The U.S. economy gained 431,000 jobs last month, according to numbers released this morning from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics.  Lakshman Achuthan, managing director at the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI), joins us to parse the numbers.

Unemployment numbers were released this morning. They show that 290,000 new jobs have been added, the most in four years. However, the unemployment rate, which had been holding steady at 9.7 percent since January, rose to 9.9 percent in April. Managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, Lakshman Achuthan says that although there seems to be a discrepancy with these numbers, they actually make sense as hopeful workers reenter the job force.

Friend of the show Lakshan Achuthan joins us to tell a tale of two economic Americas. Contrary to popular belief, the current recession has not been all that bad for many Americans. Unfortunately, the other 40 percent of unemployed fall into what Lakshman calls the "long term unemployed;" and he adds that their plight may not be over any time soon.

Yesterday, the President unveiled an ambitious plan to spur jobs, cut the national deficit and re-shape the foundations of the American economy. 

Managaging Director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute Lakshman Achuthan joins us to analyze some of the plans Obama outlined in his speech. We also bring in two small business owners who hope to benefit from the initiatives.  Dawn P. Jackson (owner of NuDawn Marketing Group in Maryland) and Walt Rowen (owner of Susquehanna Glass Company in Columbia, PA) discuss how their businesses would be affected by the proposed stimulus package. 

Investment banks are reporting generally positive earnings, lawsuits stemming from the financial crisis are hitting the courts, and the stock market passed the 10,000 mark for the first time in a year. It's been quite a week in the economy; Lakshman Achuthan, from the Economic Cycle Research Institute, stops by the Takeaway to explain it.

The White House announced this week that its $787 billion economic stimulus package has saved or created more than 1 million jobs since it was enacted in February. To help us parse these and other economic indicators, we talk with Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, a market analysis company in New York. We also speak with Louise Story, a Wall Street and finance reporter with the New York Times, about what financial troubles at Harvard and Yale mean for higher education and the economy as a whole.

This week the White House reported that the federal deficit is rising faster than expected. The projected 10-year deficit is now $9 trillion — that's $2 trillion more than previous estimates. Does increased spending mean a healthier economy, or does burgeoning debt spell trouble for the future? To decode this number and other indicators we speak to Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute.

Is the recession ending? Lakshman Acuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, thinks it is. He spends his days poring over economic indicators in order to make predictions for the business world. He says "forward-looking" or "leading" indicators – such as profits, housing, and commodity prices – are all saying the same thing: recovery is on the horizon.

Unemployment numbers are out: payrolls dropped by just 247,000 and the jobless rate falls to 9.4 percent. That just might be good news. Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, joins us with his take on the numbers and what they mean for economic recovery.

Unemployment numbers are due out this morning and economic analyst Lakshman Achuthan, Managing Director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, joins us with his predictions. In April, Lakshman predicted that we’d be coming out of the recession this summer. We wanted to road test some of your ideas, so The Takeaway's Femi Oke went looking in unusual places for indications on how the economy is doing. First stop: the ASPCA in New York City, where the rates of pet adoptions tend to follow people's economic well-being. Could the dogs here give us a peek at which direction the economy is going?

Next stop: Wall Street, but not to visit the banks. Instead, Femi spoke with cobbler Minas Polychronakis, who for over 30 years has been repairing shoes for rich and poor alike.

The Takeaway looks at where the economy is now, and where it's headed. We're talking to Lakshman Achuthan, the Managing Director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute. He talks about the leading indicators in economic recovery including jobless claims, the stock market and corporate profit.

Yesterday, Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke began two days of testimony before Congress on the state of the economy. He said, “The U.S. economy contracted sharply in the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year. More recently, the pace of decline appears to have slowed significantly." Bernanke said there were "tentative signs" of recovery. So is the recession over? And if so, when will there be more jobs? The Takeaway is joined by Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, a company that forecasts recessions and recoveries.

Yesterday, Goldman Sachs made headlines with their record quarterly earnings, taking in $3.44 billion in just four months. That may be a sign of a strenthening economy. And yet unemployment has continued rising: nationally 9.5 percent, the highest rate in 26 years. Which of those two numbers tells us where the economy is headed, and which just tells us where its been? Here to help us figure that out is Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI), a company that forecasts recessions and recoveries.