The U.S. Labor Department announced that 243,000 jobs were added in January, sending the unemployment rate to 8.3%, its lowest point since Feburary 2009. more ›

A version of the "Buffett Rule" was introduced today by Senate Democrats after a call by President Obama for the super-rich to start paying their fair share in the State of the Union Address last week. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, formally introduced what he's calling the "Paying a Fair Share Act of 2012." Under the law, millionaires would pay a minimum 30 percent effective tax rate, or more than double what millionaire Mitt Romney has been paying. According to the Congressional Research Center, approximately 94,500 taxpayers, a quarter of all U.S. millionaires, pay a lower tax rate than the vast majority of middle-income taxpayers. While potential revenue has yet to be formally calculated, Whitehouse estimates that the law could generate $40-50 billion annually. more ›

With more people clamoring for food stamps and turning benefits centers into fire hazards by waiting in line all day, creating human gridlock that the FDNY had to alleviate, the city is finally going to do something about it: Hire more people to distribute the benefits. Human Resources Administration Deputy Commissioner Patricia Smith told the City Council, "The alleviation of crowding at our office is a high priority." more ›

What does Newt Gingrich's 12% win over Mitt Romney in South Carolina mean? Even if Gingrich doesn't have Romney's war chest and organization for Florida's primary on the 31st, his momentum is snowballing in the state's print media, and this morning Romney admitted he made a mistake in declining to release his tax returns, and said he will make them available on Tuesday. “We made a mistake in holding off as long as we did,” the candidate told FOX News, noting that he pays a "substantial" amount of taxes. Still Gingrich can point out that in terms of percentage, he pays double what a member of the 0.01% does. more ›

Famous hospital travel writer and connoisseur Sean Carter has gone all sensitive now that he has a newborn baby with Beyonce. He won't even use the "B word" anymore! But Jay clearly was his old, stoic self on January 6, a day before Blue Ivy Carter was born, when half of Rocawear's staff got laid off in New York. more ›

According to the WSJ, Wall Street's end-of-year bonuses will shrink drastically thanks to dismal fourth-quarter figures. Around 400 partners at Goldman Sachs will see their net pay cut in half, while Morgan Stanley's bonuses may dip from 40% to 30%. Some socialist bankers (they exist) might suggest that a falling tide sinks all boats, but those idiots clearly haven't stepped aboard the Serene. Never ones to take fairness lying down, a group of executives at the brokerage firm Jefferies Group are threatening to sue or quit or both if their pay isn't up to par. more ›

Time was an industrious American with true grit and a little moxie could pull him or herself up by his or her bootstraps, starting off with nothing but ambition in the mailroom and advancing all the way to the F...B...I. There's considerable debate over when this was the norm, but we clearly remember seeing it documented in such motion pictures as The Talented Mr. Ripley. Well, sorry to disillusion you, but that was the old America, according to a number of troubling studies showing that the United States is now the least upwardly mobile of comparable nations like Canada. Well, isn't it high time we went up and plundered liberated those smug bastards? more ›

Former NJ governor Jon Corzine spoke to Congress today, to clarify the remarks he made last week about the collapse of brokerage MF Global. The firm, which he headed until it filed for bankruptcy, happens to be missing $1.2 billion in client money, and senators wanted to know who authorized the transfer. And, for what it's worth, Corzine said it wasn't him! more ›

If you want to be further outraged by the antics of former NJ governor Jon Corzine, whose leadership of brokerage MF Global essentially resulted in its collapse (and there's still a billion dollars in client funds missing!), read this NY Times feature, titled, "A Romance With Risk That Brought On a Panic." But romance is too pretty a word: "He pushed through a $6.3 billion bet on European debt — a wager big enough to wipe out the firm five times over if it went bad — despite concerns from other executives and board members. And it is now clear that he personally lobbied regulators and auditors about the strategy." more ›

Times Squares' costumed entrepreneurs are officially free to ply their trade without fear of retribution. According to the Daily News, the NYPD has stopped the policy of ticketing the Elmos, Hello Kitties, Buzz Lightyears and Spidermen who take pictures with kiddies for tips. The entertainers are allowed to receive tips, but not charge for pictures taken with them in costume. According Girish Dani, who dresses up as Spiderman, Elmo still gets a bad rap: "A few Elmos chase people for tips…I heard one or two Elmos drink whiskey, and this could be an issue." Ah, but Sesame Street is the type of place that drives a monster to drink. more ›

Today's New York Post reveals a shocking truth: strippers don't strip for the accolades or the prestige, but for money! Several dancers at Rick's Cabaret in Midtown say they pull in as much as $10,000 in a single shift. Should protesters be Occupying the pole? more ›

Jay-Z has now joined his mentor Russell Simmons in his measured support for higher taxes on rich folk such as himself, telling CNN, "I wouldn’t mind paying more taxes if it went to the things that really mattered. If it went to education, people [in] poverty and if it went to the right things." He continued, “It should be clearly defined … where all the money’s being allocated. Because you can understand paying so much for taxes and then things not improving, you’re like, where’s everything going to?” We await the "Jay-Z for OMB director" campaign with bated breath. more ›

In a "remember me, three years ago?" speech in Kansas yesterday, President Obama told the crowd, "This country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, when everyone does their fair share and when everyone plays by the same rules." A new report [pdf] from the non-profit organization Public Campaign shows that 30 of the country's largest corporations—including GE, Wells Fargo, Verizon, and Fed Ex—paid more to lobby Congress from 2008 through 2010 than they did in federal income taxes. What country was the president referring to? more ›

