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The Incredible Shrinking Budget Deficit (NYT)

Annie Lowrey notes that Goldman Sachs economists predict the deficit will shrink dramatically due to lower spending and higher revenues. Pop the champagne and kiss your sweetheart; our long national nightmare is over. Now about that economic growth...

Getting Back to Full Employment (On the Economy)

Moving back to the list of things real people worry about, Jared Bernstein writes that jobs are still priority one, and if the private sector isn't supplying enough of them on its own, we could try pulling the dropcloth off the federal government and firing it up again.

The Grad Student Who Took Down Reinhart and Rogoff Explains Why They're Fundamentally Wrong (Business Insider)

Thomas Herndon, co-author of the paper that exposed the flaws in Reinhart-Rogoff, explains that he isn't suggesting the economists intentionally skewed the data that screwed up their findings, but that doesn't mean their findings aren't seriously screwed up.

Who Is Defending Austerity Now? (The Atlantic)

Matthew O'Brien writes that while actual austerity policies have brought nothing but disaster in places like the U.K. and southern Europe, support for them has really begun to fade now that you can't wave a paper in someone's face to show they work In Theory.

Immigration Raises Incomes in America (Slate)

Matthew Yglesias notes that it's so difficult to show that increased immigration would hurt the economy that even staunch opponents now claim the problem is that most of the benefits would go to immigrants. Which is a problem, if you don't like immigrants.

Abenomics Will Boost Japan's Economy By Helping Its Women Workers (Think Progress)

Bryce Covert writes that Japanese PM Shinzo Abe's aggressive new approach to economic stimulus includes making use of one of the country's untapped natural resources: namely, the half of its population that's almost nowhere to be found in its executive suites.

A Day Without Care (Jacobin)

Sarah Jaffe writes that the kind of flexible work that was supposed to help women now requires them to be contortionists, and women in care work find it difficult to strike for higher wages. But shortening the work week may be an answer everyone can get behind.

Panel Blocks CFPB's Chief (WSJ)

Alan Zibel reports that Jeb Hensarling, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, refuses to let Richard Cordray testify because of his recess appointment, which is slightly more mature than interrupting him with "What? Who's there? Is someone speaking?"

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The Excel Depression (NYT)

Paul Krugman writes that Reinhart-Rogoff became the sacred text of the austerity movement, but they've been exposed as false prophets. Now policymakers will need to find some other thinly veiled excuse to keep doing what they were going to do anyway.

Let Cities Build Better Internet-Access Networks (Bloomberg)

Roosevelt Institute Fellow Susan Crawford notes that Georgia voted down a bill that would have blocked cities from investing in access, and it could be a turning point in the effort to stop state legislators from acting as paid freelancers for AT&T and Time Warner.

The Debt We Shouldn't Pay (NYRB)

Robert Kuttner argues that debates over public debt have become a sideshow distracting from the privately held debt that actually triggered the Great Recession, as if someone shouted, "Hey, look over there!" and we all proceeded to stare at nothing for four years.

Did underwater mortgages kill the economy? (WaPo)

Housing may finally be bouncing back (though if you had a dime for every time someone's said that, you could buy a house), but Zachary Goldfarb highlights research that shows the biggest problem may have been household debt, not just falling home prices.

The Fed's Foreclosure-Relief Fail (Prospect)

David Dayen explores the strange odyssey of Debbie Marler, a woman who was kicked out of her home, foreclosed on twice more for good measure, asked to pay upkeep on the property she no longer lived in, and received a whopping $800 for her troubles.

This Is the Reality of Austerity: Greek Children Are Starving (The Atlantic)

When critics say austerity is taking food out of people's mouths, they're not speaking metaphorically. Derek Thompson flags a report of children going hungry and families burning furniture for warmth as Greece pays the price for being a member of the EU.

Kansas Passes Law to Drug-Test Welfare and Unemployment Recipients (Think Progress)

What's the matter with Kansas? If you believe Republican Governor Sam Brownback, it's that everyone's been getting high instead of working. Nicole Flatow notes that Kansas just became the ninth state to require drug tests for recipients of public benefits. 

Costly and Wrong: Background Checks for Social Services in North Carolina (Policy Shop)

Ilana Novick writes that North Carolina's legislature approved background checks for recipients of food stamps, but there's no such scrutiny for richer citizens who receive government grants. ("Are you now or have you ever been a member of a yacht club?")

