Editor's Choice for the Week of November 9, 2009: Budgets, Bills, and Broker/Dealers

The big market-moving news of last week came on November 4 from the Fed’s Open Market Committee meeting, the minutes of which suggested that while there were clear signs of economic recovery, inflation remained subdued, and at week’s end, with Friday’s October jobs report told the sad story of a 26-year high in unemployment, with the jobless rate rising from 9.8% to 10.2%. (You might want to read a thoughtful New York Times piece on the jobless recovery and business cycles by Peter Goodman.)

Then over the weekend, the House passed the long-anticipated, highly controversial healthcare reform bill along party lines (well, there was one Republican Congressman who voted for the bill; 39 Democrats voted against it); that heated conversation now moves to the Senate. For an interesting take on physician compensation and incentives, read Cornell economist Robert Frank’s article here.