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BusinessWeek.com -- Finance — Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Janet Yellen is President Barack Obama’s pick for vice chairman of the central bank in Washington, two people with knowledge of the selection process said.

Daily Kos — Glenn Beck tells his radio audience about an amazing conversation he had with a Fox News executive. The key quote: ~ I was in this meeting and I pulled one of the guys out, he’s a vice president of Fox. And I said, "When I first started working with you — let’s have a frank conversation here — you thought I was nuts." ~ And he smiled and he said, "No, I would say I just thought you were on the cutting edge." ~ And I said, "okay, alright, sure." I said. ~ "Now?" ...More he said, "Glenn, everything you’re talking about is coming. Everything you’re talking about — everything you’ve been talking about for the last year and a half. It’s all here now. And what you’re saying is coming, I don’t see any other way."Beck went on to say that the executive told him "we have to convince the audience that this is really truly true." ~ So what is the "this" that the Fox executive wants Beck to convince people is true? None other than Beck's crazy theories like his week-long special from last August claiming that "America is burning to the ground." ~ If you didn't see it, it was a perfect encapsulation of Beck's lunacy...lunacy that apparently Fox execs want him to convince his audience is "really truly true." ~ ~ Beck's big problem is that his fantasies aren't grounded in reality. At some point, his bubble will burst -- things that aren't sustainable just aren't sustainable. Don't ask me...ask Morton Downey, Jr . All bad things come to an end. ...Less

The Huffington Post — The Internet is a cruel, cruel business in which if you're not going up, you're going down, a decline which nobody has yet been much...

BusinessWeek.com -- Finance — China’s accelerating inflation has started to erode household savings, threatening to spur purchases of property and stocks and fuel asset-price pressures.

The Hill — Fewer Americans are concerned about the effects of global warming, a new Gallup poll finds.Just 32% of Americans think global warming will pose a threat to them in their lifetimes, down from 40% in early 2008. Exactly two-thirds do not think climate change will effect their lives ~ Moreover, 48% think the threat of global warming is exaggerated, up steadily from 35% from 2008. ~ Finally, more Americans are doubtful that there's a scientific consensus on climate change. Just over half, 52%, think most scientists believe global ...More warming is happening, but that's down from 65%. ...Less

CNN — House Republicans agreed Thursday to adopt a ban on congressional earmarks in spending bills for next year, upping the ante with Democrats in the political battle over fiscal responsibility and pork barrel spending.

BusinessWeek.com -- Finance — The biggest expansion of Australian working hours since 1998 may cause job gains to reaccelerate in coming months, forcing the central bank to raise interest rates higher than what Governor Glenn Stevens calls a neutral level.

BusinessWeek.com -- Finance — The dollar rose against its Canadian counterpart and South Africa’s rand after a report on U.S. trade indicated the global economic recovery may be slowing, reducing demand for the currencies of commodity- producing nations.

Daily Kos — Well, depending on which pollster you are buying stock in (and it is a genuine debate, since neither of them are Rasmussen), Democrats should either be deeply concerned about flagging voter intensity, or heartened by surprisingly high voter intensity among African Americans. ~ So say a pair of new surveys released this week on the 2010 elections, one by Gallup, and the other by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. ~ The data from Gallup is part of what the pollster promises will be a weekly look at the 2010 elections. ...More On the generic ballot test, the Democrats enjoy a slight advantage (47-44). ~ On the issue of voter intensity, though, the Democrats languish far behind their Republican counterparts: ~ Gallup Poll, March 1-7, 2010, Voters by Party Expressing That They Are "Very Enthusiastic" About Voting in November Elections ~ Republicans 42 ~ Democrats 24 ~ An eighteen-point enthusiasm gap would be cause for concern, to be sure, if not outright alarm. It also tracks reasonably close to a slightly different variation of our own DK Tracking Poll , where 49% of Republicans say that are "definitely voting" or "voting", compared to just 39% of Democrats. ~ Meanwhile, the new poll from the Joint Center on Political and Economic Studies goes the other direction . That poll, conducted in four potentially competitive Senate states (Arkansas, Indiana, Missouri, and South Carolina), shows that between 74-80% of African American voters in those states consider themselves "very likely" to vote. ~ If true, that would be a huge boon for Democrats, since African-American voters are incredibly reliable Democratic voters. Indeed, in the 2006 midterm elections, African Americans went 89-10 in favor of Democratic candidates. ~ It is worth pointing out, however, that this survey is not corroborated by our tracking poll. Indeed last week's tracking poll identified that 34% of African American voters are already identifying themselves as either "not likely to vote" or "not voting". ~ Grant... ...Less

BusinessWeek.com -- Finance — JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. helped cause the failure of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. by demanding more collateral and changing guarantee agreements, according to a court-ordered report on the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history.