World leaders flatly admitted this weekend what everyone pretty much knew: there won't be a major deal on climate change at the big conference in Copenhagen next month. Instead, leaders will try to keep the process going, in hopes of coming up with a deal next year.

You wouldn't think the bottom line on the $1.6 trillion federal budget deficit and $11.9 trillion national debt crisis could be summed up in a single sentence, but when the right words whizzed by, the Wall Street Journal's David Wessel was quick to point them out.

You know you're in for a bout of grim reading when the international agency charged with worrying about how we power the planet starts off its fact sheet with a question like this: "Why is our current energy pathway unsustainable?"

On too many issues, the political discussion provides more heat than light, and the public doesn't have a chance to deliberate over the choices for solving problems. That certainly applies to health care reform, an area in which opinion is split, often in contradictory ways.

As if anyone needed proof that immigration will remain a major issue, a new international survey reports that some 700 million people worldwide say they would move to another country if they could. Not surprisingly, the largest single group, one-quarter, say their first choice would be to come to the United States.

At one of the last preliminary meetings leading up to the international climate change conference, a U.N. official called on the diplomats to craft "simple, clear options for politicians" at Copenhagen.

An excellent idea, but they've left it until pretty late in the day. And when they've created these clear options, they might want to let the public in on them, too.

There was both joy and skepticism on Wall Street, as third quarter GDP figures showed growth in the U.S.

Don't feel bad if your eyes glazed over this story reporting the Obama administration is going to put $3.4 billion behind an upgraded electrical grid – the so-called "smart grid." But it may match the Senate climate change hearings as the most important energy story of the day – and it's no less

As the Senate holds hearings on a major climate change bill this week, you're going to hear a lot of numbers: 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gases, 350 parts per million, and $100 per household. But the best number to focus on may be this one: 55.