Podcast: European Debt, Bank Fees and Beats Headphones

New governments have been installed in Italy and Greece and Greek debt restructuring is under way, but European credit markets remain shaky.

One cause may be the questions that are being raised about the status of credit default swaps that were bought as insurance in the event of a Greek default, Gretchen Morgenson says on the new Weekend Business podcast.

In her column in Sunday Business, she says that not all the holders of Greek bonds have agreed to take a “voluntary” discount, or haircut, on the debt. Some of them bought credit default swaps that, they believed, provided insurance in the event of a Greek default. If that insurance provides solid protection, then it may not be in their interest to agree to a reduction in the value of their bonds. But the usefulness of the credit default swaps isn’t entirely clear in this situation, adding another layer of difficulty to resolving the Greek crisis.

In a separate discussion, Richard Thaler, the behaviorial economist, says that while business executives realize that they shouldn’t allow their companies to become the butt of jokes on late-night talk shows, many of them don’t seem to know how to act on that principle. A case in point, he says, is the recent controversy over Bank of America’s decision to impose a fee for use of its debt cards — a fee that was later scrapped. In the Economic View column in Sunday Business, he writes that customers tend to be outraged when businesses appear to be “gouging” them. And people may get that impression when businesses begin to charge for services that had previously been free.

In another conversation on the podcast, David Gillen and Andrew Martin talk about the pricey Beats headphones being purveyed by Dr. Dre, the hip-hop artist, in a new business venture.

You can find specific segments of the podcast at these junctures: Gretchen Morgenson on European debt (27:05); news headlines (18:05); Beats headphones (14:32); Richard Thaler (7:25); the week ahead (1:49).

As articles discussed in the podcast are published during the weekend, links will be added to this post.

You can download the program by subscribing from The New York Times’s podcast page or directly from iTunes.

Podcast: Europe, Pensions, Wealth and Phone Bills

For much of the past week, financial markets have fretted more about Italy than about Greece, which had been the main focus of worries for many weeks.

While the markets were calmer on Friday, the problems in the euro zone were hardly over.

In the new Weekend Business podcast, Floyd Norris, a veteran financial reporter, says that Italy’s sheer economic weight makes its problems quite threatening to the world’s financial system. An impending change in political leadership in Italy and a shift that has already occurred in Greece took some of the financial pressure off both countries temporarily. But the stability of the euro zone remains very much in doubt, he says.

In the United States, a Congressional “supercommittee” has been charged with reducing the fiscal deficit by $1.2 trillion. In a separate conversation in the podcast, and in her column in Sunday Business, Gretchen Morgenson says the committee might want to focus on the taxpayer financing of military contractor pensions, which, she says, are underfunded by some $30 billion. Since defined-benefit pensions have been reduced in other sectors, she suggests, it may be worth considering whether taxpayers ought to bear this burden for defense contractors.

Questions posed by the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations are the focus of the Economic View column in Sunday Business by Tyler Cowen, a George Mason economics professor, who says he has a libertarian and conservative perspective. While he says in the podcast that he’s sympathetic to the demonstrators’ targeting of abuses by the “top 1 percent,” he adds that the crucial distinction ought to be how you earn your money, not how much money you earn. The pursuit of wealth has long been valued in American society, he says, along with a culture of discipline and hard work, and in his view these values ought to be strengthened in the future.

Outrageous cellphone bills have raised the hackles of the Haggler, as David Segal calls himself in his Sunday Business column. On the podcast, he discusses his efforts to adjudicate a bill that amounted to more than $25,000 in long-distance charges plus more than $1,000 in recovery fees.

And Phyllis Korkki and Amy Cortese discuss the response of people in Saranac Lake, a small town in upstate New York, who realized that with the demise of a local store there would no longer be anyplace in town to buy underwear. They started a community-owned store, which sells assorted sundries, with the support of some local shopkeepers, who say that a variety of enterprises are needed to build customer traffic and keep the town’s businesses alive.

You can find specific segments of the podcast at these junctures: Floyd Norris on European debt (34:20); news headlines (25:37); Gretchen Morgenson on pensions (23:22); Amy Cortese on Saranac Lake (18:46); The Haggler on phone bills (13:14); Tyler Cowen on wealth (8:44); the week ahead (1:41).

As articles discussed in the podcast are published during the weekend, links will be added to this post.

You can download the program by subscribing from The New York Times’s podcast page or directly from iTunes.

