Senate Follows House, Passes Budget Deal
Congress has approved the bipartisan Budget Act of 2013. It temporarily ends months of partisan gridlock over spending.
Economy
Is A 500-Year-Old German Beer Law Heritage Worth Honoring?
A German brewers association is seeking UNESCO World Heritage status for a 500-year-old law that dictates how to make beer. The brewers argue that the law ensures purity in German beers. But others say the law is from a bygone era.
A 'Tale Of Two Cities' As Detroit Looks To 2014
It became the largest city in U.S. history to file for bankruptcy. Its former mayor was sentenced to 28 years in prison. And a TV personality compared it to Chernobyl. But a new year is on the horizon, and for some parts of Detroit, things are looking up. Really.
Fed's Final 2013 Meeting Could Indicate Course For Early 2014
Federal Reserve officials end a two-day meeting on Wednesday amid signs that the U.S. economy is slowly mending. David Greene talks to David Wessel, economics editor of The Wall Street Journal, about the Fed's last meeting of the year.
In A Divided San Francisco, Private Tech Buses Drive Tension
Some of the most heated protests in San Francisco have been over big, sleek buses — private shuttles that Silicon Valley tech companies like Google and Facebook use to get their city-living employees to work. They've become a symbol of the city's changing socioeconomic landscape.
What Has NAFTA Meant For Workers? That Debate's Still Raging
Two decades ago, labor unions warned that the North American Free Trade Agreement would drive away U.S. jobs and push wages down. Today, unions feel as strongly as ever that NAFTA was a mistake for U.S. workers, but quantifying the factors behind the decline in the middle class is no simple matter.
Year In Numbers: The Federal Reserve's $85 Billion Question
As 2013 wraps up, NPR is looking at the numbers that tell this year's story. When it comes to the economy, $85 billion is a good candidate. That's the amount the Federal Reserve has been pumping into the financial system each month trying to stimulate growth and bring down unemployment. On Tuesday, Fed policymakers begin a two-day meeting at which they'll decide whether to dial back that stimulus.
Economists, Unemployed Fret Over Long-Term Jobless Aid Lapse
Democrats in Congress are promising to try to retroactively extend emergency unemployment benefits after the new year. The expiration of the benefits may satisfy some fiscal conservatives, but it has some economists and many desperate job-seekers concerned.
Is Silicon Valley Automating Our Obsolescence?
Silicon Valley has created mind-boggling amounts of wealth. Entire industries have been invented here. Billionaires are minted annually, but inequality is rising rapidly and the middle class is thinning out. Could the same technology that's making so many so rich undermine the labor market?
How The Sharing Economy Is Changing The Places We Work
The sharing economy is already changing several sectors: housing, transportation, retail. In some cities, it's changing the way we work. As more people start their own enterprises, they're shunning traditional offices and choosing to share space instead.