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Michael Fletcher covers domestic economy issues.

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Ariana Eunjung Cha writes about the economy for the Post and is the Web editor for its national economy and business section. She has served as the paper's bureau chief in Beijing, Shanghai and San Francisco and as a correspondent in Baghdad.

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Brady Dennis writes about economic policy and financial regulation. Before coming to The Post in September 2008, he was a staff writer at the St. Petersburg Times in Florida. At the Post, he was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and a Gerald Loeb Award for a three-part series he and a colleague wrote about the rise and fall of American International Group.

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Zachary Goldfarb has covered the U.S. financial crisis for The Post for more than three years. Originally from Manhattan, he is a graduate of the Princeton University and now lives in Washington, D.C. He enjoys vegetarian cooking, is getting started as a cyclist and spends too much time obsessing over gadgets.

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Jia Lynn Yang is a staff writer at The Washington Post who covers policy that affects corporate America. She's interested in taxes, regulation and all the ways that business and Washington try to influence and make sense of one another. Before joining The Post, Jia Lynn was a Washington correspondent for Fortune magazine.

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Neil Irwin writes about the U.S. economy and the Federal Reserve. He has been at the Post since 2000 and has an MBA from Columbia Business School, where he was a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economics and Business Journalism. His interests include bond market data, cured pork products, and pinot noir.

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Howard Schneider covers international economics and trade for the Post. He has served in a variety of roles at the paper, three tours abroad in Israel, Egypt and Canada, and as economics editor. He is a native of Maryland's Eastern Shore, and proudly includes a chief oyster inspector among his ancestors.

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Mike Shepard is the Night Editor for Economy and Business News. A graduate of Georgetown University, Mike has worked at the Post for 22 years in a variety of editing assignments. He spent 1997 teaching journalism in Brazil on a Fulbright scholarship and is a fluent speaker of Portuguese.

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About This Blog

Political Economy explores how political forces in Washington and elsewhere in the world shape the economy and how corporate agendas influence political institutions and politicians. The blog offers new perspectives on the day's top economic and business stories with exclusive interviews with government officials and lawmakers, commentary from influential economists and analysis from Post reporters. Ariana Eunjung Cha is the blog's lead writer and Mike Shepard is the author of the daily economic agenda.

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Ezra Klein's Take

"The Obama campaign publicly supported the bank bailout and then repelled the populist measures to really hammer banker pay when they got into office. The financial reform bill didn't break up the banks, set leverage requirements in statute or do any of a number of other things that would've really hurt the financial industry. The auto bailout was designed to preserve the existence of America's auto industry, and even the Economist has admitted that the Obama administration did everything in its power to "restore both firms to health and then get out as quickly as possible." The various stimulus measures have been designed to directly support businesses or indirectly support the people who those businesses rely on."

Steve Pearlstein's Take

"Given the fragile state of the economy, this is no time to be raising taxes on the middle class, as nearly every dollar taxed is nearly a dollar not spent buying goods and services... At the same time, even conservative economists acknowledge that while the rich account for a disproportionate share of consumer spending, raising their taxes by a modest amount won't alter that spending or have much of a short-term impact on the economy. The reason: Wealthy people make considerably more than they spend, and they save the rest."

Car czar's new tell-all book: Rahm curses UAW

(Photo Credit: Pete Souza/White House Photo)

Wall Street financier Steve Rattner's new book, "Overhaul," has some delicious details about internal discussions within the Obama Administration regarding the bailout of U.S. automakers:

Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, when reminded that tens of thousands of jobs are at stake, utters a common profanity expressing disdain for the United Auto Workers.

White House senior adviser Larry Summers is brilliant but imperious toward a dissenting economist, Austan Goolsbee, who dares to speak up at a meeting. Summers "explodes" and tells Goolsbee in the corridor: "You do not relitigate in front of the president!"

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D), dejected about the possibility the automakers would have to file for bankruptcy, tells Obama in a voice barely above a whisper: "I hope you know what you're doing."

The best Obama line may be this one, as General Motors and Chrysler approached financial meltdown in November 2008: "Why can't they make a Corolla?" he asked his advisers, according to the book. "We wish we knew," his advisers reply.

For Peter Whoriskey's full story about the book, click here.

By Ariana Eunjung Cha | September 3, 2010; 10:54 AM ET
Categories: Auto industry , Corporations
Save & Share: Previous: Q&A: Labor secretary sees progress, but long road ahead in helping unemployed
Next: Week ahead: New details on trade

Comments

The diffents between Auto industries and the banks is hug, all time rich and allies think they should mandated and have everythings in control but now is different we have a president of EE,u who care about regular working americans

Posted by: Anonymous | September 3, 2010 11:49 AM | Report abuse

The diffents between Auto industries and the banks is hug, all time rich and allies think they should mandated and have everythings in control but now is different we have a president of EE,u who care about regular working americans. Jorge Fernandez

Posted by: Anonymous | September 3, 2010 11:52 AM | Report abuse

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Posted by: Anonymous | September 4, 2010 3:51 AM | Report abuse

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