Congress, Politics, Books
and American History

Following last week's passage of payroll tax cut legislation by Congress, President Obama held a White House event to elaborate on the legislation. The President thanked Congress for passing the legislation, but said "Don't stop here and go further." The President urged Congress to build on the success of the agreement by taking additional steps to create jobs, grow the economy and help the middle class.

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Pres. Obama travels to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and delivers remarks on the economy and American manufacturing, as he visits with employees of Master Lock. The President's manufacturing plan calls for American companies to "insource" and invest in the U.S.

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Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping's scheduled stops include the White House, the State Dept. and the Pentagon.

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General Electric (GE) held a four-day forum on American Competitiveness with a look at U.S. manufacturing. One of the keynote speakers was former Gov. Haley Barbour (R) of Mississippi. They also held panel discussions on "the Future of Manufacturing" and "Recharging American Manufacturing."

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Senior tax executives from FedEx and Time Warner said they would favor eliminating all special tax benefits in exchange for lowering the corporate rate down to around 25%. They testified on a panel before the House Ways and Means Committee, the chief tax-writing committee in Congress. All of the witnesses described a U.S. tax code that poses challenges to businesses because of its complexity and uncertainty.

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Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher remarks on U.S. economic and monetary policy at the Institute of International Finance.

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Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) joined business leaders and others on the conservative YG Network's panel discussions, "Redefining Growth" and "Strategic Imperatives to Achieve Growth."

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The IMF's Olivier Blanchard speaks at the Carnegie Endowment about Europe's coming economic slowdown.

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The Joint Economic Committee held a hearing on Friday about the January jobs report.  The figures reveal that the unemployment rate dropped to 8.3% percent. BLS Acting Commissioner John Galvin testified to lawmakers about employment trends over the past month.

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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified Thursday before the House Budget Committee on the economic outlook for 2012.  On Wednesday, the committee reviewed CBO's economic forecast predicting unemployment at around 8.9% and slow economic growth through the rest of the year.

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