Agenda: slowing economy, BP’s dispersants, and Obama’s birthday

We look ahead this week to birthdays, oil in the Gulf and unemployment numbers. On Wednesday, President Barack Obama turns 49; former White House correspondent Helen Thomas turns 90 on the same day. Besides birthdays, there will hopefully be another cause for celebration down on the Gulf coast: BP may have found a way to permanently seal the well that has gushed roughly 184 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

The company has been drilling relief wells for months, and will soon attempt to use them to fill the gushing well with mud and cement: the “static kill” approach. But BP is not out of hot water yet, as they face a new controversy over the amount of dispersants it has reportedly used in the Gulf.

And in economic news, new unemployment numbers will be released at the end of the week. With the recovery slowing, businesses, economists and regular Americans are looking for indicators of the future stability of the economy.

We talk with Charlie Herman, The Takeaway’s economics editor, and Chrystia Freeland, the global editor at large for Reuters, about the week ahead.