To everyone not reading this on an iPad in the CORE Club: you may have your taxes cut. Earlier today Governor Cuomo along with Republican Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver hammered out an agreement to that representing "the first major restructuring of the tax code in decades resulting in a tax cut for 4.4 million middle class New Yorkers taxpayers." In a release [pdf], Governor Cuomo says, "We are cutting taxes on middle class New Yorkers and small businesses…This would be lowest tax rate for middle class families in 58 years." Sounds like somebody's gonna need a cheer-up weekend in Bermuda. more ›

The rumors are true! Governor Cuomo's office has sent an op-ed written by the governor expressing his support for tax reform. You can read the whole thing below, but here's one key paragraph: "In New York under the permanent tax code, an individual making a taxable income of only $20,000 pays the same marginal tax rate as an individual making $20 million. It’s just not fair. While New York’s earned income tax credit, child care credit, and high standard deduction help working poor families, New York has left the middle class with an undue burden which also hinders our economic recovery." more ›

Though Occupy Wall Street has spent much of their time amidst the canyons of the Financial District's "heroes," tomorrow's efforts are focused in East New York, as part of a nationwide day of action to call attention to the housing crisis that continues to plague much of the country. Occupy Our Homes will meet at the Pennsylvania Avenue subway stop in Brownsville at 1 p.m. for a tour of foreclosed homes, ending with a housewarming party for the families who are "taking these homes back for the community," despite impending foreclosure, and according to a release, volunteers from the many organizations involved will begin fixing up abandoned property. more ›

Instead of walking to Newtown Creek to catch dinner with a condom, wouldn't it be nice to hop into the car and glide down to the street in a private elevator? Glauco Lolli-Ghetti, a Manhattan real estate developer, lives this dream from the 11th floor of his $7 million Chelsea condo. “This is about as close to a suburban home that you can achieve in an urban area like New York,” Lolli-Ghetti tells the Times. Does anyone remember that cool car elevator that the Cleavers had in their glass-bound condo on Leave It To Beaver? more ›

Though he's couched his opposition to the renewal of the "Millionaire's Tax" in the lofty language of personal conviction, Governor Cuomo appears to be warming up to the idea of bringing more "fairness" to the tax code in order to bolster an anemic state budget. The Times reports that Democrats in the State Assembly were warned that the governor may call a special session of the legislature on Tuesday, and sources say "leaders were discussing the creation of new tax brackets that would allow them to apply higher tax rates to the state’s top earners" while giving middle-class families a tax cut. Perhaps the governor cares more about polling than he initially let on. more ›

Today, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that unemployment fell to 8.6% in November, the lowest since March 2009. According to Bloomberg News, "Payrolls climbed 120,000, after a revised 100,000 increase in October, with more than half the hiring coming from retailers and temporary help agencies." more ›

The stock markets have surged this morning after central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank agreed to a program that essentially makes U.S. dollars more available to European banks and to ease the global debt crisis. more ›

Even though everybody knows that the recession was over years ago, some people are still feeling its impact, especially those working for the much-demonized public sector, which is shedding jobs under the increasing pressure for fiscal austerity. However, there is one group that is hit particularly hard by the loss of public-sector employment: African Americans. The Times reports that one in five black workers are employed by the public sector, and they're also one-third more likely to hold such a job than whites. more ›

These days, stories of CEOs getting their companies to buy their antique map collections for millions of dollars have us yawning. We need examples of pure, systematic evil to get our bile mojo going. Thankfully the Times supplies it in a profile on how billionaire cosmetic heir Ronald Lauder dodges more taxes than a Black Friday crowd in Delaware. more ›

Despite the 9% unemployment rate, unprecedented public disillusionment and the fact that the name of the event itself conjures a pestilence that killed at least 150 million people, Americans came together to spend $11.4 billion on Black Friday, a 6.6% increase and the largest amount ever. "Still, it's just one day," ShopperTrak's founder Bill Martin tells Bloomberg News. "It remains to be seen whether consumers will sustain this behavior through the holiday shopping season." Yes, keep your fingers crossed for more appalling acts committed in the name of unchecked consumerism. more ›

While tomorrow is "Black Friday," the official start of the Christmas shopping season, many retailers have been opening their doors today, on the Thanksgiving federal holiday, to give Americans a chance to spend their money without going to the 5 a.m. doorbusters and not killing workers in a stampede. And, retail experts say, it's the 99% who are the Black Friday fiends. more ›

Because you'll have to talk about SOMETHING at the Thanksgiving dinner table, here are some tips for engaging the topic of Occupy Wall Street. more ›

Will no one think of the young bankers in these hard economic times? Between the third quarters of 2008 and 2011 the financial sector lost 110,000 employees between the ages of 20 and 34. DealBook spoke to one 28-year-old former Credit Suisse employee, who was hired and fired in a week's time. "I did everything right. I came into work every day, I put in long hours, and I still got punched in the face." more ›

It's official: the bipartisan Congressional supercommittee charged with coming up with a compromise of budget-cutting (entitlement-slashing) and new revenue (taxes) has failed. Because the twelve lawmakers couldn't even come up with a way to call a press conference, the two chairs released a statement saying they were "unable to bridge the committee's significant differences." But enough of the doom and gloom: check out these AMAZING Black Friday deals! more ›

More belt-tightening from City Hall: Mayor Bloomberg released a 72-page report detailing his office's plans to stem next year's projected budget gap of $4.6 billion. Though some fees will be considerably higher, according to the Post, the measures avoid the third-rails of teachers layoffs and cutting back the NYPD's numbers. more ›

To receive food stamps in New York State, one must be single and make under $14,088 a year, or a be in a family of four and make under $26,668. According to LoHud, the amount of money distributed through the EBT program is up 133% this year, compared with when the recession began in 2007. Three million people were on food stamps this July, a 70% increase from that year. You can't buy Double Downs with them quite yet, but our money is on Taco Bell anyway—those half-pound burritos temporarily take the pain away. more ›