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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The Dow Jones Industrial Index on Thursday breached 9,000 for the first time since January and the Nasdaq Composite Index notched up a 12th consecutive advancing day (the first time sine 1992) as favorable reactions to earnings and economics reports propelled stocks and other risky assets higher. Meanwhile, the usual debate on the outlook for the economy and shenanigans of financial institutions again dominated the video channels over the past few days.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s bi-annual testimony on Capitol Hill (and an expected grilling by Alan Grayson) and other highlights of the week’s trials and tribulations were captured on video and are included in this video-o-rama compilation. Strutting their stuff were a star-studded cast including the likes of Martin Feldstein, Stephen Roach, Bill King, Nouriel Roubini, Sheila Bair, Mario Gabelli and George Friedman.

The compilation starts off with an interview with Harvard’s Martin Feldstein about his “double-dip” economic

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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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Volcker Appointed to Overhaul Tax Code; Ken Lewis Sees Recession Bottoming; Ford’s Volvo Sales Moving Along; Romania Receives $27 Billion IMF Loan; IBM Transfers Jobs to India; Durable Goods Orders Rise; Brazil’s Stock Market Surges to Six Week High; Bank of America to Repay TARP Funds

President Barack Obama has appointed Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to close tax loopholes and streamline tax laws. The top-to-bottom overhaul of the 96-year-old tax code will reduce tax evasion and “corporate welfare,” budget Director Peter Orszag told Bloomberg. Kenneth Lewis, Bank of America Corp.’s (BAC) chief executive, told The Los Angeles Times he wants to begin repaying the $45 billion his company owes the U.S. government next month. He ...

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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I don't usually read Bill Kristol's column, but once in a while, my eyes get caught by a headline (that's the difference between reading online and "on paper"), and I'll check out what he has to say. The other day, I read his column "Admit we don't know" on the current economic crisis that, while not in my mind "wrong", seemed puzzling to me. Pay attention to the last paragraph (highlighted in bold).

...basically, it seems to me, we're all flying blind. The markets are spiraling down, and our leading experts don't have much of a clue as to what to do.

Given that, one has to welcome the expected appointment to senior positions in the Obama administration of economists like Lawrence Summers, Timothy Geithner, Jason Furman, Peter Orszag, and Goolsbee himself. They're sober and competent people who know we face a real crisis -- and who, importantly, may be more

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How many economic-advice-giving organizations does it take to run a White House?

MarketWatch reports:

President-elect Barack Obama tapped former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to run a new White House advisory board tasked with offering independent advice about how to stage an economic recovery. Obama named the 81-year-old Volcker to head the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board....

The board is modeled on the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board that gave President Dwight Eisenhower independent opinions on intelligence issues. Austan Goolsbee, another key Obama adviser, will serve as the economic board's staff director and chief economist.

Volcker can be single-handedly credited with ending the great inflation of the 1970s, and has been critical of the unorthodox steps that Fed Chair Ben Bernanke has taken to address our current challenges. Although I share some of Volcker's concerns, it is not clear to me what specifically Volcker would propose to do instead.

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President-elect Barack Obama yesterday (Monday) formally unveiled his economic team, including the nomination of New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy F. Geithner as the new administration’s U.S. Treasury secretary. The team’s first challenge will be assembling an economic stimulus package that could be even larger than the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) the Bush Administration has deployed.

The nomination of Geithner to succeed current U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. was leaked over the weekend, and was reported by Money Morning yesterday.

Geithner (pronounced: GITE-ner) obtained a Master of Arts degree in International Economics and East Asian Studies from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in 1985. He also has studied Japanese and Chinese and has lived in present-day Zimbabwe, India, Thailand and China.

As

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I assume that bond buyers are all drug addicts who are not aware of what they are doing, morons who are not aware of what they are doing, or grubby slicksters who are buying them on behalf of drug addicts and morons! Hahaha!

I said out loud to the family, “This is interesting news! Bloomberg.com says, ‘The U.S. government’s borrowing needs will almost double to $2 trillion this fiscal year, prompting the Treasury to revive three-year notes and hold more frequent sales of 10- and 30-year debt, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS)’”

I forced a wooden smile onto my face as I stood up and slowly - so as not to draw attention to myself - started walking towards the kitchen so as to run out of the back door, bolting like a scared little coward to the Mogambo Secret Bunker Of Security (MSBOS) so that I could frantically

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