanke was trying to send them this week: if you're going to goose the economy, keep it short and do it soon.