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The Great Debt Delusion: How Math Keeps Proving Austerity Wrong (The Atlantic)

When will deficit hawks learn to Konczal-proof their research? First there was the Alesina-Ardagna paper. Roosevelt Fellows Mike Konczal and Arjun Jayadev poked holes in that one. Then Reinhart-Rogoff became the new holy grail. See how well that worked out?

How influential was the Rogoff-Reinhart study warning that high debt kills growth? (Quartz)

Tim Fernholz notes that Reinhart-Rogoff was the little Excel error that could. Cited by everyone from Paul Ryan to Tim Geithner, it's shaped the economic debate in the U.S. and Europe. With a result that useful, who has time to worry about "data" or "methods"?

How the IMF became the friend who wants us to work less and drink more (WaPo)

Neil Irwin writes that while the International Monetary Fund has traditionally played the heavy when it comes to advocating "tough" fiscal measures, policy's gone so far off the rails that it's been forced to step in and suggest countries ease up on the self-flagellation.

At Least the Big Banks Are Kickin' It... (On the Economy)

Jared Bernstein notes that banks like Goldman Sachs are adjusting well to increased regulation, as their multibillion-dollar quarterly profits would attest. But Main Street's not getting totally left behind: weekly earnings for middle-wage workers jumped 0.1 percent!

Big Corporations Won't Be Sweating the IRS This Year (MoJo)

Stephanie Mencimer writes that although corporations have faced increased public scrutiny for their tax-dodging, cutbacks at the IRS mean there will be 18 percent less effort devoted to auditing them. Time to get those creative juices flowing, accounting teams.

Taking the 'service' out of the service sector (WaPo)

Harold Meyerson writes that the experience of companies like J.C. Penney, Wal-Mart, and McDonalds, which have tried to boost profits by cutting staff and holding down wages, suggests that miserable workers don't leave customers whistling a happy tune.

How student debt is holding back the housing market (Think Progress)

Bryce Covert writes that college grads who might have once dreamed of setting out and buying their own homes have been forced to scale back their ambitions to perhaps buying their own futons, decreasing demand for construction of single-family homes.

The Hell of American Day Care (TNR)

Jonathan Cohn looks at the state of America's formal child care system, such as it is: unsafe, unregulated, unavailable or prohibitively expensive to many, but also the only option many working parents have until policymakers notice that it's no longer 1953.

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India's Patently Wise Decision (Project Syndicate)

Roosevelt Institute Chief Economist Joe Stiglitz and Arjun Jayadev praise the Indian Supreme Court's decision to deny Novartis a patent on its cancer drug, noting that big pharma will survive with less revenue, but without affordable medicine, lots of people might not.

The Liberal Civil War Over Social Security Cuts (MoJo)

Erika Eichelberger writes that the progressive movement is fracturing and turning against itself over President Obama's proposal to switch to chained CPI, though even in the pro-administration camp, the rallying cry tends to be a resounding "Ugh, okay, if we have to."

Even With Exemptions, Chained CPI Proposal Will End Up Hurting Low-Income People (CEPR)

Shawn Fremstad argues that even if the president's plan comes with built-in protections for the most vulnerable, already modest benefits and the value of refundable tax credits will decrease, and exemptions won't last forever once the GOP smells blood in the water.

The Flaw in Obama's Budget Approach (NYT)

Simon Johnson writes that the right way to make a budget is to decide what government should do and then figure out the best way to fund all of that. Instead, Obama chose a container size and then tried to figure out how much government he could pack in there.

Elizabeth Warren Tears Into Federal Regulators For Shielding Big Banks (Think Progress)

Igor Volsky notes that Warren was once again spitting hot fire at yesterday's Senate Banking Committee hearing, pressing regulators from the Fed and the OCC to explain why they'd settle with banks without knowing how many crimes they committed. (A: All of them.)

Lust for Gold (NYT)

Paul Krugman notes that conservatives who were taken in by conspiratorial rants about fiat money and the coming inflation crisis are experiencing a rude awakening now that it turns out gold isn't a fool-proof investment either. Of course not. That would be Bitcoin.

Debunking today's carried interest tax arguments (CNNMoney)

Two takeaways from Dan Primack's case for closing the carried interest loophole as the president proposes: First, it's not some cruel punishment to ask fund managers to pay a normal tax rate on their income. Second, the phrase "sweat equity" is kind of gross.

A Third of Americans Like Taxes. Who Are They? (Slate)

If you're one of the 34 percent of Americans who told Pew they enjoy doing their taxes, Abby Ohlheiser writes that chances are you're getting a refund, you're a Democrat or a minority, or you just don't mind doing math and filling out forms. Happy Tax Day, nerds.