Washington Post Business
Trump to turn Old Post Office into luxury hotel
Donald J. Trump is getting a Pennsylvania Avenue address in Washington, it just won’t be 1600.
The federal government announced Tuesday that the New York real estate magnate’s hotel company has been selected to turn Washington’s Old Post Office Pavilion into a luxury getaway.
Read full article >>Proposed settlement with banks over foreclosure practices dealt a setback
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman abruptly called off a news conference at which he could have provided a crucial endorsement of a proposed settlement with some of the nation’s biggest banks over shoddy foreclosure practices.
Read full article >>It’s deja vu as Congress tackles payroll tax cut extension again
It’s Groundhog Day in Congress, where lawmakers appear to have glimpsed their shadows and are entering a newly intense period of negotiations over whether to extend the payroll tax cut that is shaping up to be remarkably similar to a bruising December fight over the same issue.
Read full article >>As Massachusetts governor, Romney had an unremarkable record on jobs
An overheated industry has gone bust. A tepid economy is not producing enough jobs. And a successful businessman promises he can use his private-sector experience to jump-start the economy.
This is presidential candidate Mitt Romney now, but it was also Romney nearly a decade ago when he ran for governor of Massachusetts, a state that was still reeling from the tech bubble’s burst.
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Latvia at risk of sending more into poverty, IMF report says
Latvia’s economic crisis erased more than one-fifth of the country’s economic output, depressed incomes and put more people at risk of poverty, the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday, adding that the nation needs to work quickly to repair its social safety net.
Read full article >>Industry attacks SEC proposals to regulate money market funds
The mutual-fund industry rejected plans for new rules governing money market funds, escalating a three-year confrontation with regulators over how to make the investments safer.
Two proposals being worked on by the Security and Exchange Commission’s staff “are neither constructive nor likely to make financial markets more resilient,” Paul Schott Stevens, president and chief executive of the Investment Company Institute, said in a statement posted on the group’s Web site.
Read full article >>Old Post Office to become 250-room Trump hotel
The General Services Administration has selected a proposal from Trump Hotel Collection, the lodging brand that bears the name of the New York real estate magnate, to turn the historic Old Post Office pavilion on Pennsylvania Avenue into a luxury hotel with at least 250 rooms, conference facilities, a spa and restaurants.
Read full article >>Bernanke tells Senate: Focus on growth now, deficit cuts later
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke kept to his message of caution on Tuesday, warning a Senate panel that sharp spending cuts and tax increases scheduled to take effect in early 2013 could slow the nation’s economic recovery if federal officials do not take further action.
Read full article >>Google releases Chrome for Android
Google announced Tuesday that it’s releasing a version of Chrome for its Android smartphone operating system, after three years.
“Today, we’re introducing Chrome for Android Beta, which brings many of the things you’ve come to love about Chrome to your Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich phone or tablet,” wrote Google Chrome lead Sundar Pichai in a company blog post. “Like the desktop version, Chrome for Android Beta is focused on speed and simplicity, but it also features seamless sign-in and sync so you can take your personalized web browsing experience with you wherever you go, across devices.”
Read full article >>Messages show conflict within NRC after Japan’s earthquake and tsunami
In the confusion following the earthquake and tsunami that damaged Japan’s Fukushima nuclear complex last March, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it was standing by to help.
But a trove of e-mails posted on the NRC’s Web site shows an agency struggling to figure out how to respond and how to deal with the American public while cutting through what one official called “the fog of information” coming out of Japan.
Read full article >>Frustrated GOP freshmen target gimmicks that make it hard to cut the budget
Before winning a spot in the House Republican freshman class, Rep. Tim Griffin was a high-ranking GOP political operative and a top aide to strategist Karl Rove. But despite his extensive Washington experience, Griffin said he was blindsided last year by budget “gimmicks” that blocked a clear victory for his top priority: cutting federal spending.
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A nonsense fact in a Super Bowl ad
“Only ten percent of people in unions today actually voted to join the union.”
— Voiceover from an ad sponsored by the Center for Union Facts which aired during the Super Bowl
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Payroll tax negotiations heat up again
House and Senate negotiators appointed to reach a compromise over how to pay for extending the expiring payroll tax cut will hold a key meeting Tuesday morning.
Ongoing discussions between the 20-member conference committee, as well as House and Senate leaders, will make clear whether Democrats and Republicans will reach a quick deal to extend the tax cut for the remainder of the year.
Read full article >>Unemployment drop still leaves low skill workers behind
ROCKLEDGE, Fla. — The nation’s jobless rate has declined to its lowest level in three years, a fact that has left Jamie Bean, an unemployed air-conditioner repairman, feeling more left out than ever.
Bean, 36, lost his job in December. Now he is scrambling to keep up with child-support payments to his wife, who is also unemployed. “As it stands now, I can’t afford to get divorced,” he said, managing a wry smile.
Read full article >>Trustee says MF Global sustained itself on customer funds
As MF Global careened toward bankruptcy in October, the brokerage firm used customer funds to bankroll its business, apparently assuming that the money would be put back by the end of each day, a trustee overseeing the firm’s liquidation reported Monday.
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Junk food widely available at U.S. elementary schools despite anti-obesity push
Nearly half of elementary school children can buy junk food at school, a trend that contributes to the childhood obesity epidemic and underscores the need for federal regulation of school snacks, according to a study published Monday in a pediatric journal.
Read full article >>Foreclosure deal doesn’t go far enough, some groups say
As state and federal officials near completion of a settlement with banks over shoddy foreclosure practices, a question that has loomed over the talks for months remains: Is it a good enough deal?
After nearly 500 days of drawn-out negotiations, public infighting and private cajoling, the emerging settlement would force banks to overhaul their mortgage-servicing practices. It could also require the banks to pay as much as $25 billion in penalties that would be put toward helping struggling homeowners and borrowers who lost their homes to foreclosure in recent years.
Read full article >>Europe turns up the pressure on Greece over debt plan
European leaders pressed Greece on Monday to quickly resolve deadlocked talks over a new international bailout and are threatening to let the country default if Athens does not agree to new economic reforms.
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