Podcast: Jobs Report, European Debt and the Flat Tax

Each month, the Labor Department issues a report on jobs and unemployment. It would be a relief to get one showing that jobs are being created in large numbers in the United States, and that unemployment in rapidly sinking.

But we will have to keep waiting: that, alas, was not the report that the Labor Department released for October.

Instead, like so many monthly tallies before it, the latest report paints a picture of an economy that isn’t creating enough jobs to keep up with population growth, Catherine Rampell says in the new Weekend Business podcast. While the unemployment rate dipped slightly, from 9.1 to 9.0 percent, the drop was so slight that it might well be a statistical anomaly.

Heightened uncertainty from the Greek financial crisis has affected the global economy and the markets. It’s the focus of my column in Sunday Business, as I mention on the podcast. And as Gretchen Morgenson says on the podcast, the crisis has already caused collateral damage in the United States. It contributed to the downfall of MF Global, the financial firm that went into bankruptcy last week. It had been headed by Jon Corzine, the former governor and senator from New Jersey and a former chief of Goldman Sachs. She writes about some of the broader implications of the firm’s failure in her Sunday Business column.

In this presidential campaign season, proposals for the institution of a flat tax have re-emerged but they are likely to go nowhere once again, in the opinion of Robert Frank, the Cornell economist. He discusses his Economic View column in Sunday Business, which says that while flat taxes are attention-getters, they would add to the growing income inequality in the United States.

And in a separate conversation in the podcast, David Gillen talks to Evelyn Rusli about Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, who has become an increasingly important figure in Silicon Valley.

You can find specific segments of the podcast at these junctures: Catherine Rampell on the jobs report (31:11); news headlines (22:55); Evelyn Rusli on LinkedIn (20:51); Gretchen Morgenson on the European crisis (15:36); Robert Frank on flat taxes (9:51); the week ahead (1:36).

As articles discussed in the podcast are published during the weekend, links will be added to this post.

You can download the program by subscribing from The New York Times’s podcast page or directly from iTunes.

Podcast: European Debt, Settlement Talks, Fed Policy and Jim Collins

European leaders reached agreement this week on a far-reaching package aimed at resolving the Greek debt problem, recapitalizing vulnerable banks and bolstering the euro zone’s financial rescue fund. Stock markets around the world rallied on the news.

But in the new Weekend Business podcast, Nelson Schwartz, a Times financial writer, says that the details of the plan are vague — and that many questions remain. There have been several European rescue packages, with euphoric reactions in the market, but the mood has dampened after each one, he says, and it may well do so again.

Gretchen Morgenson discusses the settlement talks under way between financial institutions that may be responsible for mortgage foreclosure misconduct and, on the other side, state attorneys general and the federal government. As she writes in her Sunday Business column, actual cash payments of $1,500 are envisioned in a possible settlement for people who were erroneously evicted from their homes. This may strike people who have lost their homes as a low figure, she suggests.

In a conversation with David Gillen, Jim Collins discusses a new book, “Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck — Why Some Thrive Despite Them All,” which he wrote with Morten T. Hansen. An article adapted from the book appears in Sunday Business.

And Christina Romer, the Berkeley economist who was chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers, discusses her suggestions for a new approach at the Federal Reserve. In the Economic View column in Sunday Business, she recommends that Ben S. Bernanke, the Fed chairman, take bold action, much as Paul Volcker did when he was the chairman years ago. Mr. Volcker began to target the growth of the money supply in his fight to curb inflation. Now, she says, the Fed should begin to target nominal growth of the gross domestic product in an effort to restore vitality to the economy.

You can find specific segments of the podcast at these junctures: Europe’s debt accord (35:33); news headlines (28:22); Jim Collins (25:16); the mortgage settlement talks (15:17); Christina Romer (10:06); the week ahead (2:01).

You can download the program by subscribing from The New York Times’s podcast page or directly from iTunes.

Podcast: Insider Trading, Job Creation and Fighting Cancer

A federal judge in Manhattan this week imposed the longest insider-trading sentence ever in the United States.

In a conversation on the new Weekend Business podcast, Peter Lattman, who covered the sentencing of the hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam in the case, says the government argues that it will have a powerful deterrent effect.

Mr. Lattman said that it contrasts, however, with a comparative lack of prosecutions, convictions and long sentences for executives whose firms may share responsibility for the financial crisis that began in 2007.

