Economy Highlights

Sam Gustin hosts Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, author of Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy and University Professor at Columbia University and DailyFinance Deputy Managing Editor Michael Rainey.

With the global economic downturn continuing to dog the Irish economy, thousands of people across the country are being forced to emigrate, heading far and wide in search of work and a better life. When the going gets tough, even the toughest and most resilient in Ireland get going overseas. The once booming housing market has crippled the Irish economy. Scores of young people are bidding farewell to family and friends and moving abroad in search of a more stable and prosperous future.

Vast new cities are being built across China at a rate of ten a year, but they remain almost completely uninhabited ghost towns. Racing to stay ahead of the world economy, is the superpower about to implode?

Vernon Smith is a pioneer, discovering a whole new way to study economics and winning a Nobel Prize for doing so. Smith sat down with Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie to discuss a variety of topics, including growing up in Kansas during the Great Depression, his ideological journey from socialist to libertarian, how and why some of Adam Smith's most important intellectual contributions are overlooked, and what experimental economics has to say about the collapse of the housing market.

Friday's jobs report will likely confirm that layoffs in August were limited but that hiring remains anemic, say Morningstar's Bob Johnson and Vishnu Lekraj.

Friday's January employment report is likely to show deceleration from December's number, but the general trend of slow, steady improvement is persisting, say Morningstar's Bob Johnson and Vishnu Lekraj.

Although there might be a few pockets of strength in July's employment report, the job-growth engine is likely still in neutral, according to Morningstar's Bob Johnson and Vishnu Lekraj.