The New Republic

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Chances are you're like 91 percent of American households, you own a car. And it’s no wonder. With ever-growing distances between jobs and housing, how else could you reach all the places you need to go? READ MORE >>

Note: This post has been updated to correct an editing error. As President Obama wraps up his bus motorcade today in Western Illinois, he’ll find himself in proximity to one of the few bright spots of a recovery so halting it still feels like a recession: exporters Exports have been a quiet hero during the last few years. While only 13 percent of the economy, the export sector contributed 44 percent to the growth of the economy last year. Manufacturing industries, such as car, aircraft, and pharmaceuticals manufacturing, are particularly export oriented. READ MORE >>

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Last week, Gabe Bullard posted an article on the WFPL website, Louisville’s NPR station, about a recent Brookings report on how economic development policy in Louisville and seven other metropolitan areas responded to the loss of manufacturing jobs. READ MORE >>

This morning President Obama begins a three-city bus tour in the Midwest. His first stops will take him to prairie communities in Minnesota where he will likely talk about such broad-stroke job-creation proposals as payroll tax relief for employees and extended unemployment benefits, all of which is welcome.  READ MORE >>

When he visits a battery plant in Holland, Michigan, today, President Obama will talk about the connection between innovation, advanced manufacturing, and economic growth. But he has an opportunity to make an even more important connection: between government action and innovation READ MORE >>

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is using $30 million of his own money--and a matching gift from George Soros--to help fund a new program aimed at addressing the vast socio-economic disparities between New York City’s young white men and those who are black or Latino. At a time when more people are out of work and municipal budgets are stretched thin, private philanthropy is increasingly important.  READ MORE >>

This morning’s jobs report exceeded the hopes of many, ending a week of rather dismal economic news on a high note. The economy added 117,000 jobs in July. The unemployment rate was 9.1 percent, the same as it was in June according to that month’s revised numbers. While there are probably few occasions that a national unemployment rate of 9.1 percent has seemed like good news, this was one of them. READ MORE >>