Economy

Thousands of Minnesota soldiers deployed in Kuwait woke up to a surprise last spring. Just weeks before the end of their tour, a group of corporate recruiters showed up on base. The visit was part of a new strategy to help returning service members find jobs after they've hung up their uniforms.

When students at the University of Vermont resume classes on the snow-covered Burlington campus Monday, something will be missing. UVM is the latest university to ban on-campus sales of bottled water.

On Monday, President Obama repeated his call to Congress to raise the U.S. Treasury's borrowing limit.

President Obama says he won't negotiate about the borrowing limit. He says the Congress must raise the debt ceiling to pay for spending it's already OK'd. But Republicans say they'll use the threat of default to get more spending cuts from the White House. Obama still has some options if he and Congress can't reach an agreement.

In theory, some say, President Obama could have a $1 trillion coin made and that would head off the next big battle over the federal government's debt ceiling.

Timothy Geithner presided over Treasury at a particularly tumultuous time. The banking system was still in a crisis, and people were soon calling for his head. Naming his replacement four years later, President Obama said Geithner will be remembered "as one of our finest secretaries of the Treasury."

As businesses face more complex regulations and heightened scrutiny by prosecutors, companies are turning to investigative firms to help keep watch over their employees. The idea behind the "corporate monitoring" business is to nip misconduct in the bud before law enforcement catches a whiff of it.

The paper industry once employed thousands of people across the state. Now, mills are closing. John Schmid of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on the state of the industry in Wisconsin as well as in China. He explains how the state is losing a publishing-grade paper mill each year.

Even after Congress' action to avert part of the "fiscal cliff," business owners remain cautious about hiring and expanding. Those that are growing cite the underlying economy, but others say uncertainty about government spending is keeping them wary.

As part of the "fiscal cliff" deal moving through Congress, a two-year-old payroll tax holiday comes to an end. Under the tax holiday, the 6.2 percent payroll tax was cut to 4.2 percent for all American workers. NPR's John Ydstie talks about what the change will mean for employees and the economy.