UNEMPLOYMENT

Latest data on the number of Americans who filed new applications for federal unemployment benefits rose for a second straight week and once again moved above the key 400,000 mark -- the level at which some economists take to mean the economy has to add more jobs than it is shedding. The labor market is still weak, even during the holiday season.

Reportedly, there are now about 10,000 homeless people on the streets of the capital Budapest alone.

Wells Fargo Securities said California's labor market has shown some encouraging signs of improvement over the past three months, though jobs creation for much of the year has been a hit-or-miss venture.

A gradual broadening and strengthening of U.S. growth should cushion the American economy against severe damage from the storms in Europe, unless a financial meltdown causes global havoc.

Leon Cooperman sent a straightforward and scathing letter to President Obama Monday calling for reform and more accountability from President Obama calling for reform and more accountability from the administration.

Between 1990 and 2010, the rate of poverty rate on the continent plunged from 48.4 percent to 31.4 percent; while the rate of indigence (extreme poverty) dropped from 22.6 percent to 12.3 percent.

Here is a list of the top saddest cities in America, calculated and compiled by Men's Health magazine.

Wells Fargo Securities said there are still many signs that California's labor market remains deeply ill, despite the better job creation performance this year.

A November note from the Conference Board placed consumer confidence in the U.S. at a four-month high of 56.0, from a low of 40.9 in July. Most startlingly, however, the Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) soared to its largest month-over-month percentage gain since April, 2009 and its largest single points gain since April, 2003.

The Eurozone seems all set to enter a period of deep recession, with the credibility of governments' ability to keep the region in balance under serious doubt. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has already issued a warning that Eurozone and U.S. leaders must act urgently to stop their debt crises from spiralling out of control.

St. Petersburg, Fl., is apparently the saddest city in America, with Detroit, Mi. not far behind, according to a study by Men's Health magazine, which used data such as unemployment and suicid rates, antidepressant usage and the number of people who actually admitted to depression.

While President Barack Obama's 43 percent job-approval rating on the poll results Gallup released Tuesday shows an improvement over the 40 percent score he got a few weeks earlier, his shot at winning re-election looks uncertain considering that at this point in his term, even presidential pariah Jimmy Carter did better.

In a speech at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., on Tuesday, Rick Perry seemed to mix up the voting and drinking ages -- not to mention the date of the coming election. It was a slip of the tongue, not a substantive gaffe -- nobody really thinks Perry doesn't know the voting age -- but it was one of many YouTube-worthy moments of the Republican primary race.

Oregonians who get jobless and child support payments via ReliaCards will be able to receive free and unlimited point-of-sale, bank teller and U.S. Bank ATM transactions, under a new fee structure reached by Oregon Treasure Ted Wheeler and U.S. Bank.

The salary cap would save more than £1-billion by the 2014-15, Osborne claimed.

New legislation introduced by Senate Democrats on Monday would prolong and increase a payroll tax cut pushed by President Barack Obama, while introducing a de facto millionaire's tax. The proposal is the first step in what will likely be a prolonged budgetary battle on Capitol Hill.

It's a liberty walk/It's a liberty walk/It's a liberty, liberty, liberty/Oooh

The Western Canadian province of Saskatchewan said on Monday its budget surplus for 2011-12 will be less than a quarter of what it had forecast, due in part to a summer of severe flooding.

Police in riot gear closed in before dawn Monday on anti-Wall Street activists who defied a midnight deadline to vacate an 8-week-old encampment outside Los Angeles City Hall, but the police later pulled back.

Police in riot gear closed in before dawn Monday on anti-Wall Street activists who defied a midnight deadline to vacate an 8-week-old encampment outside Los Angeles City Hall, but the police later pulled back.

The stark truth of the matter is that unless the private sector starts hiring en masse (including non-profit organizations), absent a surge in exports, it will be up to the public sector to provide stimulus to create jobs.