Stocks gain after two days of declines
NEW YORK - Stocks rebounded Friday after a government report confirmed that personal spending fell in February to its weakest level in 17 months but that personal income rose more than expected.

Oil prices surge past 107 dollars on Iraq pipeline attack
Oil prices jumped above 107 dollars a barrel on Thursday when concern about tight supplies increased on news that saboteurs had blown up a major Iraqi export pipeline, traders said. New York’s main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, rose by 1.12 dollars to 107.02 dollars per barrel.

Inquiry Assails Accounting Firm in Lender’s Fall
A sweeping five-month investigation into the collapse of one of the nation’s largest subprime lenders points a finger at a possible new culprit in the mortgage mess: the accountants. New Century Financial, whose failure just a year ago came at the start of the credit crisis, engaged in “significant improper and imprudent practices” that were condoned and enabled by auditors at the accounting firm KPMG, according to an independent report commissioned by the Justice Department.

Stimulus plan to create up to 600,000 jobs: Paulson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Friday that an economic stimulus program that will put $168 billion into consumers’ hands this year and next could help create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
I don’t think many economists agree with this assessment.

NEW DATA SHOW INCOME CONCENTRATION ROSE AGAIN IN 2006 (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
Economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez recently updated their groundbreaking data series on income inequality, finding that between 2005 and 2006, the average pre-tax income of the top 1 percent of households increased by $73,000, after adjusting for inflation, while the average income of the bottom 90 percent of households increased by just $20.

Indian workers in US demand visa reforms
WASHINGTON - Indian workers who say they were lured by false promises into moving to the Gulf Coast to fill a labor shortage after Hurricane Katrina demanded Thursday that their country help stop what they call human trafficking.
These are the people who have made it impossible for me to find computer work.