In a separate conversation, Robert Shiller, the Yale economics professor, discusses the argument he makes in the Economic View column in Sunday Business that the government should put people to work in large-scale infrastructure projects. The proposal was included in President Obama’s American Jobs Act, which was blocked at least in its full form by the Senate last week.

Natasha Singer talks to David Gillen in the podcast about her Sunday Business cover article on the “pinking of America” — the rise of a marketing powerhouse in the fight against breast cancer.

And Steve Lohr discusses the importance of default choices on the Internet and in other parts of contemporary life. As he says in the Unboxed column in Sunday Business, much of the Internet is wide open, but the design of Web sites and the order of Web searches helps to determine what consumers actually see and select.

In the news portion of the podcast, I discuss the Nobel prize in economics, which has been labeled a “Non-Keynesian Nobel.” In my Strategies column in Sunday Business, Professor Christopher Sims of Princeton, one of the new Nobel laureates, makes it clear that he actually places his research within the Keynesian tradition.

You can find specific segments of the podcast at these junctures: the insider trading case (30:23); news headlines (23:50); fighting breast cancer (21:23); Robert Shiller (11:55); designing for the Web (7:36); the week ahead (1:48).

You can download the program by subscribing from The New York Times’s podcast page or directly from iTunes.

Podcast: Steve Jobs, Unemployment and Patriotic Spending

The death of Steve Jobs has set off a global outpouring of tributes rarely seen for a business figure. What made him so special?

John Markoff and Steve Lohr, two veteran reporters, covered him for many years, and both knew him well. In the new Weekend Business podcast, they describe him as singularly passionate and focused, a leader who demanded dedication from those around him and would not tolerate mediocrity. He thought of himself as a “technology leader,” says Mr. Markoff, who wrote Mr. Jobs’s obituary for The Times. While Mr. Jobs was not a computer programmer or a designer in the formal sense, he was superb in guiding others and in imagining and shaping projects, Mr. Lohr says, elaborating on arguments he makes in a column in Sunday Business.

The unemployment rate remained at 9.1 percent in September, according to the Labor Department report on Friday, with too few jobs produced to budge that rate, as Motoko Rich says in a separate conversation in the podcast. The Economic Cycle Research Institute is forecasting a new recession, the focus of my Strategies column in Sunday Business, but Ms. Rich says that the latest jobs report suggests that while the economy is weak, it’s not contracting at the moment.

Richard Thaler, the University of Chicago economist, says fear and anxiety have caused many corporations and individuals to hold back on spending. He advocates “self-interested patriotism,” that is, carefully planned spending on labor-intensive projects by businesses and people who can afford to do so. Mr. Thaler elaborates on this approach in the Economic View column in Sunday Business.

And David Gillen and David Segal discuss the filming of food commercials, the subject of Mr. Segal’s cover article in Sunday Business.

You can find specific segments of the podcast at these junctures: Steve Lohr and John Markoff on Steve Jobs (31:12); news headlines and Motoko Rich on unemployment (20:57); David Segal on food commercials (14:57); Richard Thaler (6:54); the week ahead (1:20).

You can download the program by subscribing from The New York Times’s podcast page or directly from iTunes.

Podcast: European Debt, a Tax Plan and General Motors

It’s been a difficult three months for the financial markets, and the global economy is weak. Unfortunately, more problems are probably on the way.

A resolution of the Greek financial crisis is not in sight. Approval of new powers for a stopgap bailout fund depends on the approval of all 17 members of the euro zone, and Finland, Germany and Austria all gave a thumbs-up in the last several days, as I write in the Strategies column in Sunday Business. But in a conversation in the new Weekend Business podcast, Floyd Norris says that many other countries still need to vote, and that even if they approve the strengthening of the fund, further remedies for Greece — requiring many further votes — will undoubtedly be required. The global economy, meanwhile, appears to be losing steam.

The United States has not come up with a solution for its fiscal problems yet, and many Republicans in Congress are opposed to raising taxes. In a separate conversation, and in the Economic View column in Sunday Business, Tyler Cowen, the George Mason University economist, says that a tax increase is inevitable sooner or later. If it doesn’t come as part of a “grand bargain” to reduce the deficit, he says, it will be forced on the United States later on — so it’s best to try to come up with a reasonable solution now.

And in his new book, “Once Upon a Car,” Bill Vlasic says G.M.’s plight in 2008 was so serious that it contemplated a merger with its cross-town rival, Ford. That merger didn’t take place, of course, but in a conversation with David Gillen, he says that it was actually proposed in a meeting between the leaders of the two companies. An article adapted from Mr. Vlasic’s book appears on the cover of Sunday Business.

