Business, Economics and Finance

N. Gregory Mankiw is skeptical that a stimulus plan centered around a large up-tick in government spending will effectively bolster the economy.

Macroeconomist Dean Baker sees opportunity in the current economic crisis. In a recent editorial for The Guardian, Baker recommended that President-elect Barack Obama boost the economy by spending on national health insurance.

The price of gold has risen 235 percent in the past eight years, but as journalist Brook Larmer and photographer Randy Olson report in this month's National Geographic, the environmental and human costs related to the mineral have never been higher.

Journalist James Fallows explores China's recent rise to power and what it means for the US in his new book of essays, Postcards Tomorrow Square.

Congressional Oversight Panel chair Elizabeth Warren is charged with making sure the bailout funds are in the best interest of the American people.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gretchen Morgenson discusses the unprecedented collapse of Merrill Lynch, America's most famous brokerage house.

Journalist and economist Robert Kuttner has reported on elections for over three decades. His latest book, Obama's Challenge, looks at the many Herculean obstacles the president-elect faces — and what it will take to tackle them.

Nobel laureate Paul Krugman believes that increased public spending — akin to the efforts of the New Deal during the Great Depression — is the best way to escape the financial crisis and regain American global leadership.

A fellow at Oil Change International and at the Institute for Policy Studies, she argues that the oil industry's grip on policy and government has never been stronger. She documents her concerns — and argues for remedies — in a new book.

In his new book, Wall Street: America's Dream Palace, Steve Fraser focuses on the lotus of the financial world, paying attention to four of its archetypal characters — the aristocrat, the confidence man, the hero and the immoralist.