Wall Street Journal (01/03/14) Victoria McGrane; Pedro Nicolaci da Costa

On Jan. 3, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said U.S. economic recovery should gain ground in 2014, as several factors slowing the expansion have waned, including the housing bust and the European debt crisis. In his last major address before he steps down from the role of central bank chairman, Bernanke said the improving job market prompted the Fed to ease its bond-buying program.

However, he noted that government spending cuts and tax hikes have put a damper on the central bank’s efforts to bolster spending, investment, and hiring. “With fiscal and monetary policy working in opposite directions,” he remarked, “the recovery is weaker than it otherwise would be.”

Wall Street Journal (01/03/14) Gautham Nagesh

The Obama administration could ease hiring rules for technology specialists and establish a new federal unit dealing with large tech projects. The glitches in the HealthCare.gov rollout brought to light the lack of concentrated talent in federal agencies to manage such projects, and steps to be announced by President Obama during this quarter aim to address that shortcoming.

Some of the options under consideration would reverse the innovation-fellows program so that government technology specialists rotate through private-sector companies or expand the direct hiring authority of federal agencies so they can hire on their own. However, there are concerns that the federal government is unable to attract younger workers with more current skills and that federal pay freezes and furloughs make it harder to persuade tech specialists to leave the higher pay and stock options offered by Wall Street and Silicon Valley.