You can find specific segments of the podcast at these junctures: Floyd Norris (30:27); news headlines (18:47); Bill Vlasic on G.M. (14:45); Tyler Cowen (6:50); the week ahead (1:30).

You can download the program by subscribing from The New York Times’s podcast page or directly from iTunes.

Podcast: On the Fed, Christine Lagarde and China

The Federal Reserve started Operation Twist, but the stock market was unimpressed.

Although the markets stabilized on Friday, global stock prices fell sharply after the Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday that it would shift its bond portfolio toward longer-term maturities, in a reprise of a 1960s maneuver known as Operation Twist. In a conversation on the new Weekend Business podcast, Floyd Norris says that the Fed’s initiative was overshadowed by concern over the Greek debt crisis and its threat to banks in Europe and elsewhere around the world.

The International Monetary Fund has been playing a prominent role in the crisis, with Christine Lagarde, the agency’s new director, openly urging European governments to be much bolder. David Gillen talks to Liz Alderman in Paris about the former French finance minister’s surprisingly independent stand in her first weeks as I.M.F. chief.

The rapid growth of China’s economy has been one of the major developments of the last few decades. David Barboza, a reporter based in Shanghai, says that while China is likely to continue growing at a rate that many other countries would envy, the chances of a major setback appear to be growing as well.

And in a separate conversation in the podcast, Christina Romer, the Berkeley economist and former Obama economic adviser, says that the president’s current jobs plan is sound, though she says it should, perhaps, be even more ambitious.

You can find specific segments of the podcast at these junctures: Floyd Norris on the Fed (36:43); news summary (28:22); Liz Alderman on Christine Lagarde (24:56); David Barboza on China (17:41); Christina Romer on the jobs plan (9:11); the week ahead (1:42).

As articles discussed in the podcast are published during the weekend, links will be added to this post.

You can download the program by subscribing from The New York Times’s podcast page or directly from iTunes.

Podcast: The Economy, Manufacturing and Commercialized College Life

The economy has been slowing and unemployment in the United States is stuck at 9.1 percent. President Obama has come up with a program that he says will help.

In a speech on Thursday, he offered a $447 billion package of tax cuts and spending programs that received a lukewarm reception from Republicans in Congress. The total of fiscal stimulus items was bigger than expected, but it’s not clear how much of it will be enacted, Floyd Norris says in the new Weekend Business podcast.

The Federal Reserve is contemplating action of its own, deriving inspiration from an old song by Chubby Checker. Among the options being considered to stimulate the economy is a variation on a 1961 Fed program known as Operation Twist. As I write in the Strategies column in Sunday Business, and as we discuss in the podcast, the Fed might twist the composition of its own bond portfolio to lower longer-term interest rates. New research suggests that such an effort might be effective, though its impact could be dwarfed by other influences on financial markets.

In a separate conversation in the podcast, Greg Mankiw, the Harvard economics professor, analyzes the economy’s problems and suggests a long-term solution: stoking the “animal spirits” of business to increase investment spending. This is the focus of his Economic View column in Sunday Business.

And Louis Uchitelle discusses the role of government in manufacturing, the subject of his cover article in Sunday Business. The manufacturing sector is in relative decline in the United States, he says, and isn’t likely to recover without more government help.

The increasing commercialization of college life is the focus of a Sunday Business cover article by Natasha Singer. In a conversation with David Gillen, she says brand marketing on campus has grown in scope and intensity. Along with traditional college colors, student T-shirts have sometimes been emblazoned with corporate logos.

You can find specific segments of the podcast at these junctures: Floyd Norris and Operation Twist (33:31); news summary (25:03); Natasha Singer (22:58); Louis Uchitelle (14:59); Greg Mankiw (7:07); the week ahead (1:43).

As articles discussed in the podcast are published during the weekend, links will be added to this post.

You can download the program by subscribing from The New York Times’s podcast page or directly from iTunes.

Podcast: Job Creation, Cantor Fitzgerald and Keynes

The government’s report on hiring, which showed no gain in jobs in August, provided fresh evidence that the recovery has fizzled without ever gaining momentum.

The report increases the pressure on President Obama as he prepares to deliver an address next week about job creation, on Republicans who have a starkly different approach to economic revival, and on the Federal Reserve, whose policy makers have been divided over what to do next, Shaila Dewan says in a conversation in the new Weekend Business podcast.

