Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations  —  The 29-year-old source behind the biggest intelligence leak in the NSA's history explains his motives, his uncertain future and why he never intended on hiding in the shadows  —  • Q&A with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden …

Obama to nominate Furman to lead economic council  —  President Obama will nominate Jason Furman as the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers at a ceremony Monday afternoon at the White House.  —  Furman, currently the deputy director of the National Economic Council …

The Era of Metadata  —  Five blunt thoughts on the growing surveillance state:  —  1. The thing political figures fear most is a terror event that will ruin their careers.  The biggest thing they fear is that a bomb goes off and it can be traced to something they did or didn't do, an action they did or didn't support.

Next Debt-Ceiling Histrionics Could Do Real Harm  —  At this stage in the U.S. recovery, there isn't much that fiscal policy can do to accelerate growth.  Some argue that we need another tax cut, while others would prefer increased spending.  —  Neither is going to happen on a significant scale.

Leaking Secrets Empowers Terrorists  —  The NSA's surveillance program doesn't do damage.  Revealing it does.  —  Once again, the tanks-have-rolled left and the black-helicopters right have joined together in howls of protest.  They were set off by last week's revelations that the U.S. government …

The Big Shrug  —  I've been in this economics business for a while.  In fact, I've been in it so long I still remember what people considered normal in those long-ago days before the financial crisis.  Normal, back then, meant an economy adding a million or more jobs each year …