In this video clip, Peter Orszag, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, is in the spotlight on the US budget and other pertinent issues.

Click here or on the image below to view the video. (As there is no direct link to the clip, you need to click on “Archive” on the Charlie Rose site, and then scroll down to the Peter Orszag video of November 3.)

Click here for a transcript of the interview.

Source: Charlie Rose, November 3, 2009.

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Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

Moody’s Confident About U.S.

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have injected about $12 trillion to revive the economy and credit markets. As a result, the budget deficit is expected to reach $1.6 trillion this year and

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Moody's Investors Service on Friday affirmed its Aaa credit rating on the United States. The action considers the country’s ability to survive the credit crisis, its political stability and favorable long-term economic prospects. Though the rising debt burden could threaten the creditworthiness of the world's largest economy, much of the debt the country is accumulating is backed by equity and securities purchases, which lessens the negative effect on the government's net worth. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have injected about $12 trillion to revive the economy and credit markets. As a result, the budget deficit is expected to reach $1.6 trillion this year and $1.4 trillion next year. In its mid-year economic review, the Office of Management and Budget increased its estimate of the 10-year deficit by almost $2 trillion from the previous level to $9.05 trillion....

Employment numbers, while their decline has moderated, still haven't recovered. This will likely take some time and will weigh heavily on the economy no matter how much other span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"indicators/span improve. Not many people seem to be covering this today, but the White House did release some interesting data yesterday (a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087amp;sid=aNaqecavD9ek"span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"bloomberg/span/a):br /br /blockquoteU.S. a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=USURTOT%3AIND" t_delay="50" t_width="110" t_bgcolor="#ddedd9" t_fontface="Verdana,sans-serif" t_fontcolor="#000000" t_static="true" t_above="true"unemployment/a will surge to 10 percent this year and the budget a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=FDEBTY%3AIND" t_delay="50" t_width="110" t_bgcolor="#ddedd9" t_fontface="Verdana,sans-serif" t_fontcolor="#000000" t_static="true" t_above="true"deficit/a will be $1.5 trillion next year, both higher than previous Obama administration forecastsbr /because of a recession that was deeper and longer than expected, White House budget chief a href="http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Peter+Orszagamp;site=wnewsamp;client=wnewsamp;proxystylesheet=wnewsamp;output=xml_no_dtdamp;ie=UTF-8amp;oe=UTF-8amp;filter=pamp;getfields=wnnisamp;sort=date:D:S:d1" t_delay="50" t_width="110" t_bgcolor="#ddedd9" t_fontface="Verdana,sans-serif" t_fontcolor="#000000" t_static="true" t_above="true"Peter span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"Orszag/span/a said.br /br /The Office of Management and Budget forecasts a weaker economic recovery than it saw in May as the gross domestic product ...

Even as investors get more and more bullish about the outlook for the U.S. economy, the economy’s underlying foundation continues to erode.

In a report to be released this week, the Obama administration will boost its 10-year projection for the federal budget deficit to about $9 trillion – an increase of roughly $2 trillion, or 29%, from its prior projection, Fox News reported over the weekend, citing a source from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

The new cumulative deficit projection – for 2010-2019 – replaces the administration’s previous estimate of $7.108 trillion. Changes in budget projections – whether they result in a surplus or a deficit – are often refined as economic conditions change. This new projection was necessary because the recession has gone on for so long, causing federal tax receipts to plunge – and because the economic rebound will be prolonged and weak, resulting

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Currencies rebound…  G-8 has no fireworks…  Aussie / China and coal… Entitlements… And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Good day… And a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday to you! I’m late, I’m late! I don’t believe I ever heard the alarm go off this morning! I overslept by more than an hour, and will still be here more than an hour before any sign of someone else! But! That puts me behind by more than an hour today… I’ve got to play catch-up! So, let’s get this Tub Thumpin’ Thursday going!

Well… Let’s see… G-8 never had the opportunity to shoot fireworks because China’s leader had to return home to deal with the street riots going on in his country. So… The call for a replacement for the dollar as the reserve currency will have to wait for another day! And, with that news, the dollar got to remain in the sunlight, and bask in the glory of being

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The financial debate during the past few days was dominated by President Obama’s sweeping revamp of financial market supervision, and this issue also occupies a number of slots in today’s Video-o-rama.

But it was not all about regulation, as pundits were also trying to figure out whether there were in fact economic “green shoots” and what the implications for financial markets might be. Commentators include Michael Lewis, John Rogers, Robert Kleinschmidt, Jack Welch, Barry Ritholtz, Nouriel Roubini, Stephen Roach, Mario Gabelli and George Friedman.

The compilation kicks off with author Michael Lewis discussing his article “The End of Wall Street”, and concludes with a fascinating analysis of the Iranian situation by George Friedman of Stratfor, geopolitical analysts.

You Tube: Michael Lewis - the end of Wall Street? “Author Michael Lewis discusses how his experience working at Salomon Brothers and writing Liar’s Poker influenced his article, ‘The End of Wall

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Or, how ignorance sometimes invalidates a critique.

I am always amazed at how often people jump to the most paranoid interpretations. One case in point is this article by Evan Newmark entitled Mean Street: Obama's Big Fat Fibbing Budget on WSJ's Deal Journal:

Is the White House lying to the American public about the economy? Or, if not outright lying, is it being awfully stingy with the truth?

You have to wonder.

After all, the Obama economic team is full of very smart people. And they have to see the same things that you and I see.

They see April's lousy retail numbers and record foreclosure rate. They see unemployment at 8.9%, state tax revenues facing double-digit declines, and a 14% fall in home prices last quarter.

So how can National Economic Council boss Larry Summers, Council of Economic Advisers chief Christina Romer or Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner still believe in

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About 130 Congress members, independent experts, and advocacy group members will converge on the White House today to address the fiscal health of the United States. The summit is the first step in President Obama’s administration to prioritize plans on how to cut the deficit in half to $533 billion by the end of his first term.

Senator Judd Gregg said, “It can either be a nice press event. Or it can be a substantive event.” Gregg indicated that in past meetings participants have focused on rehashing problems rather than staying focused on how to solve the problems.

One solution that may be discussed is a piece of legislation written by Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Their legislation would be to create a bipartisan commission that would deal with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and many House Democrats appear to

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As expected, U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers slashed a benchmark interest rate yesterday (Tuesday). But they cut it by a bigger-than-expected amount, and did so in an unconventional manner.

Instead of establishing a new, specific primary interest rate, the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted for a target range – 0.0% to 0.25% – a record low. Before yesterday’s cut, the Federal Funds target rate stood at 1.0%.

Instead of addressing the reason for its peculiar target range, the Federal Reserve opted for canned doomsday language that could have appeared verbatim in any of its previous rate cut announcements: It hasn’t been good. It doesn’t look good. And we’re trying to fix it.

Most cryptically, the FOMC said it “will employ all available tools” to promote economic growth and price stability. But those objectives could take some time to achieve.

“The committee anticipates that weak economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low

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