Just four days after it went public on the stock market, Facebook became the center of intense attention Wednesday -- both on Wall Street and in Washington -- as shares hit $32, well below the initial offering price. Jeffrey Brown, Dartmouth's Anant Sundaram and Rob Cox of Reuters Breakingviews discuss what went wrong.

Economics correspondent writes a pair of responses to his austerity/stimulus post of a few days ago, which he notes illustrates the current conflict in economic ideology quite nicely.

"If an emergency situation arises, does it ever make sense to pull money from a retirement fund such as a 401(k) rather than going into credit card debt to keep from going into the red? The fear of short-sightedness is paralyzing," writes a viewer in a Q&A for economics correspondent Paul Solman.

A meditation from economics correspondent Paul Solman on the center-stage question facing the U.S. and Europe: stimulus or austerity? In economic jargon, Keynesian or the Austrian School? In plainer terms, save or spend? But which is the right answer?

We hear about them when they go wrong, but do complex Wall Street transactions help average people?