(P)IMP

The Liquidity Trap and Macro Textbooks by Simon Wren-Lewis

Obamacare Is Creating Uncertainty! Better Ditch It by Dean Baker

Obamacare Will Be A Debacle — For Republicans by Krugman

Bernanke, less than year left in office

Federal fiscal policy, taking into account both discretionary actions and so-called automatic stabilizers, was, on net, quite expansionary during the recession and early in the recovery. However, a substantial part of this impetus was offset by spending cuts and tax increases by state and local governments, most of which are subject to balanced-budget requirements, and by subsequent fiscal tightening at the federal level. Notably, over the past four years, state and local governments have cut civilian government employment by roughly 700,000 jobs, and total government employment has fallen by more than 800,000 jobs over the same period. For comparison, over the four years following the trough of the 2001 recession, total government employment rose by more than 500,000 jobs.

Bernanke's statement The Economic Outlook given before the Joint Economic Committee

'Not Too Late for the Social Credit Helicopters!' by Mark Thoma

Is this what Michael Kinsley wants?

Societal Ills Spike in Crisis-Stricken Greece By LIZ ALDERMAN

ATHENS — “Five euros only, just 5 euros,” whispered Maria, a young prostitute with sunken cheeks and bedraggled hair, as she pitched herself forward from the shadows of a graffiti-riddled alley in central Athens on a recent weeknight. 

As a chill wind swept paper and trash across a grimy sidewalk, Angelos Tzortzinis, a Greek photographer, caught sight of Maria lowering her price to the equivalent of about $6.50. Maria, who would only give a pseudonym, had hoped to get some money for food — and for a cheap but dangerous new street drug that has emerged during Greece’s crisis, guaranteed to obliterate her sorrows, if only for a moment. 

With the country heading into the fifth year of economic depression, and unemployment near 60 percent for young people, greater numbers of women and men are offering their bodies for next to nothing to get any scrap of money. According to the National Center for Social Research, the number of people selling sex has surged 150 percent in the last two years. 

Many prostitutes have been selling their services for as little as 10 to 15 euros, a price that has shrunk along with the income of clients afflicted by the crisis. Many more prostitutes are taking greater health risks by having unprotected sex, which sells for a premium. Still more are subject to violence and rape. 

Now a new menace has arisen: a type of crystal methamphetamine called shisha, after the Turkish water pipe, but otherwise known as poor man’s cocaine, brewed from barbiturates and other ingredients including alcohol, chlorine and even battery acid

I had hoped the change in ownership would improve the New Republic.

Amy Klobuchar Asks Ben Bernanke A Great Question And the Fed Chairman Has No Good Answer by Yglesias

Japan’s New Optimism Has Name: Abenomics

Is the Economy Saving Obama’s Approval Ratings? by Nate Silver

The Unemployed Need Bold, Creative Moves from the Fed by Mark Thoma

AV Club reviews "Second Sons" from Game of Thrones (newbies)

AV Club reviews "Second Sons" from Game of Thrones (experts)

AV Club reviews "Entangled Bank" from Orphan Black