Obama aide says no more troops to Afghanistan (Reuters)

Reuters - President Barack Obama's top security adviser has told U.S. military commanders there are no plans to send more troops to Afghanistan for now and that the focus instead will be on economic development and reconstruction, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

This Sounds About Right — Macro Policy is More or Less Determined by Politics Rather Than Ideas

Peter Klein links to a review of John Wood's new book, and offers his own commentary about the rationalizing role of macroeconomic theory as opposed to its influencing role.

I am planning on posting more on macroeconomics over the next few days because I just returned from an outstanding History of Economic Society meeting and there was an excellent session on Keynes with Roger Backhouse, Brad Bateman, and David Laidler.

Cap and trade and transitional gains trap

Steve Margolis, via Craig Newmark's blog, raises some very important issues about the new era of responsibility.

UN General Assembly condemns coup in Honduras (AP)

AP - The U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday unanimously condemned the military coup in Honduras and demanded President Manuel Zelaya's immediate return to power, a decision the ousted Honduran leader called "historic."

Source: NKorean ship headed back to north (AP)

AP - U.S. officials said Tuesday that a North Korean ship has turned around and is headed back toward the north where it came from, after being tracked for more than a week by American Navy vessels on suspicion of carrying illegal weapons.