- The National Bureau of Economic Research isn't convinced that the U.S. recession is over; Time and The Wall Street Journal explain otherwise. From the WSJ: "Since the definition of recession takes so many factors into account, the committee often takes its time to determine the end date. It didn’t officially declare until July 2003 that the 2001 recession, which ran from March to November of that year, was over." Meanwhile, the Associated Press conducted a survey of 44 economists who, on average, forecasted a net gain of 450,000 U.S. jobs over the next two months and an annual unemployment rate of 9.65 percent by the year's end. I'm, uh, ecstatic, if still not fully employed.
- Sara Libby answers Michael Calderone's fretting over the ascent of "pipsqueak" pundits -- e.g. Ezra Klein and Ross Douthat -- with a more constructive criticism: that the new kids on the page are "simply younger versions of what has long been an old boys club." Libby and Calderone are concerned with the ranks of opinion journalism, but byline gender politics run wider than mainstream op-ed columns, and if you don't know, now you know (via Spencer Ackerman).
- Caryn Ernst is convinced that attentive parents raise better students. Sho Maruyama, on the other hand, is convinced that better teachers make for better teaching, which ultimately makes for better students. This is the education debate at The Washington Post, and it's wonderful.
- Remainders: Ken Cuccinelli is crazy and, unfortunately, aspirational -- like Emperor Palpatine or that kid preacher from There Will Be Blood; Richard Dawkins plays Carmen Sandiego with Pope Benedict; Kay Steiger and the rest of the Internet parse the series premiere of David Simon's Treme; the TAP interns have gone rogue.
--Justin Charity
