As fiscal cliff negotiations turn sour, the Farm Bill is caught in legislative limbo. Normally this wouldn't be a huge problem, except for one minor thing: When the current bill expires, the price of milk could double.
In Tuesday's election, millions of eligible voters didn't care enough to vote. Millions more were so energized they'd have voted twice if they could. So why not let them? University of Chicago economics professor Glen Weyl thinks letting people buy extra votes could be good for democracy, and our budget issues, too.\
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."
Election season is coming, and politicians across the spectrum are already hunting for campaigns contributions. But with the vast majority of political donations coming from lobbies, corporations, and the wealthy, does it make sense for average taxpayers to contribute?
On Tuesday, Starbucks launched "Create Jobs for USA," a program to raise loan funds for small businesses. We talked to CEO Howard Schultz about his concerns about gridlock in Washington, unemployment, the need for a sense of solidarity, and the role of corporate leaders in getting America out of this downturn.
Consumer advocate and Democrat Elizabeth Warren will enter the Massachusetts Senate primary for a shot at challenging incumbent Republican Scott Brown for his seat. Warren will formally declare she's running on Wednesday, Kyle Sullivan, a Warren spokesman, said. She plans to greet commuters in Boston and make other stops during the day across the state.
Now that Hurricane Irene has passed, it's time to get back to discussing the country's biggest unnatural disaster: the economy. But here, too, Irene is making her impact felt, as economists and pundits across the country debate whether the hurricane will help or hurt America's bottom line.
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.
Most Wall Street experts are far better equipped to analyze a corporate risk over a political threat. But today, it's political unrest in the Middle East and beyond that's driving world markets. So we asked Ian Bremmer, president of political risk consultancy The Eurasia Group, to break down the major developments and what investors should expect.
Approximately 60% of first-year U.S. senators and 40% of House of Representatives freshmen are worth at least $1 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That makes them far richer than most of the Americans they represent: Just 1% of the country's population has reached the $1 million mark.
Political turmoil in the Middle East keeps growing, with the ouster of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, rebellion in Libya and riots in Bahrain. It's no wonder that businesses with investments in those countries are feeling nervous. And that's benefiting purveyors of political-risk insurance, who are seeing premiums rise.
Here we go again: Congressional Republicans and White House Democrats are engaging in a game of rhetorical warfare over the budget. If the parties don't agree on a plan by March 4, the federal government could close, rattling stock and bond markets.
Ronald Reagan tops a USA Today/Gallup poll of Americans' favorite U.S. presidents. The results suggest that a nostalgia for better economic times may play a factor, along with politics, in the survey.
