2012 election

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama hold assets worth between nearly $2.6 million and nearly $8.3 million, according to financial disclosure reports released Tuesday by the White House. The documents show the couple's assets for last year. The first family's...

President Obama is making the Buffett Rule -- a minimum tax on millionaires who get off easy under the current tax code -- one of the centerpiece of his re-election campaign. Here's what adoption of the tax might mean for all of us.

Mitt Romney's net worth: $200 million. Barack Obama's response to Romney's claim that he's "out of touch" with the concerns of ordinary Americans: Priceless. "I bought my first car for about $900," said Obama. "It had a big hole in the floor that allowed you to see the road, so I knew my wife wasn't marrying me for my money."

Social Security has promises to pay out $41.4 trillion in future benefits, but it has just $34.5 trillion in assets and expected income to cover those promises. You do the math.

Thanks to TARP loans that saved GM, the Treasury ended up with a major stake in the world's largest automaker, and it still holds 500 million shares -- 32% of the company. Here's the reason it won't be selling them any time soon.

With the 2012 election season looming, the retail sector is getting vocally political for the first time. The National Retail Federation has launched "Retail Means Jobs," a year-long, $10 million advocacy campaign designed to push for retail-friendly policies in Washington.

The U.S. middle class is caught in a vice with falling wages on one side and rising costs on the other. Robert S. Kaplan, author of the business leadership book What to Ask the Person in the Mirror suggests five ways that politicians should be responding -- not specific policies, but mindsets that could lead to better ones.

As much as the market and Corporate America may like what they heard in the president's speech Tuesday night, history shows Obama's reelection in 2012 remains pinned to boosting Americans' income growth to at least 3%. Problem is, right now it's running at just 1.4%.

Recognizing that voters are worried about the economy, President Obama is offering an olive branch to his critics with a $50 billion infrastructure plan and a deal to make the R&D tax credit permanent. Conservatives say it's too little too late, but the game is far from over for the Democrats.