WASHINGTON — Senate leaders reached tentative agreement Friday night on legislation to extend Social Security payroll tax cuts and jobless benefits for two months while requiring President Barack Obama to accept Republican demands for a swift decision on the fate of an oil pipeline that promises thousands of jobs.
WASHINGTON — Democrats backed away from their demand for higher taxes on millionaires as part of legislation to extend Social Security tax cuts for most Americans on Wednesday as Congress struggled to clear critical year-end bills without triggering a partial government shutdown.
WASHINGTON — Deadline nearing, the deficit-reduction talks in Congress sank toward gridlock Friday after supercommittee Democrats rejected a late Republican offer that included next-to-nothing in new tax revenue. Each side maneuvered to blame the other for a looming stalemate.
The economy stinks and we’re not going to take it any longer. While this may not be the official message of Occupy Wall Street (OWS) participants, it seems to come pretty close to understanding why the movement was born, blossomed and now searches for a unifying message to policymakers. Had the U.S. economy experienced anything like a normal recovery from the Great Recession, it seems unlikely the movement would have developed. But with an unemployment rate in excess of 9 percent and nearly 14 million people unemployed — and many more millions underemployed — it is little wonder that some people have taken to the streets to protest.
NEW YORK (AP) — A growing belief that the U.S. economy may be headed toward recession gave the stock market its fourth straight week of losses.
The stock market buckled Monday under the weight of a crisis in Europe and danger of recession at home. Reeling from a downgrade of American debt, the Dow Jones industrials plunged 634 points. It was the worst day for the market since the financial crisis in the fall of 2008 and extended Wall Street’s sudden, sharp decline. Stocks have lost 15 percent of their value in just two and a half weeks.