This is getting depressing. Rising unemployment and growing worries about recession pushed retail sales down by a record amount in October, the Commerce Department reported on Friday. Sales were off 2.8 percent from September and down 4.1 percent from one year ago. The number of newly laid-off workers seeking unemployment benefits jumped last week to a seven-year high, according to a Labor Department report on Thursday. The number of homeowners caught in the wave of foreclosures in October grew 25 percent nationally over the same month in 2007. The Treasury Department on Wednesday officially abandoned the original strategy behind a $700 billion effort to bail out the financial system. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said he hoped to put in place a major new lending program that would be run by the Federal Reserve aimed at unlocking the frozen consumer credit market. What will Congress do about it all when senators and representatives return to Capitol Hill in the coming days?

Auto Bailout Doubtful Prospects of a government rescue for the foundering American automakers dwindled Thursday as Democratic Congressional leaders conceded that they would face potentially insurmountable Republican opposition during a lame-duck session next week. Senator Bernie Sanders told Politico, "The government shouldn't help the auto industry without making sure it changes its ways." He cited "disastrous" policies that shuttered American plants and lowered wages for American workers. Detroit built too many gas guzzlers and too few cars to lower greenhouse gas emissions, he added.

Rebuild America Vermont's congressional delegation is supporting a plan to quickly rebuild the country's transportation infrastructure. "If we're serious about rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure if we're serious about putting people to work in doing that it makes no sense to delay these projects because states are running deficits now and don't have the money to put up their matching portions," Sanders told Vermont Public Radio.

Sen. Sanders attended the "Reaching a Global Deal on Climate Change and Clean Energy" meetings in London earlier this week. Sanders, the only member of the Senate majority on both the energy and environment committees, discussed with British and American officials a coordinated response to climate change. The United Kingdom is expected to curb emissions of greenhouse gases by 80 percent by 2050 - compared to 1990 levels - , the same goal as a Sanders' bill in the U.S. Senate. "What was considered aggressive when I introduced that legislation is now understood to be the minimum we need to do." Meeting with members of Parliament and advisors to the prime minister, Sanders returned to Washington optimistic that our friends across the Atlantic share many of our goals for cooperative efforts to confront climate change and the potential for significant job creation. Sanders said, "At meetings in London between some of us in the U.S. Senate and leaders of the British government, there was widespread consensus that it is imperative that the two governments cooperate in moving away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy and that, by doing that, we can not only address the crisis of global warming but create millions of good-paying jobs."

Jobless Claims Rocket to 7-Year High The number of newly laid-off individuals seeking unemployment benefits unexpectedly jumped last week to a seven-year high. The Labor Department said Thursday that jobless claims increased 32,000 to a seasonally adjusted 516,000. That is the highest total since just after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and second-highest since 1992, The Associated Press reported.

Foreclosures Mount The number of homeowners caught in the wave of foreclosures in October grew 25 percent nationally over the same month in 2007, data released Thursday showed, AP reported.

International Recession Fears Europe's stock markets opened lower Thursday after further Asian losses, following more downbeat U.S. corporate news and confirmation that Germany is officially in recession, The Associated Press reported.

The federal government has mandated that at midnight on February 17, 2009, television stations across the country will stop broadcasting in what are known as analog television signals and begin broadcasting in digital format.  "Television is not a luxury today," wrote Sen. Sanders.  "I am concerned that, because of poor government planning and policy, lower-income people may not be able to afford the cost and installation of a roof antenna and that seniors, people with disabilities, and others may have a hard time handling this transition on their own."  Households reliant upon over-the-air, "free" television should apply now for a federal government coupon to help pay for the necessary converter box.  If you currently receive your TV signal through cable or satellite service you will not be impacted by this transition.  Sanders will be introducing legislation to require the availability of basic, affordable cable, satellite, or other paid television service so that everyone can still afford to receive the same broadcast channels that they had before the transition, after the transition. 

Rx Costs Rising Elderly and disabled people in Medicare prescription drug plans with the largest enrollments will pay 43% more on average in monthly premiums next year than when the drug program began in 2006, and some enrollees will see increases of as much as 329 percent, two analyses show. The rising costs "are wreaking havoc on seniors' wallets and are simply not sustainable in the long run," says Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, according to USA Today.

Lobbyists Swarm Treasury Of the initial $350 billion that Congress freed up out of the $700 billion in bailout money, the Treasury Department has committed all but $60 billion. The shrinking pie and the growing uncertainty over who qualifies has thrown Washington's legal and lobbying establishment into a mad scramble. The Treasury Department is under siege by an army of hired guns for banks, savings and loan associations and insurers, The New York Times reported.

Consumer Confidence While the panic on Wall Street eased in the last few weeks, American households fell into a defensive crouch. The numbers are pretty incredible. Sales of new vehicles have dropped 32 percent in the third quarter. Consumer spending appears likely to fall next year for the first time since 1980 and perhaps by the largest amount since 1942. With Wall Street edging back from the brink, this crisis of consumer confidence has become the No. 1 short-term issue for the economy, The New York Times reported.

The armistice that ended "the war to end all wars" took effect on November 11, 1918, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. The following year, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day. After World War II and the war in Korea, Congress approved and President Dwight Eisenhower signed legislation making November 11 a day to honor American veterans of all wars. Today, as veterans return from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is as important as ever to honor those who served our country. "While much remains to be done, Congress has made significant progress in addressing many of the long-standing problems that our service members and veterans face. As a member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, I was proud to be a partner in bringing about true reform. In observing Veterans Day, we must make sure that we continue to work to keep our promise to those who served," Senator Bernie Sanders said.

Banks Jack Up Credit Card Rates In recent years, banks have sharply raised interest rates and penalty fees on credit cards. Bearing the brunt are consumers for whom a jump in rates and fees can make it tougher to pay their bills at a time when household budgets already are being stretched. A key driver behind this trend: securitization. From 2003 to 2007, seven of the largest issuers of credit cards packaged an increasing amount of card debt into securities and sold them off to investors, just as banks did with mortgages, a USA Today review of banking records found.

A Quiet Windfall For U.S. Banks As Congress battled over the Bush administration's request for a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry in September, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention. Corporate tax lawyers quickly realized the administration had given American banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion. Some congressional staff members privately concluded the notice was illegal, but worried that saying so publicly could unravel recent bank mergers and send the economy into a steeper tailspin, The Washington Post reported.

Heavy Student Loan Debt A new national survey ranks Vermont fourth in the amount of debt students pile up getting through college. The Project on Student Debt says that after four years of college, the average Vermont student graduates with $24,300 in debt. There's concern in Vermont that student debt loads may prompt young people to leave the state. Underlying college costs are cited as the cause. They jumped 6 percent at Vermont's public colleges from 2006 to 2007, The Associated Press reported.