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Talk of debt and deficit drag on Washington in large part because of or thanks to, depending on how you look at it the efforts of one man: Pete Peterson and his 35-year campaign that he financed himself to make debt topic number one.

We put the debate in context yesterday. Today we talked to Pete Peterson himself. And he's not exactly thrilled with the way Republicans and Democrats in Congress have approached the deficit.

"A program like Simpson-Bowles that had about $3 of spending cuts for every dollar of revenue and wanted to tax all the aspects of the budget in which everything is on the table -- and by everything, I mean entitlements, I mean tax reform, I mean defense, are all on the table -- is the right way to approach this problem," said Peterson. "And the Republicans have taken the point of view that you can't raise taxes, and the Democrats are taking the point of view that you can't reform entitlements are ways of blocking meaningful progress."

Peterson says he wouldn't be against the government borrowing more money if it meant investments in infrastructure and education, or in making social safety nets self-sustaining.

But is a long-term solution from Washington likely? "I'm going to keep working until we do, because until we do, we are not talking about the underlying problem that confronts the long-term future."

A papal conclave will assemble in the Vatican in a couple of weeks. And while many believe the successor to the current Pope should be a cardinal with experience in church affairs, there's at least one man out there who feels he's got what takes to lead the Catholic Church.

McSweeney's contributor John Ortved says he thinks he's up to the challenge.

While I have never studied Catholicism per se, I have several credits in World Religions and, as the intern supervisor at the prominent, Oakland law firm of Russ, Davies & Chalmers will confirm, I am a quick study. Additionally, I have noted your organization’s expanding client base in South America. This is an area in which I am well versed, after spending an entire semester in Buenos Aires, where I became intimately acquainted with the people, their food and their culture.

Listen to the audio for the full commentary.

What city do you think of when you hear the following: Lawmakers in gridlock, the economy paralyzed, comedians in charge.

The answer isn't Washington. It's Rome.

Following an election over the weekend, Italians have elected an actual comedian, Beppe Grillo, to the leadership of the one of the country's largest political parties. Disgraced former premier Silvio Berlusconi has risen from his political grave. And all that raises the distinct possibility of fresh instability involving Europe and European debt.

 "Once again we've surprised the world with one buffoon who actually had another job title to one whose has the real job title of comedian," Alessandro Valera lives in Rome and works for a human rights group. But he's not talking about the actual comedian -- he's referring to Silvio Berlusconi and the scandals that marked his time at the helm of the country.

Valera says the last few days have been "confusing and hectic," in part because election polls got the results so wrong. There's a bit of surprise in the air today. And he says, perhaps the election of Beppe Grillo would be appropriate.

But jokes aside, the havoc in Italy's political system could mean problems for Europe's economy. Valera acknowledges the election is part of a wider crisis -- social, economic, and moral -- the country is facing.

"I'm worried because there's a whole generation that's looking for a future. It seems very difficult at the moment," he says.

The House speaker wants senators to act. The top Senate Republican says it's time to work on a compromise. And the Republican National Committee says the cuts would be "negligible compared to Obama's disastrous fiscal record."

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Starting in June, Yahoo employees who work from home will have to start showing up at the office instead. 

The policy change, announced late last week, has garnered strong reactions online and through social media. An Etsy employee even tweeted that he’d welcome resumes from Yahoo employees who were looking to keep working from home -- and has received 20 inquiries thus far, a mix of candidates within Yahoo and outside the company.

If you are a remote Yahoo! employee being forced to relocate, ping me. Etsy loves remotes! re: allthingsd.com/20130222/yahoo…

— Rasmus Lerdorf (@rasmus) February 22, 2013

It’s clear that many people and companies will watch Yahoo to see the results their new policy, as there are well-defined pros and cons to having employees work from home.

On the one hand, stay-at-home employees enjoy a commute that consists of walking from their bedrooms to their desks. Plus, they can focus on projects without workplace distractions. However, they lack the collaborative environment of being in an office surrounded by their colleagues.

Productivity versus collaboration -- this is trade-off many employers face when considering whether to let their employees work remotely.

“If it’s productivity that’s most important, then telecommuting seems to be a good idea,” says John Challenger, the CEO of the outplacement firm Challenger, Grey & Christmas, Inc. “But as a company, if you’re looking for innovation, if you’re looking to create a team, then keeping [employees] together is what works.”

The possibility for collaboration is one reason Hunter Walk, a former Googler, supports Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s decision. Until recently, he was a director of product management for YouTube.

“A lot of new idea generation comes from sometimes people in the morning getting in a room, talking about an idea,” says Walk. “Then the engineers and designers going off and building something, and then coming back in a room at talk about a prototype."

Walk says that collaboration could happen remotely, but it requires companies to create procedures and infrastructure for it to work well.

For a company that has struggled in recent years, as Yahoo has, the policy change might be just what's needed to shake up corporate culture, especially if employees were abusing the ability to work from home.

It's possible Mayer may have felt she needed to do something drastic to change that culture, says Matt Marx, a professor of entrepreneurship at MIT. "Because it's very hard to change a culture once it becomes acceptable or even commonplace for people to act in certain ways.”

Perhaps if or when the company regains some of its former glory, then people can start working from home again.

From food scientists who study the human palate to maximize consumer bliss, to marketing campaigns that target teens to hook them for life on a brand, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Moss' new book goes inside the world of processed, packaged goods.

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A slow-motion train wreck of $1.2 trillion in spending cuts spread out over 10 years would definitely be at odds with the growing urgency of the president's warnings as the March 1 deadline draws near.

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Rates for female applicants could be up to 40 percent higher under the new pricing policy from Genworth Financial, the country's largest long-term care insurer. The company says women account for two out of every three dollars spent on claims.

