Gus Faucher

Breaking a record is almost always good — except when it comes to the deficit. The federal deficit is set to reach its highest figure ever: $1.65 trillion for this fiscal year. That would make it more than 10 percent of the toal economy, the highest level since 1945. And that is just for the current year. In total, the national debt — the cumulative total of deficits since the beginning of the Republic — is set to grow from $14 trillion today to $16.7 trillion by September 30, 2012. Lawmakers will begin debating $61 billion in budget cuts for the remaining months of this fiscal year today, but what will those cuts mean for average Americans?

Mark Alexander, former Obama advisor and Professor of Law at Seton Hall University Law School, on his blog post on WNYC's new politics blog Its A Free Country, about Obama's shift from campaigning to governing. Then Gus Faucher, economist at Moody’s, joins the conversation to discuss Obama's policy proposals this week and the politics behind them.

Estimates for today's second quarter GDP numbers will show a decline of somewhere between one percent and 1.5 percent. That’s a sharp improvement – or at least a smaller worsening – a...

Home price indexes, GDPs and jobless claim numbers are all coming in this week. Sure, the numbers look good, but what does it all mean in practical terms? Can the worst of the economi...