While the new data was worse than expected, several economists said the problem is not that companies have been laying off their employees, though there was an uptick in announced layoffs, but that they have delayed investing in new workers.

The 10-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington is approaching, and perhaps more than any other company, the brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald came to symbolize the horrors of that tragedy. Almost one-fourth of the people killed in New York City that morning worked for the firm. In a podcast conversation, Susanne Craig talks about the strategy of Howard W. Lutnick, who ran Cantor then and still does today. Mr. Lutnick has defied those who said that he and Cantor were finished, and he has rebuilt his firm.

In another podcast conversation and in the Economic View column in Sunday Business, Robert J. Shiller contends that the surge of stock market volatility over the last month cannot be explained by conventional means. He turns to the work of John Maynard Keynes, who once compared the stock market to a beauty contest. Keynes described a newspaper contest in which 100 photographs of faces were displayed, and readers were asked to choose the six prettiest. The winner would be the reader whose list of six came closest to the most popular of the combined lists of all readers. The best strategy, Keynes said, is to select those faces that you think others will think prettiest. Better yet, he said, move to the “third degree” — by picking the faces you think that others think that still others think are prettiest. Translated into the current market, investors appear to be trying to outguess one another.

　You can find specific segments of the podcast at these junctures: Shaila Dewan on the jobs report (23:36); news summary (19:23); Susanne Craig on Cantor Fitzgerald (17:23); Robert Shiller (8:05); the week ahead (1:05).

As articles discussed in the podcast are published during the weekend, links will be added to this post.

You can download the program by subscribing from The New York Times’s podcast page or directly from iTunes.

Podcast: Bernanke, the Budget and Steve Jobs

Ben Bernanke’s speech at Jackson Hole, Wyo., was sketchier than it might have been about monetary policy but strikingly detailed about fiscal policy.

As chairman of the Federal Reserve, Mr. Bernanke’s official purview is in the monetary, not the fiscal realm, of course. But in a conversation in the new Weekend Business podcast, Catherine Rampell says he seemed to be deliberately vague about the central bank’s own plans.

While he said the Fed’s full toolkit is available as needed, he didn’t spell out what the bank’s actions might entail. On the other hand, he said that short-term fiscal stimulus, combined with longer-term debt reduction, would do much to invigorate the economy.

In another podcast conversation and in the Economic View column in Sunday Business, Richard Thaler, the University of Chicago economist, says Congress has been much better at spending than at budget-cutting, which is part of what he calls a self-restraint problem.

Like people with a New Year’s Day hangover, many members of Congress find it easy to make promises if they needn’t fulfill them for months or years to come. In his view, imposing legal constraints on spending, through a balanced budget amendment or other means, is unlikely to compel effective action. Voters need to be willing to elect mature adults, who, in turn, need to exercise willpower to make better choices for the country, he says.

Steven P. Jobs, who is stepping down as chief executive of Apple, has had an enormous impact in many fields. In a podcast conversation and in the Unboxed column in Sunday Business, Steve Lohr discusses the qualities of Mr. Jobs as a role model. Above all else, he says, Mr. Jobs is an innovator, and his entire career may be seen as a relentless effort to improve the odds of bringing forth innovation, both for himself and in the organizations he has managed.

And the problem of illegal products passed off as health supplements is the focus of a conversation with Natasha Singer, who tackles the subject on the cover of Sunday Business. Federal authorities are struggling to stop the distribution of these black-market goods, which may endanger consumers’ health.

You can find specific segments of the podcast at these junctures: Catherine Rampell on the Fed (33:53); news headlines (25:04); Steve Lohr on Steve Jobs (22:13); Richard Thaler on Congress (15:49); Natasha Singer on black-market supplements (8:59); the week ahead (2:06).

As articles discussed in the podcast are published during the weekend, links will be added to this post.

You can download the program by subscribing from The New York Times’s podcast page or directly from iTunes.

Podcast: Eurobonds, Star Analysts and Productivity

Financial markets have been showing more signs of stress. The daily swings of stock markets have been growing wider, and investments presumed to be safe, like Treasury bonds and gold bullion, have been rising sharply in price.

While these market movements are global, many of the problems over the last week emanate from Europe. In the new Weekend Business podcast, Graham Bowley and Floyd Norris discuss proposals to create eurobonds as a way to provide financing for troubled members of the European Union. Political opposition in relatively rich countries like Germany, however, makes such bonds unlikely in the near future. Meanwhile, banks in Europe and elsewhere retain considerable exposure to European sovereign debt. No simple solution is at hand, and the markets remain skittish.

