The trade gap

The trade gap narrowed 0.6% to $56.45 billion in September amid strong foreign demand and a lower bill for imported oil.

Very exclusive club

Catholic bihhops from cotton-producing West African nations Burkina Faso, Senegal and Mali lobby Congress and White House to cut subsides for U.S. cotton.

Ex-Congressman Vin Weber calls them part of a "very exclusive club...people who visit Washington asking them not to spend money."

Is that a recession?

Dollar is falling . Gold is above $800 an ounce. Oil is pushing toward $100 and stock market is going nowhere.

Is that a recession?

Additional write-downs

Investors think that the largest bank in the U.S. by assets, Citigroup, will need much mor than one year to clean up the mess.

The bank's problems have deepened and it have announced the possibility of additional write-downs.

How big is the mess?

Is it alone?

Skilled immigrants

Senator Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican, slipped an amendment into a spending bill that would tax businesses that hire skilled immigrants an additional $3,500 per visa to a total of $5,000 each.

GDP growth

Gross domestic product, the value of goods and services produced in the country,
expanded by a seasonally adjusted 3.9% annual rate in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said.

That bested second-quarter growth of 3.8% and first-quarter growth of 0.6%.
Morgan Stanley economists predict GDP growth of 1.1% in fourth quarter.

They have a great business but difficult to sell.

Why don't successful web sites go public?

Because their success was cultivating third-party software developers and
they have little, if any, control over these third-party platforms.

This creates the risk that,as they become part of the Web site's fabric, the owner of the web site loses the ability to chart its own destiny.

They have a great business but difficult to sell.