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Week In The News: Payroll Tax, Europe In Trouble, Gingrich Soars

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Payroll tax debate. Dollars for Europe. The Muslim Brotherhood scores in Egypt. Cain bows to Gingrich. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks to the media at Tommy's Ham House, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011, in Greenville ,  S.C.  (AP)
Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks to the media at Tommy's Ham House, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011, in Greenville , S.C. (AP)

Hard day for Herman Cain.  Home to Atlanta to talk with Mrs. Cain about Ms. Ginger White’s claim of a long extra-marital affair.  Ouch.  Headlines all week.  And Newt Gingrich is soaring.  We’ve got a good number – at last – on unemployment.  Down to 8.6 percent.  Lowest in two and a half years.  Devil in the details.

Stock market joy this week as the Fed helps Europe.  Firefight on the Pakistani border.  Lots of dead soldiers.  An embassy sacking in Tehran.  Rich guys get richer in Greenwich, Connecticut.

This hour, On Point:  our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.
-Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Nancy Cordes, congressional correspondent, CBS News.

John Bussey, assistant managing editor and executive business editor of The Wall Street Journal.

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst.

From Tom's Reading List

The Washington Post "Germany has an export-oriented growth strategy fueled by a currency that’s undervalued. But that undervalued currency has been at the expense of Southern Europe. And the main point of the piece is that there’s no obvious way for Southern Europe to grow, and if they can’t grow, they can’t balance their budgets no matter how much austerity they engage in."

The New York Times "The aspiring Republican presidential candidates have logged countless hours in the living rooms of voters, pitching their platforms and firing jabs at President Obama."

Al Jazeera "At least 56 Iraqis have been killed in separate attacks across the country in the past eight days."

Foreign Policy "Clinton's visit marks a sharp change in U.S. policy, as the Obama administration begins its strategic move to Asia and amid signals from Myanmar's leaders that democratic openness may, in fact, finally be coming to the long-isolated country. As Jim Della-Giacoma wrote in Foreign Policy in October, "After 20 years without a parliament and democratic process, its new leaders are now showing a surprising impatience with the status quo and are changing the way this country is ruled.""

This program aired on December 2, 2011.

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