Does Ben Bernanke fancy himself a Jedi knight?

Obi-Wan Bernanke

Reuters

Congress could force Yellen over Summers at Fed

Politics over skill

Business Standard

US job creation looks better than it really is

Snow jobs

Obama puts other people's money where his mouth is

Rev up

American immigration deal looks too clever by half

Visa problems

Ageing drives US debt more than medical costs

Old problem

Washington's musophobia

Beckettian Ben

Obamaâ€™s dreamy math doesnâ€™t add up

Problem set

New plans to reform US immigration could slow the brain drain, but would cost money. A bipartisan group of senators wants to provide illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, but also to keep more of them out. Meanwhile, innovation-dependent companies will applaud measures to retain more foreign-born graduates in the United States, while small firms may struggle with increased red tape. Fixes like these are needed, but economically they are a mixed bag.

Asylum economics

Frankenstorm Sandy could have a positive outcome if it shames US politicians into fixing the nation&rsquo;s crumbling infrastructure. Any traveller knows America&rsquo;s transport network is dilapidated. But the storm&rsquo;s devastation makes the problem of under-investment undeniable. A public infrastructure bank could provide the best bang for federal bucks.

Disastrous denial

Would US President Barack Obama be brilliant or crazy to tap his former adversary to be the next US finance chief? Probably both. Yet, the Republican has the right resume, and the Democrat-in-chief needs to fill the vacancy Tim Geithner&rsquo;s departure will create. Markets would celebrate the pick as a shocking pivot towards bipartisanship. In reality, neither man may have the restraint to keep from wringing the other&rsquo;s neck.

Gallatin's ghost

Washington looks poised to suffer from more Congressional dysfunction, having misplaced its &ldquo;Cialis plan.&rdquo; That&rsquo;s the nickname given to US deficit reduction legislation spearheaded by fiscal commission co-head Erskine Bowles. He sought to provide Congress with a solution to be enacted in a lame duck session to avoid scheduled tax hikes and spending cuts, as well as set the framework for a larger compromise between Democrats and Republicans.

Fiscal impotence

Would anyone really argue with hiking tax rates on Americans making over $1 million a year? OK, the millionaires might. But selling out the country&rsquo;s 250,000 super-rich by taxing them at Clinton-era rates might be the needed political compromise to avert the fiscal cliff &mdash; if only one of many financial sacrifices required to right Uncle Sam&rsquo;s finances.

Millionaire sacrifice

A successful second term for U.S. President Barack Obama depends on him learning to compromise. He won&rsquo;t have much time to celebrate his win over Mitt Romney before confronting a mandatory raft of tax increases and spending cuts. To avert an imminent recession, he will need to channel his predecessor Bill Clinton and bring together a divided Congress on fiscal reform. A grand bargain could assure his place in history.

Second chance

Good sense may be a rare commodity in Washington these days. But lawmakers have finally recognized they were flirting with mutually assured destruction. Now, thankfully, they have downgraded the nation&rsquo;s debt threat to DEFCON 3. The US House of Representatives has passed a Republican motion to raise the nation&rsquo;s borrowing limit for four months. The move implies the GOP will now try to cut the deficit by threatening to shut down the government instead.

MAD averted

President Barack Obama&rsquo;s pick to succeed Tim Geithner as US Treasury secretary may prove more tweaker than reformer. Jack Lew is a budget expert and helped balance America&rsquo;s books under President Bill Clinton. But he may be too liberal for today&rsquo;s Republicans, and his boss wants to cut entitlements with a scalpel, not a cleaver. That makes it unlikely he will preside over a long-term answer to US deficits.

In Lew

American International Group&rsquo;s bailout helped &mdash; not harmed &mdash; shareholders. Yet Hank Greenberg, the insurer&rsquo;s persistent former chief executive, wants the company to sign on to his lawsuit against the US government over the $182 billion rescue. AIG would be crazy to do so, but the financial case is weak anyway.

Survivor's remorse

America&rsquo;s lawmakers might finally take reforming housing finance seriously in 2013. Assuming Congress settles the deficit debate, sorting the government&rsquo;s role in funding home loans should be its next stop. And, a number of obstacles are dissolving.

Reform at last

A temporary tax rise could be the key to ending the US fiscal stalemate. A decade ago, a budget surplus inspired an intended short-term cut. Why not do the same thing in reverse to fix a deficit? The new revenue, paired with entitlement reform, could put American debt on a safer path. And an expiration date should help Republicans come around.

Reverse thrust

The worldwide playing field for banks had been levelling but just got jostled. One of America&rsquo;s top regulators said on Friday the Basel III accord should be scrapped. Thomas Hoenig, vice-chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, urged adoption of a simpler, stricter leverage ratio. A year after Jamie Dimon called the new worldwide global capital standards anti-American, the latest sign of resistance will only stoke fears about the US commitment to new rules.

Daniel Indiviglio