Economy

Penny Pritzker's next business endeavor might be her biggest project yet — taking the helm of the Commerce Department. 

President Obama's nominee to lead the agency seemed to build a strong bipartisan bloc of allies on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee during a hearing on Thursday examining her nearly three-decade career as a businesswoman. 

The panel's top Republican Sen. John Thune (S.D.) peppered Pritzker with the toughest questions of the day and seemed generally satisfied with her answers, deeming her nomination "in pretty good shape." He told reporters after the hearing that he expects a vote in the next work period after the Memorial Day recess. 

Jobless claims took another steep drop last week, reflecting a healthier labor market.

Applications for unemployment benefits fell by 23,000 last week, to a seasonally adjusted 340,000, an indication that businesses are laying off fewer workers, the Labor Department said Thursday. 

The four-week moving average, a less volatile gauge that better measures the direction of the job market, dropped by 500 to to 339,500. 

Ben Bernanke said the central bank “will gradually reduce” its bond purchases as economic conditions improve.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Congress that the central bank's actions will be insufficient to stave off a drag on the economy caused by rising taxes and spending cuts. 

Bernanke told the Joint Economic Committee on Wednesday that a bevy of fiscal policy issues are creating headwinds and will "exert a substantial drag on the economy this year." 

The expiration of the payroll tax cut, other tax increases, budget caps on discretionary spending, billions in sequestration and the declines in defense spending will weigh on the economy, and the Fed won't be able to stop the effects. 

"Taking them all together, they have the effect of being a drag on economic growth, perhaps more than necessary," he said. 

JPMorgan head honcho Jamie Dimon fends off bid to trim his power.

Washington probes tarnished Dimon's sterling reputation.

Fed official: Change in course could come in a few months.

Markets await testimony from Fed Chairman Bernanke.

Meet the new Xbox.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is suing the Internal Revenue Service, demanding the agency change its requirements for the 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status.

Congress’s probe into the inappropriate scrutiny applied to Tea Party groups by the Internal Revenue Service will continue in earnest this week, headlining a busy stretch before the Memorial Day recess.

The House Ways and Means Committee kicked off the grilling with a hearing Friday, and the Senate Finance Committee is next up with a Tuesday hearing on the matter.

The House Oversight Committee will tackle the matter Wednesday, hearing from former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman. Lois Lerner, the IRS official who apologized for the practice and set off the scandal, has also been invited to testify.

Meanwhile, the Senate is slated to take up the 2013 farm bill this week.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) hopes to complete the bill before the Memorial Day recess. The Senate Agriculture Committee reported out the $955 billion bill on Tuesday with a bipartisan 15-5 vote.

Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) predicted a strong vote in line with the 64-35 vote the farm bill enjoyed last year. That 2012 bill died after House GOP leaders refused to take up a farm bill in the last Congress.

The floor action is expected to feature amendments on the U.S. sugar program, as well as ones targeting $4 billion in food stamp cuts included in the bill, with liberals looking to reverse the cuts and conservatives looking to deepen them.

The Senate is also slated to vote on the nomination of Richard Cordray to continue as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Republicans have vowed to block the nomination as they demand structural changes to the agency.

A Senate panel will chat on Thursday with President Obama's nominee to lead the Commerce Department.

Penny Pritzker, the billionaire Chicago businesswoman, faces her first hurdle toward confirmation in a nomination hearing. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will discuss a broad swath of issues, from creating jobs and increasing exports to manufacturing and weather forecasting.

Pritzker has garnered broad support from Democrats and groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable.

Top regulators will also be appearing before committees this week to discuss a range of economic issues.

The Joint Economic Committee will hear testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who will give members an update on the nation’s economic picture.

Bernanke will once again face critiques from Republicans wary of the Fed’s efforts to boost the economy, which they warn are ineffective and encourage inflation.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will also be testifying on the Hill next week, as he delivers the annual report for the Financial Stability Oversight Council.

He will appear before the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday, followed up by a House Financial Services Committee visit Wednesday.

While the topic at hand is the state of financial markets, Lew will likely also have to field questions about the ongoing dissection of the IRS scandal.

The House Appropriations Committee will meet Tuesday to approve a controversial outline for its 12th annual spending bill. A leaked copy of the so-called 302b allocations shows labor and health programs getting cut 18 percent below sequester levels and the State Department getting a 16 percent cut below the sequester.

In the Senate, appropriators have a number of hearings lined up to discuss spending for military, agriculture and foreign operations needs.

On Tuesday, the House Agriculture Committee will discuss the reauthorization of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

On Tuesday, the Senate Budget Committee will discuss the nomination of Brian Deese to be deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

The agency is rife with vacancies: it lacks both deputy directors, an executive associate director and an office of information and regulatory affairs head. Starting this week, the OMB won’t have a controller since Danny Werfel is set to become acting IRS Commissioner.

The Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday will discuss bipartisan legislation that would strengthen the trade facilitation and enforcement efforts of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The legislation reauthorizes CBP and ICE and directs them to dedicate resources to customs facilitation and trade enforcement, while establishing new tools and high-level trade positions to bolster trade efforts.

The Senate’s permanent investigatory subcommittee will delve into offshore tax shelters Tuesday. Top Apple executives will be on hand to defend their business practices, which include extensive offshore activity.

A House Financial Services subcommittee will discuss qualified mortgages and the ability of borrowers to repay their loans in a Tuesday hearing.

The new rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau require lenders to compile documentation from potential homeowners to determine their ability to repay a loan.

A separate subcommittee for the panel will discuss Wednesday whether big Wall Street banks are effectively “too big to jail.”

Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress that the Justice Department faces challenges in bringing charges against large banks, but later said he was misunderstood, and did not mean it is impossible to prosecute big banks.

The job market is showing sustained signs of improvement with the unemployment rates in 40 states dropping in April, the most in six months. 

The jobless rate rose in only three states — Louisiana, Tennessee and North Dakota — and was unchanged in seven, the Labor Department reported on Friday. 

No state reported double-digit unemployment in April. 

At 9.6 percent, Nevada had the highest unemployment rate but it has dropped from 10.7 percent over the last year, the steepest decline of any state.

Bill Gates back on top as world's richest man. Read more...

House Democrats are putting their weight behind President Obama's nominee to lead the Labor Department. 

Nearly 140 House Democrats urged Senate leaders on Thursday to confirm Thomas Perez, the head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, as the next secretary of Labor amid stiff resistance from Republicans. 

After several weeks of delays, a Senate panel approved Perez's nomination on Thursday morning on a party-line vote. 

“The Senate should waste no time in scheduling a vote to confirm Tom Perez as the next secretary of Labor," said House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.) in a statement.