NYT Writes: The bleak jobs report on Friday predictably had heads snapping toward the White House, looking to President Obama to do something. Yet his proposed remedies only underscore how much the president, just five months before he faces voters, is at the mercy of actors in Europe, China and Congress whose political interests often conflict with his own. Read more »

President Barack Obama prepared to deliver a speech on the economy Tuesday, using the backdrop of a high-technology facility in Albany created out of a partnership with private enterprise and bipartisanship. Beside him through much of the visit will be Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who made jobs and the economy part of his “new Democrat” movement in his campaign in 2010. Cuomo also shows a Democratic executive can forge a fiscally conservative agenda and work closely with Republicans, something with the president has struggled with in Washington. “This Presidential appearance proves by inference what is wrong in Washington, by showing what is right in Albany,” said Bruce Gyory, consultant to governors and a political science professor at the University at Albany. – WSJ

The state Senate approved a bipartisan jobs bill Friday evening that was designed to expand on a similar bill that was passed last year to kick-start Connecticut’s sluggish economy. Known as Senate Bill 1, the Democratic-written bill gained Republican support on a measure to help small businesses with up to 100 employees. The previous bill last fall had been targeted at companies with up to 50 employees. The vote was 32 to 2 with two Republicans voting against the measure. Senators Rob Kane of Watertown and Joseph Markley of Southington were against the bill, while Senators Kevin Witkos of Canton and Edith Prague of Columbia were absent. – CT Courant

As of December 2011, the latest figures available, 31 percent of the U.S. home loans that were in negative equity – in which the outstanding loan balance exceeds the value of the home – were FHA-insured mortgages, according to CoreLogic. Many borrowers, particularly since late 2010, thought they were buying at the bottom of a housing market that had already suffered steep declines, but have been caught out by a continued fall in prices in wide swaths of America. Even for loans taken out in December – less than four months ago and the last month for which data is available – nearly 44,000 borrowers, or about 7.5 percent of the total, now find themselves under water. – Reuters

James Pethokoukis Writes: A Federal Reserve study from late last year looked at the behavior of  recoveries from recessions across 59 advanced and emerging market economies  during the last 40 years. The Fed found, to no great surprise, that recoveries “tend to be faster” after severe recessions, such as the one we just had. It’s the “rubber-band effect”: The deeper the downturn, the more robust the rebound.

For example, during the 1981-82 recession, output fell by 2.7 percent and  then rose by 15.9 percent over the next 10 quarters (at an average pace of 6.0  percent). During the Great Recession, output fell even more, by 5.1 percent. But  during the 10 quarters since, total economic output is up only a paltry 6.2  percent. Score one for Reaganomics.

Jim Geraghty Notes from the recent CBS News poll:

Compared to four years ago, is your family’s financial situation better today, worse today, or about the same?

The survey finds 20 percent say better today, 37 percent say worse today, and 43 percent say “about the same.”

Gross domestic product  expanded at a 3 percent annual rate, the quickest pace since the second quarter of 2010, the Commerce Department said in its second estimate. That was a step up from the 2.8 percent pace it reported in January. Economists polled by Reuters had expected fourth-quarter GDP would be unrevised at a 2.8 percent pace. The economy grew at a 1.8 percent pace in the third quarter. – CNBC