NEW YORK — The Dow edged teasingly close to the 13,000 marker on Friday, a milestone it hasn’t reached since before the financial crisis brought the U.S. economy to its knees.
President Obama was in Ohio this week, speaking in the Cleveland area about the state of the nation’s economy. He surprised reporters (and no doubt Congressional Republicans as well) when he announced that he was appointing former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray as head of the new federal consumer financial protection bureau.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans on Thursday caved to demands by President Barack Obama, congressional Democrats and fellow Republicans for a short-term renewal of payroll tax cuts for all workers. The breakthrough almost certainly spares workers an average $20 a week tax increase Jan. 1.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Intervening in a volatile and brutal crisis, President Barack Obama said Friday he has dispatched 100 U.S. troops to central Africa to support a years-long fight against a guerrilla group accused of horrific atrocities. Obama said they were sent to advise, not engage in combat, unless forced to defend themselves.
WASHINGTON — The Senate weighed on Monday whether to punish China for undervaluing its currency and taking away American jobs. At issue is whether legislation would boost the American economy, as its supporters argue, or initiate a damaging trade war with a major partner.
In what appears to be an annual ritual, a president has proposed yet another stimulus plan to reinvigorate economic growth and put Americans back to work. This seemingly never-ending series of quick-fixes began in the final year of the Bush administration with temporary tax rebates (at $150+ billion), followed by a huge fiscal stimulus package in 2009 (with an approximate cost of $830 billion), an end-of-the-year measure in 2010 (with an estimated 10-year price tag of $850 billion), and now the latest jobs proposal of 2011, which will set the nation back another $447 billion. All told, these four efforts to pump life into an ailing economy come in well north of $2 trillion.
TRIPOLI, Libya — In flowing brown Bedouin robes and black beret, hailed as the “king of kings of Africa,” the aging dictator swept up onto the global stage, center front at the United Nations, and delivered an angry, wandering, at times incoherent diatribe against all he detested in the world.
WASHINGTON— President Barack Obama seems to have forgotten about Al Gore and the ashtray smashed to smithereens. Obama told a news conference Wednesday he was going where no president had gone before in attacking burdensome federal regulations.