• Over the weekend, Obama economic advisor, Mark Zandi of Moody’s economy.com, published new research wherein he estimates that letting the tax cuts on small business and high-income earners expire would reduce GDP by 0.4 percent in 2011 and would reduce payroll employment by 770,000 by mid-2012:

“There is wide agreement that allowing all the tax cuts to expire January 1 makes little sense given the economy’s fragility. Based on a simulation of the Moody’s Analytics macroeconomic model, an across-the-board tax increase would precipitate a double-dip recession during the first half of 2011; the hit to after-tax income would undermine fragile consumer confidence and spending … Employment would decline throughout much of 2011, bottoming out some 8.6 million jobs below its late-2007 peak. Unemployment would remain near double digits into late 2012. Under this scenario, the economy does not return to full employment until 2015, eight years after the Great Recession began.”

-   Mark Zandi “The Economic Impact of Tax Cut Proposals: A Prudent Middle Course” (p.3)

• Economists Say: Extend Tax Cuts for Everyone in CNNMoney.com poll out this morning, 60 percent of economists surveyed said that extending the 01/03 tax cuts for everyone is the best thing Congress can do to help the economy: