Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading today (organized by topic):

Economics

• Secrets of the Economist’s Trade: First, Purchase a Piggy Bank, by Justin Lahart

“Economists are often cheapskates.”

The Economy

• Uncertainty and the Slow Recovery, by Gary Becker, Stephen Davis, and Kevin Murphy

“A recession is a terrible time to make major changes in the economic rules of the game.”

Financial Crisis

• Error vs. Fraud, by Alex Pollock

“How do groups of intelligent, sophisticated bankers, investors, borrowers, entrepreneurs, and traders find themselves caught together in the recurring bubbles and busts?“

Highly Recommended

• Lowlights of a Downer Year: Dave Barry on the money, madness and misery of 2009

“It was a year of Hope — at first in the sense of “I feel hopeful!” and later in the sense of “I hope this year ends soon!””

Public Policy

• Prohibition: A Cautionary Tale, by Thomas Fleming

“America’s experiment with banning alcohol created problems that persist to this day.”

Terrorism

• Intelligence Is a Terrible Thing to Waste, by Gordon Crovitz

“President Obama doesn’t need an investigation to figure out how Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab got on a Detroit-bound plane.”