Just Explain It: Why the Fiscal Cliff May Trigger a Recession

Lawmakers in Washington appear to be making little to no progress in avoiding the impending so-called fiscal cliff.  House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Friday the negotiations are "almost nowhere." On Thursday Boehner rejected a proposal from the Obama administration saying that the Democrats need to "get serious about real spending cuts."President Obama's offer continues to call for higher...

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Decent jobs report despite slowdown in hiring pace

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The pace of U.S. job growth slowed a bit in December, keeping the unemployment rate steady at 7.8 percent, but details of the Labor Department's U.S. employment report were fairly encouraging.* Nonfarm payrolls increased 155,000, but job gains for the previous month were revised up to show 15,0000 more positions created than previously reported.* Construction employment rebounded...

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Bank of America, other banks move closer to ending mortgage mess

CHARLOTTE/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp announced more than $14 billion of legal settlements over bad mortgages it sold to investors and flaws in its foreclosure process, taking the bank a step closer to ending the home loan problems that have dogged it for years.About $3 billion of Bank of America's Monday's settlements were part of a larger $8.5 billion deal between 10 big mortgage...

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UPDATE 1-NHL-League owners approve new labor deal

* Players expected to ratify labor agreement on the weekend* Bettman says he has no plans to step down as comissioner (Adds quotes, detail)Jan 9 (Reuters) - The National Hockey League's (NHL) board of governors ratified the tentative labor deal on Wednesday, followed by Commissioner Gary Bettman's apology for dragging fans and sponsors through a four-month lockout.Requiring a simple majority to pass,...

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League owners approve new labor deal

(Reuters) - The National Hockey League's (NHL) board of governors ratified the tentative labor deal on Wednesday, followed by Commissioner Gary Bettman's apology for dragging fans and sponsors through a four-month lockout.Requiring a simple majority to pass, the 30 league owners voted unanimously to approve the 10-year deal that was agreed to early on Sunday after a marathon 16-hour bargaining session.The...

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NHL owners approve new labor deal; players to vote

NEW YORK (AP) — NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman secured unanimous ownership support for the pending labor deal, then apologized to everyone hurt by the long lockout and said he isn't going anywhere.The league's board of governors met in a Manhattan hotel Wednesday and overwhelmingly approved the agreement that was reached early Sunday on the 113th day of the lockout.Bettman felt the full brunt of anger,...

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What Happened to the 2012 Tech Bubble That Never Was

Turns out Facebook's fizzled IPO was a pretty good microcosm for 2012 in startup land: it was all one big fizzle. The final numbers for last year in venture-capital IPOs and acquisitions are in, and while there was no dot-com-era type of explosion, the much hyped new tech bubble appears to have just... petered out. There remains hope, as always, for the unpredictable year ahead. Here are some key...

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Patent hints Apple may bring its own unique stylus to iOS devices

Many people had a good laugh when Samsung (005930) unveiled the Galaxy Note last year and made a big deal out of the device’s Palm Pilot-like stylus. But once the Galaxy Note became a hit, people stopped snickering and began to take the stylus seriously as an accessory once again. Apple (AAPL) is apparently considering hopping on the stylus bandwagon, as HotHardware reports that the company has filed...

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Quick fix for Boot Camp brings Windows 8 to new iMac computers

Early adopters of Apple’s (AAPL) new iMac computers who chose the 3TB Fusion Drive model have been unable to use Boot Camp Assistant. The program, which allows OS X users to install a Windows partition on their computers, is limited to drives of up to 2.2TB. Apple has hinted that the software may be updated in the future to support larger drives, however no set time frame has been given. Despite...

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Is Iran's presence in Latin America a threat? The White House says yes.

When the United states government signed into law the Countering Iran in the Western Hemisphere Act, the US was quickly criticized for being stuck in the past.The law was the White House’s most public strategy to date to counter Iran’s influence in the Americas, and gives the State Department 180 days to draw up a plan to “address Iran’s growing hostile presence and activity.” The US received prompt...

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