This is the policy brief the OECD has put out about the UK.  It seems pretty empty to me - deal with NHS productivity, improve active labour market policies, deal with the malfunctioning planning system - all good supply-side ideas, but no real dilemmas are confronted.   If we get a "W" recession, should we use fiscal policy again?

Philip Stephens kicks back against Mervyn King's power-grab: if the Bank being in charge of systemic risk is such a good idea, why were they so bad at doing something about it before?

Yet another important body reports on what to do in terms of Global Financial Reforms.  The BIS, this time, joins the Bank of England, the FSA, the Treasury, the IMF, the OECD in various ways, the Financial Stability Forum (now Board), and no doubt millions more.  I would link to all of them, but doubt anyone would thank me. 

Brad DeLong and Mark Thoma seem to be defending Greenspan's low rates over 2001-4, against the standard "blame Greenspan for all this" line. 

Willem Buiter points out an essential element of Ben Bernanke's armoury last September: a good length of stout hose, for belabouring the rear end of recalcitrant Bank CEO's.  In it he once again displays his preference for forced debt-equity swaps, and the subsequent creation of a Good Bank. 

Two of the world's most famous economists debate the fiscal-expansion reaction to the recession (video). 

If monetarist solutions really are enough to get the economy out of its recession (like the diamond-pure Scott Sumner does), why has lending growth fallen so far despite Quantitative Easing? What if there is no demand for the funds, and someone needs to be out there buying things?

The FT doesn't think much of Brown's latest relaunch. 

By focusing on headline-grabbing initiatives, the government is trying to avoid addressing the most important issue in British politics: the fiscal crisis. The only way to set out a solution to this problem is to hold a spending review, setting out departmental budgets for the coming years.

Is Angela Merkel really the fiscal hawk she pretends to be?  Now she is into Tax Cuts. 

You think we have political corruption issues?  Imagine if Peter Viggers had spent this much on statues of himself. 

Green Shoots I: difficult to get a good table in Houston.  I don't think there has been much of a consumer recession.

Green Shoots II: Eurozone confidence is rising. 

Green Shoots III:  Nationwide sees house prices rising again.  This is becoming a trend - albeit on no volumes. OK, so the first quarter was worse than we thought.   

David Aaranovitch defends educational centralisation and reminds people that it was not a glorious summer of unfettered learning before.