With so many scandals flying around the Obama administration, the state of the economy has been pushed to the background lately.

So let's check in with the economy.

Some people are calling him a hero and others are calling him a traitor, but if you haven't read Glen Greenwald's interview with the NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, you should. Here are some selected excerpts:

Snowden: "NSA and intelligence community in general is focused on getting intelligence wherever it can by any means possible. It believes, on the grounds of sort of a self-certification, that they serve the national interest. Originally we saw that focus very narrowly tailored as foreign intelligence gathered overseas."

The court order authorizing the government to collect all Verizon cell phone records rested on legislation from a controversial 2001 Patriot Act provision, Section 215.

Here's what Section 215 does, according to law professor Jeffrey Rosen:

That's what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) thinks about revelations that the government is spying on nearly all Americans. His exact words were "Right now I think everyone should just calm down and understand that this isn't anything that is brand new, it's been going on for some seven years..."

What a relief, eh ? I'm having a problem seeing how the knowledge that the government has been spying on us for years is supposed to be calming. It's having just the opposite effect on me.