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PARIS – It has been reported that Nicolas Sarkozy, fighting for a second term as French president, is promising to cut €40 billion ($52 billion) in public spending and raise €13.5 billion ($17.6 billion) in new taxes in the coming years. Sarkozy, a conservative, says balancing the budget by 2016 is “an absolute imperative.” He [...]

WASHINGTON – It has been reported that U.S. builders trimmed activity for a second straight month in February, pushing construction spending down by the largest amount in seven months. There was widespread weakness with spending on home building, office construction and government projects all dropping. The Commerce Department reported Monday that construction spending fell 1.1 [...]

TOKYO – Disaster-struck Japan is headed to record-high budget spending of 96 trillion yen ($1.2 trillion) as the nation tackles the costs of recovery from the March earthquake and tsunami. The Cabinet approved the draft budget for the fiscal year starting April 2012 on Saturday, covering massive costs for disaster reconstruction in northeastern Japan as [...]

WASHINGTON – As much as $60 billion in U.S. tax dollars has been lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade due to lax oversight of contractors, poor planning and corruption, according to an independent panel. In its final report to Congress to be publicly released Wednesday, the Commission on [...]

PARIS – The meeting held on Tuesday between French president Nicolas Sarkozy and German chancellor Angela Merkel failed to reassure the global markets and try to bridge the economic gap between the 17 countries of the euro zone. As The New York Times reports, France’s and Germany’s leaders urged Euro zone countries to pass a [...]

WASHINGTON – Companies paid more in July for raw materials and wholesale goods. Food, tobacco and pickup truck costs drove the increase, while gas prices fell for a second straight month. The Producer Price Index, which measures price changes before they reach the consumer, rose 0.2 percent last month, the Labor Department said Wednesday. That [...]