Visit our Filed page for categories. To browse by specific topic, see our Inside page. For a list of companies covered on this site, visit our Companies page.
Chicago employers would see modest tax relief under Mayor Richard Daley’s proposed 2011 budget plan, which calls for scaling back of the payroll head tax.
Employers now are required to pay $4 a month for every employee who earns at least $900 per quarter. Under Daley’s proposal, the tax would apply only for employees earning at least $4,300 per quarter, the amount a full-time minimum-wage worker would earn. Get the full story »
Mayor Richard Daley said Wednesday he will not push forward with a second attempt to privatize Midway Airport during the remainder this term, which ends next May.
“We’re not going to move on it,” Daley told the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board during a discussion of his proposed 2011 budget. “It will be up to the [next] mayor to make that decision.”
The mayor has pursued the idea as a way to bring a revenue windfall into city coffers, as happened with the outsourcing of parking meters and the long-term lease of the Chicago Skyway. But a proposed deal to lease Midway for 99 years for $2.5 billion fell through last year when the investors could not secure funding. Get the full story »
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. won the right to open two more stores in Chicago this year, but does that mean the world’s largest retailer can eventually take Manhattan?
In remarks at the start of a two-day analyst meeting, Leslie Dach, Wal-Mart’s executive vice president for government affairs and corporate relations, said the retailer’s reputation has shown improvement with both consumers and elected officials. Get the full story »
The pension benefits that U.S. cities and counties are unable to cover could total as much as $574 billion, according to a study released on Tuesday.
The study, conducted by academics at Northwestern University and the University of Rochester, looked at how long the assets for 77 defined pension plans sponsored by 50 major U.S. cities and counties will last.
It found that six major cities — Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Jacksonville and St. Paul — can only cover promised benefits through 2020. Get the full story »
The Federal Reserve’s new vice chairwoman warns that record-low interest rates may give companies an incentive to take excessive risks that could be bad for the economy. Get the full story »
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | Marquette University announced Monday that economics professor Abdur Chowdhury has been appointed to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s Academic Advisory Council.
Tower Ticker | Glenn Beck plans to play the Chicago Theatre this spring on the eve of the deadline to file state and federal income tax returns.
Rahm Emanuel’s residency in Chicago is likely to be a legal as well as political issue in the race for mayor, but since he returned last weekend from Washington there is a more simple question: Where is Emanuel living now?
The answer, according to his spokeswoman, is that Emanuel is leasing a condominium on the edge of West Town and River West.
Shares of U.S. airlines fell Monday. Although the Obama administration issued a terrorism alert for Americans travelling to Europe, the more likely culprits were higher jet fuel prices and a broader stock market downturn. United, Continental, American and Delta said they weren’t seeing unusual numbers of cancellations and were operating their full schedules of flights to and from Europe on Monday.
From left to right, Paul Volcker, Jill Biden, President Barack Obama, and Penny Pritzker at Monday's meeting of his economic advisory board. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
President Barack Obama on Monday said the United States was facing an “untenable fiscal situation” and would have to get serious about tackling its federal deficit.
The U.S. budget deficit is forecast at a record $1.47 trillion in the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, 2010.
Obama said that emergency government spending measures he took to support growth and hiring when he took office last year had temporarily added to the funding gap, but the deficit had to be tackled going forward. Get the full story »
The Justice Department sued American Express on Monday for allegedly violating antitrust law over credit card acceptance rules, and settled with Visa and MasterCard on the same issue.
The Justice Department, in a filing with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, said the case was focused on credit card companies’ efforts to stop merchants from steering customers to credit cards with lower fees imposed on the merchant.
In a proposed final judgment, Visa and MasterCard must allow merchants to offer discounts to customers who use cards that charge the stores less. Get the full story »
The Federal Reserve should take further action to stimulate the economy, or risk letting it fall into a vicious cycle of joblessness and deflationary pressures, top Fed official said on Friday. Get the full story »
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday the U.S. economic recovery remains disappointingly slow with unemployment too high.
The Fed has a role to play in returning the economy health, he told teachers at a town-hall event.
“We certainly have in the near term and the medium term…some very difficult challenges,” he said. Get the full story »
