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via Kim Bhasin, Business Insider U.S. holiday sales growth was just 0.7 percent this year, missing expectations, according to MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse. There was a drop in consumer confidence and it was primarily due to the media, said SpendingPulse. SpendingPulse VP Michael McNamara said that it’s the media coverage of the fiscal cliff — that is, not … Continue reading
via New Jersey Area News Group Things were so bad for Speaker John Boehner Thursday night, support for his Plan B tax bill so diminished, the limits of his power with his own party laid bare, that he stood in front of the House Republican Conference and recited the Serenity Prayer. “God grant me the … Continue reading
via Patricia Zengerle and Susan Heavey, Reuters A growing number of lawmakers – including a leading pro-gun senator – called on Monday for a look at curbing assault weapons like the one used in a massacre at a Connecticut grade school, a sign that attitudes toward gun control could be shifting. Senator Joe Manchin, a … Continue reading
via Vicki Needham, The Hill The economy added 146,000 jobs in November while the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent. It’s the lowest the jobless rate has been since December 2008, and the report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was higher than estimates that had predicted Hurricane Sandy would hold total job growth down. … Continue reading
via Chris Good, ABC News As Congress wrangles over the fiscal cliff, one tiny document will loom large over the negotiations. Known in Republican circles simply as “The Pledge,” the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) Taxpayer Protection Pledge has steered GOP tax policy for decades, applying pressure to any candidate, lawmaker, or president who would … Continue reading
via Paul Kane, The Washington Post House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will remain atop the Democratic caucus for at least two more years, extending her role as Congress’s most vocal liberal voice opposing the Republican agenda despite a second straight election in which her party failed to win back the majority. She said she … Continue reading
via Lucy Madison, CBS News Despite hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of spending in races across the country, the political composition of Congress will look much the same next year as it does now, CBS News projects, with Democrats holding onto a majority in the Senate and Republicans retaining power in the House of … Continue reading
via John Whitesides, Reuters President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney make a frenetic dash to a series of crucial swing states on Monday, delivering their final arguments to voters on the last day of an extraordinarily close race for the White House. After a long, bitter and expensive campaign, national polls show Obama … Continue reading
via Reuters, The Huffington Post As polls point to a close U.S. presidential election, the country faces the possibility of political chaos – from a repeat of the disputed 2000 election to the remote possibility of a new administration with a president from one party and a vice president from the other. The most likely … Continue reading
via The Economist Not since 1933 had an American president taken the oath of office in an economic climate as grim as it was when Barack Obama put his left hand on the Bible in January 2009. The banking system was near collapse, two big car manufacturers were sliding towards bankruptcy; and employment, the housing … Continue reading
via David Lawder, Reuters Massive U.S. government spending cuts and tax hikes due next year will cause even worse economic damage than previously thought if Washington fails to come up with a solution, the Congressional Budget Office warned on Wednesday. Without action by Congress to avoid a “fiscal cliff,” Americans should expect a “significant recession” … Continue reading
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