Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says the economy is on the verge of another recession -- "close to faltering" was his euphuism of choice in his testimony to Congress Tuesday -- and there only so much the Federal Reserve can do about it.

For once, he is mostly right.

Bernanke has already cut short term interest rates almost to zero; he has bought up a lot of government bonds under another euphemism -- "quantitative easing" -- and he has been begin exchanging short-term debt for longer-term debt, as a way of locking in low interest rates. This is considered heretical in some financial circles, and several members of the Fed's own policy-setting Open Market Committee fault the Fed chair for courting inflation.

Elizabeth Warren's surprise lead in Massachusetts polls only days after she got into the Senate race to oust Republican Scott Brown has thrown GOP operatives off balance.

Their first storyline was that Warren was either a creature of the Beltway or a pointy-headed Harvard professor. Neither seems to be sticking.

On Tuesday, when the Democratic-affiliated polling firm, Public Policy Polling, reported Warren narrowly leading Brown, 46 to 44 among likely voters, Brown spokesman Colin Reed put out a statement contending that "we have always known that Scott would be the underdog against whichever candidate wins the Democratic primary next September."

Republicans and many pundits have faulted President Obama for engaging in the politics of class warfare. Addressing the realities of class in America is in fact long overdue. Republicans and conservative Democrats are outraged because if class ever becomes a question that can be openly discussed, the right loses, America becomes a more decent society, and Democrats become the normal majority party.

You want to know about class warfare?

President Obama's jobs speech last Thursday evening heartened Democrats and progressives, but yesterday's meeting of the "super-committee" reminds us how much Obama has already given away and the traps he has set for himself (and the recovery) going forward.

While he tries to coax the economy into producing more jobs with one hand, Obama has set in motion an inexorable process that will lead to more economic contraction. The process will also deprive the Democrats of clarity in defending their most popular crown jewels -- Medicare and Social Security -- against unpopular Republican assault.

After a terrific speech on Labor Day in Detroit, President Obama is likely to offer fairly modest proposals tonight, adding up to a program too weak to cure a rapidly deflating economy, and a politics too weak to draw clear lines between himself and his Republican opposition.

While the rhetoric may be a little hotter than usual, according to White House leaks, the centerpiece of the plan will be a temporary payroll tax cut, offered by Obama in the hopes of enlisting Republican support. This is better than nothing but is far from the kind of stimulus that the economy requires. And it is one more olive branch rather than a Trumanesque line in the sand.

The nation’s employers added no new jobs in August, according to the Labor Department, adding pressure on President Obama to deliver a far-reaching speech next Thursday on a strategy to deal with persistent joblessness. However, all of the preliminary indicators, including White House leaks, suggest a very modest speech filled with cautious proposals that cost little if any new money and appeal to the prejudices of the business elite.

While we mourn the exit of Ron Bloom as the administration's point man on manufacturing (who was not permitted to utter the dread words "industrial policy"), we can welcome the appointment of Alan Krueger to chair the Council of Economic Advisers.

Given the administration's penchant for naming Wall Street people to key economic posts, Krueger is rather better than we dared hope for. He is thoroughly mainstream in all his credentials, coming from a senior post at Princeton. But with two notable differences:

First, he was editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives from 1996 to 2002. This is the most heterodox of the major economic journals, hospitable to dissenting viewpoints.