In my column for CNN, I explain why Rick Perry’s record on job is both his greatest strength and weakness:

Gov. Rick Perry enters the presidential race with one big advantage and one big impediment. The advantage: his record of job creation in Texas. His impediment? His record of job creation in Texas.

Through two years of weak economic recovery, Texas has led the nation in job creation. Of all the jobs created in the United States since 2009, 38% have been created in Texas.

But if Texas has created many jobs, it has failed to create good jobs. Many of the jobs created since 2009 pay only minimum wage, and Texas, along with Mississippi, has the highest percentage of minimum wage workers in the U.S.

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The bad economic news, especially persistently high unemployment, requires an examination of our immigration policy. The U.S. currently admits about 800,000 legal immigrants per year, all of whom are authorized for employment.

This goes on year in and year out, regardless of the level of unemployment.  This makes no economic sense and cries out for reform.

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I have spent the past two days at the annual retreat for Canada’s finance minister, Jim Flaherty, at Gatineau near Ottawa. Participants included prominent Canadian business and financial leaders, economists and academics, experts from the nonprofit sector, and officials from the Ministry of Finance.

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The bond market has reacted to the S&P downgrade of US debt with a big rally in US Treasuries. As I write, the US government can borrow money for 10 years at about 2.3% and for 2 years at under one quarter of a point. The market wants to buy, buy, buy US debt.

What the market wants to sell are stocks:  ie, claims on the future earnings of private-sector companies.

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A simple theory of why Obama didn’t come out fighting in 2009: he expected an economic turnaround in four years.

My co-bloggers John Sides and Josh Tucker responded yesterday to a recent newspaper article in which psychologist Drew Westen argues that Barack Obama made a mistake by making conciliatory noises rather than aggressive Wall-Street-blaming in his inauguration speech and after.

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Do Americans want more money from Big Government? Mickey Kaus insists no, citing a column by Michael Barone, who in turn relies on research by Stanley Greenberg.

But as the evidence passes from Greenberg to Barone to Kaus, a fascinating game of broken-telephone is played.

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An early summer drama ended with Congress approving the debt ceiling increase. Now begin three intertwining dramas. First, the government received a debt downgrade. The message from this is clear: the United States of America cannot continue to spend more than forty percent more than it takes in as taxes.

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My column in today’s National Post expresses worry whether Canada’s relative prosperity can continue to survive global economic turbulence:

Canada increased its exports by $26.7-billion in 2010 over 2009. Almost 80% of that increase was driven by sales of automotive products into the U.S. market.

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I have a friend who has recently graduated from the University of Toronto with a B.A. in History. I’ve been living with him this past summer, and he has been unemployed for most of it. About a month ago, he came home happy. He had found a job at an upscale restaurant in the city.

After a bit of prodding, he finally admitted to what it was. After years of education, thousands of dollars spent on tuition, countless readings and promises for a bright future, my friend was now a busboy.

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S&P has now downgraded the US government from AAA to AA+, a historic downgrade. The effects of this downgrade will no doubt echo throughout the US and global economy.

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