Obama Watch

I know, same old story, there is simply too much going on with the economy to keep up, so why even try. Don't worry, we'll get through it, bit by bit.

So the economy sucks. What is Obama doing to fix it? Essentially it's a three-pronged approach:

1. Spend a bunch of government money to get things going again;
2. Fix the banks so that they can loan people and businesses money again; and
   
3. Help people with their mortgages so they don't lose their homes.

Let's start with #1. The official name of this prong is the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009." The gist is that if company's don't have the money to give people jobs, the government does. The White House launched a web site called recovery.gov where you can read up on the plan and see where the money is going.

A couple of opinion articles about this mess by two of my favorite columnists:

• Paul Krugman: Failure to Rise (liberal)
• David Brooks: Money for Idiots (conservative)

If you're feeling brave, here is a link to the full text of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Still don't understand how we got into this mess? Don't worry. Here's a great article from a fellow C.Post contributors to help explain.