• Wondering, along with Paul K, if this is really a realistic time for a “grand bargain” budget deal.
• Reviving an important graph from Fed Reserve governor Janet Yellen showing the current and historical impact on real GDP of fiscal stimulus or drag in recoveries.
• Illustrating the corrosive linkage between higher inequality and diminished opportunity.
• Questioning whether technology is blocking the path to full employment.
• Highlighting Neil Irwin’s economic Heat/Spurs analysis: is the winning strategy arbitrage or “pass to the open guy?”
• Discussing wealth effects — the changes to income and spending that occur when asset values go up or down — and home values.
• Arguing that the assertion that we have a shortage of low-skilled workers is not the right defense of immigration reform.
• Pointing to another call for full employment, this time from across the pond.
• Showing that there’s really no wage inflation in this economy.
• Differentiating between what it means to be a cyclical dove/structural hawk (CDSH) vs. a cyclical dove/structural dove (CDSD).
• Rounding up some newsworthy items ahead of an appearance on MSNBC’s NOW! with Alex Wagner.
• Laying out the ninth edition of Sequester Watch:  those who forget about sequestration are doomed to repeat it…

Music: this week’s Friday Musical Interlude featured the first movement of one of the pinnacles of human creation: Bach’s Italian Concerto, masterfully played by Alicia De Larrocha.