A Spanish theater owner is protesting the VAT increase on his tickets to 21 percent by offering carrots for sale, which are subject only to a VAT of 4 percent, and giving purchasers free admission.

The Congressional Budget Office's latest offering of suggestions on how to cut the deficit falls far short of what is needed and admits that making adequate spending cuts  will be a "formidable task."

Following his office’s publishing of his annual Wastebook last month, Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) has now released another oversight report, this one exploring waste and “non-defense” spending in the Department of Defense (DOD), entitled the “Department of Everything.”

Hard-money investment manager Marc Faber predicts that markets could decline by 20 percent, perhaps more, as the economy faces the continued recession and worries about the "fiscal cliff."

Pew Research Center predicted Obama would win reelection by 50 percent to 47 percent. They were essentially correct, due to a changing national demographic.

In its latest 14-page report on the impact the “fiscal cliff” would have on the economy in 2013 and beyond, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) provided enough ammunition to both sides of the debate to guarantee a standoff in Washington. It would have simplified matters greatly if Doug Elmendorf, the CBO’s director, had simply said: “Pay me now or pay me later. You decide.”

A Heritage Foundation study has concluded that a full employment recovery from the Great Recession isn't likely until after the next presidential election in 2016, and even that may be too optimistic.

Although the Treasury warned that government borrowing would hit the debt ceiling before the end of the year, it also said it would use "extraordinary measures" to push off the debt ceiling conversation until the 113th Congress is seated, where it's more likely to be raised without a fuss.

Small business owners, some of whom have spent their lifetimes building their businesses, are unloading them before the end of the year in order to save taxes.

The current capital gains tax rate is 15 percent, but in January it is scheduled to increase to 20 percent, plus the ObamaCare tax of 3.8 percent added on top brings it to 23.8 percent, a jump of 58 percent. Even if a lame-duck Congress extends the present rate of 15 percent, there is no conversation in Washington about repealing the ObamaCare tax, so at best capital gains taxes will increase by 25 percent after the first of the year.

Friday’s jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) stated that “total non-farm payroll employment increased by 171,000 in October, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged [from September] at 7.9 percent.”