WASHINGTON - December 24, 2008 - In the week ending December 20, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims was 586,000, an increase of 30,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 556,000. The 4-week moving average was 558,000, an increase of 13,750 from the previous week's revised average of 544,250.

WASHINGTON - December 23, 2008 - Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) told Democracy Now today:

“The economy is on the brink of an absolute catastrophe. I’ve been saying for six or seven months now that we’re in 1931. In 1931, a recession that started with the Crash of 1929 tipped into a fifteen-year Depression. We are on the precipice of that. If we are very lucky and if we do everything very right from now, we will probably have a two- or three-year very bad recession. If we’re not very lucky or if we don’t do everything right, we could easily have a ten- or fifteen-year Depression, a repeat of the 1930s.”

LONDON, England - December 23, 2008 - The technical definition of a recession was drawn up on the back of an envelope and was a piece of political spin, a former ambassador to the U.S. has claimed.

WASHINGTON - December 22, 2008 - The desperate straits of many U.S. homeowners showed in new data released on Monday, suggesting efforts to help them are having limited success.

WASHINGTON - December 22, 2008 - Hedge funds will be allowed to borrow from the Federal Reserve for the first time under a landmark $200bn program intended to support consumer credit.

LONDON, England - December 22, 2008 - The government has been accused of trampling on individual liberties by proposing wide-ranging new powers for bailiffs to break into homes and to use “reasonable force” against householders who try to protect their valuables.

MORAINE, Ohio - December 21, 2008 - General Motors Corp.’s financial woes have GM workers around the country worrying about what life without GM might be like. The 1,080 hourly workers at the automaker's sport utility plant in this Dayton suburb are about to find out. For them, life without GM begins Tuesday.