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The Poorly Attended Hearing on One of the Economy's Toughest Problems (National Journal)

If there's a congressional panel on long-term unemployment and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Niraj Chokshi writes that the Joint Economic Committee might have discovered the answer yesterday if not for Amy Klobuchar's presence.

Possible Fed Successor Has Admirers and Foes (NYT)

Binyamin Appelbaum profiles Janet Yellen, a likely candidate for Fed chair when Ben Bernanke finally departs from the Grey Havens, who's made enemies among the GOP by suggesting that a little inflation might go a long way toward helping the economy.

Banking Regulation: Closed for Business (Prospect)

David Dayen writes that while Senators Brown and Vitter have just introduced a bipartisan plan to end "too big to fail," Treasury officials insist they needn't have bothered, since that's all been fixed already. No, really, it has. Why are you giving them that look?

The Immigration Bill's Forced-Labor Problem (MoJo)

Adam Serwer notes that in the midst of a heated debate about whether to give undocumented immigrants a path to become full citizens, a more difficult question may be how to ensure that the guest workers who are here legally are treated like full human beings.

Study: There may not be a shortage of American STEM graduates after all (WaPo)

Jia Lynn Yang highlights a study from EPI which finds that America's dilemma isn't really that it has too small a pool of available workers who know how to fix a computer or do a math problem, but that it doesn't have a whole lot of work for many of them to do.

Why Obama's Stealth Social Security Cut Is Bigger Than It Seems (TPM)

Brian Beutler flags a CBO report on Chained CPI which shows that while standard criticisms apply, it hits seniors particularly hard if you account for the fact that they don't have the same spending habits as their grandkids (as any gift-giving occasion will reveal).

Obama Administration Is Right to Hold Fliers Hostage (Bloomberg)

Josh Barro argues that despite all the moaning about how across-the-board furloughs have delayed flights, the White House should keep critics grounded until a comprehensive sequester fix is in place. There's no such thing as first class in economic policy.

The Preferences of the Wealthy and Their Role in Our Politics (On the Economy)

Jared Bernstein writes that until we stem the flow of money in politics, deciding what goals we want to achieve as a society will take a backseat to another question: what do the millionaires think? And the answer is usually, "we should cut social spending."

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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?"