ECONOMICS

A bipartisan group of top Republicans and Democrats from the tax-writing committees in Congress reached agreement this week on a $78 billion package that would expand a tax benefit that provides money to parents and restore three popular expired business tax breaks. That combination offers both parties an opportunity to claim wins as voters begin to head to the polls ahead of the election in November.

Specifically, on Tuesday, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Wyden (D-Or.) and House Ways (more…)

By John Gallagher of OilPrice.com

Rampant fraud in trucking has become an $800 million problem and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is not addressing the problem, according to the lobby representing 3PLs and brokerage firms.

“There’s a surge of malicious actors engaging in illegal activity, registering with FMCSA as carriers and perpetrating fraud, theft and holding freight hostage in situations without any legal consequences,” said Jeffrey Tucker, (more…)

Authored by Gail Tverberg via Our Finite World blog,

It will be an interesting year.

We know that the age of peak performance for humans varies, depending upon the activity. Peak performance for an athlete tends to come between ages 20 and 30, while peak performance for a person writing academic papers seems to come between ages 40 and 50 years. By the time people are 80 years old, they have a strong suspicion that health and other aspects of performance will deteriorate in the next 20 (more…)