David Wessel

David Wessel, economics editor of The Wall Street Journal and author, most recently, of Red Ink: Inside the High Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget, and Mattea Kramer, Senior Research Analyst, National Priorities Project, and lead author of National Priorities Project's new book, A People’s Guide to the Federal Budget, explain what the fiscal cliff means, why we’re heading for it, and ways Washington can solve the nation's budget problems.

David Wessel dissects the federal budget, a subject that is fiercely debated in the halls of Congress and in the media, yet is misunderstood by the American public. In Red Ink: Inside the High-Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget, Wessel looks at the 2011 fiscal year to see where all the money was actually spent, and why the budget process has grown so far out of control.

Many Americans are angry about the sluggish state of the economy. On Tuesday, they went to the polls and took their anger out on elected officials. But the people who have a very large effect on the American economy aren't elected at all. They’re the appointed officials at the Federal Reserve Bank, headed by Ben Bernanke. As if to underscore that point, The Fed announced Wednesday that they’ll buy $600 billion worth of Treasury bonds, in an effort to stimulate economic growth.

The Senate voted Ben Bernanke into his second four-year term as head of the Fed yesterday. David Wessel, economics editor of The Wall Street Journal and author of In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic, talks about the vote.

Michael Grunwald, national correspondent for Time Magazine, talks about why Time chose Ben Bernanke as Person of the Year; and David Wessel, economics editor at The Wall Street Journal and author of In Fed We Trust, looks at the Bernanke record.

David Wessel, economics editor of The Wall Street Journal and author of In Fed We Trust Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic, provides a close-up retelling of the Federal Reserve's dramatic efforts to stabilize the US economy.

David Wessel, economics editor of The Wall Street Journal, a regular commentator on NPR’s Morning Edition, and author of the forthcoming book In FED We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic, talks about if we should be surprised by the new unemployment figures and if he expects ...

David Wessel, Wall Street Journal economics editor, Raghuram Rajan, former IMF chief economist, Roger Ferguson, president and CEO of TIAA-CREF, and Gerard Kleisterlee, president and CEO of Royal Philips Electronics, participate in a panel discussion about the state of our economy--and whether they ...