On the book jacket/inside flap of Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz’s Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy, Nobel Laureate (too) and New York Times opinion leader Paul Krugman calls Stiglitz an “insanely brilliant economist”.

(Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy) GlobalPost‘s John Aloysius Farrell has a fascinating survey up of perspectives on Obama’s year in foreign policy. Read the entire piece, but I’ve put some of the zinger quotes below — including my own.

This is a seven minute clip of a high substance, politically significant exchange with Nobel Economics Laureate Joseph Stiglitz — who hopes that Obama’s economic team will soon — finally — learn from the serious mistakes they have made. Stiglitz says that there is a major battle of ideas underway.

I just received the seriously disturbing news that FDIC chair Sheila Bair, one of the few national economic leaders who worked hard to curb the excesses and corruption of Wall Street and stand by middle class interests, may have run into some conflict of interest problems.

(Jonathan Guyer for The Washington Note) — The Washington Note

Columbia University Professor and world renowned economist Joseph Stiglitz will be speaking today at a New America Foundation/Economic Growth Program public policy forum about his new book, Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy.

The New America Foundation and Slate Magazine are co-hosting a special public policy forum today to discuss the context and consequences of Google’s threat to pull out of China. The event will run TODAY from 9:30 am – 11:00 am EST and will STREAM LIVE here at The Washington Note.

(photo credit: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) I wrote this article today for Salon.com reviewing President Obama’s performance over the past year. I hope you’ll read the entire piece — but here’s the intro plus a bit more: Great Challenges Make Great Leaders Yes, Obama inherited a presidency in bad shape.

I’m down blogging today at the Hard Bean Coffee & Booksellers Cafe in Annapolis, Maryland on what is a beautiful day to think about Martin Luther King, Jr.

I haven’t watched the Senate race in Massachusetts all that closely. I was impressed with the smart policy work, particularly in foreign policy issues, that Alan Khazei’s campaign put out. Khazei touched on a lot of issues that the better known but more issues mum Martha Coakley put out.