Stocks set for higher opening
NEW YORK – Wall Street headed for a higher opening Thursday, bolstered by hopes the economy will dodge a recession through new rate cuts and government stimulus efforts.

Home construction drops 25 percent
WASHINGTON – The prolonged slump in housing pushed construction of new homes in 2007 down by the largest amount in 27 years with the expectation that the downturn has further to go.

New inflation data explain middle-class squeeze
WASHINGTON — New data from the Labor Department confirm what most middle-class Americans already know: Inflation is squeezing them.

Bernanke seems open to stimulus package
WASHINGTON – Faced with a deteriorating economy, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has indicated he is open to congressional and White House efforts to develop a rescue package to avert a recession.

US releases $450M in home heating aid
WASHINGTON – The Bush administration on Wednesday released $450 million in emergency relief funds to help needy residents pay soaring heating bills.

Food, Energy Prices Drive Inflation in 2007
Inflation spiked in 2007, driven by escalating food and energy costs that more than cancelled the wage gains earned by workers over the year. New federal government statistics show the consumer price index rose 4.1 percent over the 12 months ending in December, 2007, compared to a 2.5 percent increase in the 12 months before that. Energy prices, responding to a surge in the cost of oil, rose 17.4 percent over the period. The price of food increased 4.9 percent — the largest rise in 18 years.

A Different Recession (by Harold Meyerson, the Washington Post)
[T]the coming recession will not be normal, and our economy is not fundamentally sound. This time around, the nation will have to craft new versions of some of the reforms that Franklin Roosevelt created to steer the nation out of the Great Depression — not because anything like a major depression looms but because we face an economy that’s been warped by two developments we’ve not seen since FDR’s time. The first of these is the stagnation of ordinary Americans’ incomes… The second … is the role played by our deregulated financial sector.

First Backdating Conviction Brings Prison Term and $15 Million Fine
Brocade Communications Systems’ former chief executive received a 21-month prison sentence for designing a plan to tamper with the firm’s records of stock option grants.