Superstorm Sandy cut a path of destruction that could near $50 billion. Economic activity in New York City dipped 20 percent in storm’s wake, but economists do not expect that Sandy will have a major impact on the nation’s economic growth.
Amid the struggle to control the Senate in the next Congress, Hurricane Sandy put two close races on hold, in Massachusetts and Connecticut, where the candidates’ focus turned to storm recovery.
With New York’s airports closed and thousands of flights cancelled, it will take days for air travel to return to normal after hurricane Sandy. But precautions taken by airlines could ease the process.
Romney promises to make the rich keep paying a constant percentage of all US income taxes. That’s very different from asking them to pay a constant share of their earnings.
The momentous policy challenge of how to fix America’s dysfunctional tax system has been largely obscured by the debate over Mitt Romney’s tax math. But there’s broad support for tax reform.
At an AARP conference Friday, GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan spoke of financial peril ahead for Medicare and contrasted his party’s “competition”-based plan to fix it with Obama’s plan under the health-care reform law.
Rising home values and declining foreclosure rates indicate a slow but steady recovery for the US housing market. Obstacles remain, however, including negative equity due to ‘underwater’ mortgages.
The trend of outsourcing U.S. jobs predates either President Obama or Mitt Romney, but both have contributed to it in different ways.
US Supreme Court ruling on the health-care reform law’s constitutionality will affect more than the making of public policy. It could also swing the federal budget significantly in either direction.
The Republican challenger says that as president, he would reject a budget fix that calls for new taxes as part of the mix.
Chairman Bernanke told Congress the Fed alone can’t put Americans back to work. The economy needs help from fiscal policy, too.
Concerns for the health of European banks took center stage for global financial markets Wednesday, as hopes rose that eurozone nations would agree on a support package for the ailing Spanish banking system.
By Mark Trumbull
Nov. 2, 2012