All the chairman of the Federal Reserve has done in his latest announcement of a new bond-buying program is give himself and his Federal Open Market Committee permission to buy government bonds forever.

Despite his firm defense of his call that the U.S. economy entered into another recession in July this year, Lakshman Achuthan of the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) continued to be scorned by his critics.

But his call was shown to be on the mark when the National Federation of Independent Business issued its Optimism Index today and noted that it decreased an astonishing 5.6 points to 87.5, the lowest reading since March of 2010 and the biggest monthly drop going back to 1986.

Potentially thousands of union protesters could descend on Michigan's capitol Tuesday morning, fighting a war that has already been lost against Right-to-Work laws. Both houses have already approved the measures, and the final vote is scheduled for Tuesday. Governor Rick Snyder has indicated that he’ll sign the legislation.

A writer at the Washington Post took a snippet out of a speech by President Obama's Defense Department general counsel and concluded that he saw an end to the War on Terror. He was wrong.

Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution, thinks that the debt ceiling is an "anachronism" and ought to be repealed altogether. Many agree with her.

Chicago is experiencing a high and rising homicide rate, with some predicting 500 or more by the end of the year. Many have tried to explain the phenomenon.

Texas Republican Representative Ron Paul has, based on his decades of experience watching Washington negotiate and dither, predicted a last-minute compromise that will increase government spending and put off hard decisions into the future. On his website Paul noted, "America faces yet another congressionally-manufactured crisis which will likely end in yet another 11th hour compromise, resulting in more government growth."

Calling it “unexpected,” Reuters reported that the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) from the Institute for Supply Management for November fell to its lowest level in over three years. A poll of economists by Reuters showed they didn't see it coming.

Most political talk is now focused on the “fiscal cliff,” but usually the talk avoids probing the depth of the problem. And the problem won’t be addressed until it is first acknowledged.

Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) continues to pump his bill to impose transaction fees on high-frequency trading, saying that they would raise a lot of money with few consequences.