VIDEO- Rachel Maddow Show: White House explains spending freeze

By GottaLaff

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Worth a look if you missed it.

VIDEO-- Jared Bernstein sets CNBC straight about tea parties: "I'm an economist, I'm not a theatre critic"

By GottaLaff

So there:



Aired: Wed. Apr. 15 2009

Government tax and spend policies are front and center today as multiple rallies are taking place across the nation, with Jared Bernstein, chief economist, Vice President Biden.

H/t: Jon Lester

Biden Appoints Jared Bernstein As Chief Economic Policy Adviser To VP

By GottaLaff

Via Ambinder:

Jared Bernstein is a highly qualified economist; he is affiliated with the Economic Policy Institute. If that doesn't ring any bells, well... KLANG KLANG KLANG. The EPI one of the nation's premiere left-leaning economics enterprises and is funded in part by labor unions. Bernstein served in the Clinton administration under Robert Reich. Bernstein, who has written academic tractates and popular works on the middle class squeeze, blogged regularly at Talking Points Memo.com.

His position -- chief economist and economist adviser to the vice president -- isn't in the Plum Book. It's new -- a signal of the urgency of the times -- and it's highly ranked, which means that Bernstein will be involved in every major debate about economics that takes place within the administration. He's the first unambiguously progressive /populist ecomomist to join the upper echelon of Obama's team. He's also less of a monetarist than others on the Obama team, believing that changes in fiscal policy can have greater effects on aggregate demand.