Free tax help available for modest income earners (AP)
AP – Tax laws are so complex many taxpayers don’t feel comfortable filing out their own returns, but getting professional help can be expensive.
AP – Tax laws are so complex many taxpayers don’t feel comfortable filing out their own returns, but getting professional help can be expensive.
The Motley Fool – In 1991, former MIT dean Lester Thurow wrote that “If one looks at the last 20 years, Japan would have to be considered the betting favorite to win the economy honors of owning the 21st century.”
Reuters – New orders for U.S. factory-made products posted a second straight monthly rise in December and business capital spending also picked up, a government report on Friday showed.
Reuters – Walgreen Co is being hit by its withdrawal from the Express Scripts Inc pharmacy network and by a much weaker-than-expected flu season, leading it to temper its expectations for the number of prescriptions it will fill this year.
AP – The European Union is bracing for another potential energy crisis in the dead of winter as Russian gas supplies to some of its member states suddenly have dwindled by up to 30 percent.
AP – U.S. stock futures jumped after a report on January employment showed the biggest growth in jobs in nine months and an unemployment rate that dropped to 8.2 percent.
Reuters – The economy created jobs at the fastest pace in nine months in January and the unemployment rate dropped to a near three-year low of 8.3 percent, indicating last quarter’s growth carried into early 2012.
AP – President Barack Obama is to visit a state-of-the-art fire station in a Washington suburb on Friday.
Reuters – Stock index futures edged higher on Friday as investors awaited the monthly payrolls report to see whether to make more large bets in risk assets after recent equity gains.
Reuters – Investors are holding more cash than at any time since the Lehman Brothers collapse to protect themselves against volatile financial markets, presenting them with a dilemma – where to hold that money when banks are looking shaky.