In a separate conversation in the podcast, and in an article on the cover of Sunday Business, Susanne Craig says that despite the uncertain market outlook, a bidding war has developed for stock analysts specializing in Internet and social media companies. We haven’t returned to the manic mood of the late 1990s, she says, but the sums being paid to some stock analysts may suggest that we are heading in that direction.

Tyler Cowen, the George Mason University economist, explores the implications of declining labor productivity in his Economic View column in Sunday Business, and in a podcast conversation. This may be the most serious of the many economic problems facing the United States, he says.

Feeling blue about the economy and the markets? Paul Lim, who writes the Fundamentally column for Sunday Business, says in the podcast that he sees a silver lining for stocks. While big American companies have not been hiring in large numbers, they have begun spending in two ways — on tangible things like technology and on acquisitions of other companies. Both should bolster share prices.

The news section of the podcast includes a discussion of Google’s plans to acquire Motorola Mobility.

You can find specific segments of the podcast at these junctures: Europe’s troubles (32:13); news roundup (21:33); star analysts (18:38); Tyler Cowen on productivity (11:51); Paul Lim on stocks (6:30); the week ahead (2:08).

As articles discussed in the podcast are published during the weekend, links will be added to this post.

You can download the program by subscribing from The New York Times’s podcast page or directly from iTunes.

Podcast: Double-Dip Fears and Grab-and-Go Food

August is off to a rocky start.

Despite an agreement to raise the debt ceiling just hours before the government’s borrowing authority was set to run out, investors quickly switched their focus to the European debt crisis and weak prospects for the United States economy and pummeled stocks.

In the Weekend Business podcast, Floyd Norris, chief financial correspondent for The Times, discusses the possibility of a double-dip recession for the United States and the troubles plaguing Europe. In addition, he suggests that the unemployment report for July, which showed a better-than-expected gain of 117,000 jobs, could be overstating seasonal adjustments.

One place where workers seem pretty happy is Pret A Manger, the British fast-food chain. Its annual work force turnover rate is about 60 percent — low for the fast-food industry, where the rate is normally 300 to 400 percent. As David Gillen discusses with Stephanie Clifford, the chain is slowly expanding in New York and other American cities with its own brand of grab-and-go food and, more significant, a fresh approach to service. At Pret, the goal is to serve customers within 60 seconds, and with maximum currency.

You can find specific segments of the podcast at these junctures: Floyd Norris (15:51); news headlines (10:52); Pret A Manger (8:28); the week ahead (0:58).

As articles discussed in the podcast are published during the weekend, links will be added to this post.

You can download the program by subscribing from The New York Times’s podcast page or directly from iTunes.

Podcast: G.D.P., European Stocks, Bernanke and Bing

If you were hoping for some economic good news to close out July, forget it. Not only did the Commerce Department offer up a gloomy assessment of the second-quarter gross domestic product, it also said the recession of 2007-9 was deeper and the recovery slower than we thought.

As Catherine Rampell reports, the G.D.P. —  that closely watched measurement of economic output —  grew at an annual rate of only 1.3 percent in the second quarter. That’s barely breathing. In fact, the economy over all is smaller now than when the recession began in 2007, she says. 

In the Weekend Business podcast, Ms. Rampell offers up one tiny bright spot: automobile sales were not as bad as expected.

Meanwhile, the Fundamentally columnist for Sunday Business, Paul Lim, urges investors not to run away from stocks in European companies, despite economic uncertainty there. In a podcast interview with Phyllis Korkki, he argues that European companies have fared slightly better over all than their American counterparts.

Steve Lohr talks with the Sunday Business editor, David Gillen, about his article in this week’s section on Microsoft’s high hopes for the search engine Bing — its David to the Goliath Google. And Gregory Mankiw, the Harvard economist, writing in the Economic View column, defends the performance of Ben S. Bernanke, the regularly pummeled chairman of the Federal Reserve.

You can find specific segments of the podcast at these junctures: the G.D.P. report (31:09); news summary (22:52); Microsoft (19:46); Gregory Mankiw (12:45); European stocks (6:24); the week ahead (0:51).

As articles discussed in the podcast are published during the weekend, links will be added to this post.

You can download the program by subscribing from The New York Times’s podcast page or directly from iTunes.