Quotes about family to get you through the Holidays

“Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.” — George Burns

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Obama to continue efforts to curb greenhouse gases, push energy efficiency

President Obama’s reelection, along with key wins by Senate Democrats, ensures that the federal government will press ahead with efforts to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency and to curb greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change.

“Obama’s re-election . . . provides the basis for positive movement on clean tech and climate action once the new Congress meets,” the banking giant HSBC’s global research group told investors in a research note. But it added, “Silence on climate issues during the campaign until the onset of Hurricane Sandy and continued Republican majority in the House means that scope for strategic action will remain limited.”

The Environmental Protection Agency will continue to issue regulations curbing fossil fuel production and promoting energy efficiency, according to people who have spoken with senior administration officials but asked not to be identified. Within the next few months, the agency will probably finalize the first carbon standard for new power plants, along with tighter restrictions on soot emissions from all utilities.

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Why President Obama’s Victory Is a Victory for the Middle Class

“Middle-out” economics defeated supply-side economics

Politicians have always paid lip service to the middle class, but voters in this election were offered a clear choice between a vision of economic growth that magically trickles down from the top and one driven by a strong middle class.

President Barack Obama’s campaign presented a sharp alternative to the supply-side dogma that has dominated Washington, D.C., since the late 1970s—and continues to hold conservatives in thrall. Supply-side thinking, embraced by 2012 Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, holds that cutting taxes on the rich will unleash a torrent of investments that will spur economic growth.

Overwhelming evidence shows supply-side economics doesn’t work. So the president instead articulated a powerful new theory that combines a critique of rising inequality with emerging evidence that a strong middle class is the key driver of economic growth—not just a happy byproduct of it.

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US home prices rise 5 percent in September from a year ago, most since July 2006

WASHINGTON — A measure of U.S. home prices jumped 5 percent in September compared with a year ago, the largest year-over-year increase since July 2006. The gain reported by CoreLogic offered more evidence of a sustainable housing recovery.

The real estate data provider also said Tuesday that prices declined 0.3 percent in September from August, the first drop after six straight increases. The monthly figures are not seasonally adjusted. CoreLogic says the monthly decline reflects the end of the summer home-buying season and not a softening in the housing recovery.

The price gains in the past year reported by CoreLogic were widespread. Prices have risen in all but seven states. And they declined in only 18 out of 100 large cities that are tracked by the index.

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