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Homeowners have reason to be a little optimistic these days. According to the latest Case-Shiller Index, property values are up 6.8 percent from December 2011. And some cities are seeing increases they haven't seen in decades. Detroit, for example, hasn't seen gains like this since 1991. But no one holds a candle to Phoenix. Prices there are up an astounding 23 percent. Not to spoil the good news, but here comes the question we have to ask: Are we headed for another bubble?

First of all, not every market in the U.S. is experiencing the boom. Each region has its own little ecosystem when it comes to housing. Prices in Texas and South Dakota, for example, are pretty flat compared to Phoenix and California, where prices are increasing at double digit rates.

"And that's largely driven by the fact the banks are no longer selling homes" says Glenn Kelman, the CEO of the real estate brokerage Redfin. Those homeowners don't want to list their houses at the banks' prices, so they don't put their houses on the market, either.

Bill O'Rafferty is a realtor in the Inland Empire in California, where normally there are 1,800 to 2,000 houses for sale at any given time. "This morning, there's 346," O'Rafferty says.

Yet another factor -- hedge funds are buying up single-family houses in bulk in the Inland Empire and other areas that were hardest hit by the downturn. Those cash investors make up about 40 percent of O'Rafferty's sales these days.

Throw in some super-low interest rates for an added boost to demand, and you have price increases O'Rafferty hasn't seen since '93.

Even though this is the very beginning of the housing recovery, DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage says, "It doesn't surprise me that I'm already hearing the 'bubble' word."

LePage says there are a couple of things to consider before we start dropping the b-word. One is that in many markets prices are still below peak levels of 2005 and 2006, and "in many cases, sales are still below average."

Secondly LePage suggests that if prices continue to increase, many of the people who are underwater will get pulled back onto dry land and they, along with others who have been waiting, will finally put that for sale sign in the front yard. Supply will increase, which would make the risk of a bubble low.

A two term Republican senator from Nebraska, Hagel will become the first Vietnam veteran to head the U.S. Department of Defense.

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In a business where effects-laden movies bring in hundreds of millions of dollars, many of the studios that create those effects are barely staying afloat.

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In a business where effects-laden movies bring in hundreds of millions of dollars, many of the studios that create those effects are barely staying afloat.

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A British immigration watchdog is warning of a major influx of migrants into the U.K. after the end of this year. MigrationWatch reckons that as many as a quarter of a million Romanians and Bulgarians will settle in Britain after they gain full access to one of the fundamental rights of  membership of the European Union -- the free movement of people.

In Britain, the prospect of a tidal wave of Romanian and Bulgarian settlers is causing profound alarm. “We’ve already got two and a half million Brits unemployed, and there’s high youth unemployment,” says Matthew Pollard, spokesman for MigrationWatch. “And there’s also an acute shortage of housing, especially in London and the southeast. There just isn’t enough housing to go around.”

The British government -- which is committed to reducing immigration --  is casting around for ways to dissuade the Romanians and Bulgarians from coming to Britain. One proposal is to run a negative advertising campaign about the U.K. in the Romanian and Bulgarian press. The ads might describe Britain’s appalling weather, high unemployment and lack of opportunity. 

But Faisal Siddiqui of the Figtree brand consultancy does not think that is a good idea. “Britain has spent millions promoting itself as a great place to visit and do business," he says. “The message has been: great creativity, great innovation, Great Britain. A negative ad campaign would detract from that national narrative."

The negative ads could backfire in another way, too. Forty years ago, when the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin expelled thousands of Asians, the people of Leicester in the English Midlands were terrified that some of the refugees would wind up in their city. So they took out an ad in Ugandan newspapers urging them not to come. Ten thousand -- more than a third of the total -- made a beeline for Leicester.

Members of the Romanian community in Britain have dismissed all the talk of a “tidal wave" of immigrants into the U.K. as ridiculous and insulting. Journalist Cristina Irimie says it is typical immigrant-bashing.

“Migrants are always blamed if there are no jobs and the economy’s poor,” Irimie says. "They’re using migrants as a demon.”

Meanwhile, back in Romania, as a riposte against what it sees as inhospitable Britain, a newspaper in Bucharest has launched a campaign entitled "Why Don't You Come Over?," offering job opportunities  and temporary accommodation to any Brits that would like to start a new life in Romania.

The Daytona 500 posted its strongest TV ratings since 2008, thanks to a buildup of attention drawn by Danica Patrick's history-making pole position and a horrendous crash during a race at the track Saturday. The biggest gains in viewership seem to have come in big cities.

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U.S. banks made $141.3 billion in net income last year. That's second only to the profit they made in 2006, before the financial crisis. Many of the banks that profited the most, have benefitted from a government bailout.

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Educators are bracing for deep budget cuts if the government sequestration occurs. Host Michel Martin speaks with Emily Richmond from the National Education Writers Association, and Kelly Field of The Chronicle of Higher Education, about the possible damage.

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A new study on bullying shows that people who were bullied have higher rates of psychiatric illness as adults. Host Michel Martin speaks with the study's lead author, William Coleman of Duke University, and bullying expert Rosalind Wiseman.

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The shooting of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin one year ago became an international story, and raised difficult questions about race and justice. Host Michel Martin continues her conversation with Robert Zimmerman Jr., the brother of accused killer George Zimmerman, about how his family views the case and the public reaction.

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Civilization cannot live on anchovies alone. The ancient Norte Chico people of Peru were long thought to have built a complex society in South America while dining on a diet based on the tiny fish. But archaeologists now say they ate the food that fueled empires throughout the hemisphere — corn.

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Outgoing Benedict XVI will be referred to as "His Holiness" and carry the title of "pope emeritus," the Vatican says.

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