A study by two former Census Bureau officials says household income declined more in the two years after the recession ended than during the recession itself. Overall, the average income of the American family has dropped almost 10 percent since the beginning of the recession.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is entering its fourth week and showing no signs of slowing down. What began as a loosely organized protest against corporate greed and the growing gap between rich and poor Americans has increased dramatically in terms of supporters, media coverage, and online discussions. Thousands of people have turned out for protests in lower Manhattan, and in dozens of other places across the country, including Boston, Miami, and the District of Columbia. Many media outlets have declared the leaderless Occupy movement to be the left's answer to the Tea Party movement, and others have likened it to the Arab Spring.

As the Occupy Wall Street protests enter their fourth week, a number of media commentators have made the inevitable comparison to the Tea Party movement that has galvanized conservative politics for the last two years. But are the two movements really that similar, or is the comparison simply a convenient media narrative? Tea Party Express Chairman Amy Kremer has been quoted dismissing the movement as "a kid having a temper tantrum because their parents won't buy them the whole ice-cream store." (Read a transcript of the interview after the jump.)

The United States military is increasingly relying upon remotely piloted drones to carry out tactical missions in the war in Afghanistan. Other countries, such as Pakistan and Yemen, are also using drones in battle more often. A drone killed the American-born, Yemen-based al-Qaida leader Anwar al-Awlaki last month, and before that the United States used them to gather intelligence on Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad compound. With the increasing prevelance of drones, and the fact that they have killed both militants and civilians, some people are worried that a dangerous global drone arms race may be beginning.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that American economists Thomas J. Sargent and Christopher A. Sims will be awarded this year's Nobel Prize in economics this morning. University of Chicago professor Roger Myerson won the prize in 2007 for his contribution to the mechanism design theory, which allows economists to identify efficient trading mechanisms, regulation schemes, and voting procedures to keep markets vibrant. Myerson discusses what the honor means both personally, and to the field of economics.

The Occupy Wall Street protest is still growing, and it's caught on in other cities across the country. Meanwhile, last week in Alabama the strictest anti-immigration bill in the country was again challenged by the Department of Justice. California passed a state Dream Act — the most lenient immigration bill legislation in the country. And, corporations will begin announcing their quarterly earnings results this week, which may briefly distract investors from the still-faltering European economy. Plus, The Washington Post and Bloomberg News are sponsoring a Republican debate on Tuesday night.

Germany and France are near a deal to recapitalize European banks. On Sunday, France and Belgium agreed to nationalize Dexia, Belgium's largest bank, with billions of taxpayer money after the bank became the first causality of the Greek debt crisis.

In the worst incident of violence in Egypt since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February, 24 people died, and more than 200 were wounded after a protest in Cairo turned violent on Sunday. Christians protesting a recent attack against a Coptic church in Aswan province were attacked by police. Thousands filled the streets chanting, "the people want to bring down the field marshal," in reference to Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and the military council that has ruled Egypt since February.

Today is Columbus Day, a federal holiday commemorating Christopher Columbus, the Italian explorer who famously landed on American soil in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492, after spending over two months sailing from Spain. His voyage across the Atlantic prompted many other explorers to follow suit, eventually opening the doors to settlement and trade between North America and the rest of the world. Many people disagree, however, with applying the word "discovered" to Columbus's landing in America, and others criticize him for his cruelty toward Native Americans, and insist that he doesn't deserve a holiday.

Faced with intense opposition from both politicians and angry protesters who have spent months demanding his ouster, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh raised eyebrows on Saturday with a vaguely worded pledge to step down "in the coming days." By the following day, it appeared his words were hollow when Yemeni officials announced that Saleh would stay in power until elections scheduled for next year.

Takeaway sports contributor Ibrahim Abdul-Matin runs through all the big NFL games from Sunday. He also discusses quarterbacks Drew Breeze, Aaron Rodgers, and Tim Tebow, and remembers long time Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis.

One in six Americans are poor, which means 50 million people are living in poverty in the United States. Dr. Cornel West and Tavis Smiley, hosts of PRI's "Smiley and West," went on "The Poverty Tour: A Call to Conscience," an 18-city tour of the United States in August, to speak with Americans living in poverty and get a sense of what it's like to be poor in America today. This week, PBS will air the first of five episodes of "The Poverty Tour."

In August, The Takeaway spoke with Matthew VanDyke and his mother Sharon. VanDyke, an American who described himself as a journalist, was captured by loyalists to Moammar Gadhafi in Brega, and held in solitary confinement for six months, before escaping on August 24. Now, VanDyke's relatives and U.S. government officials are expressing concern for VanDyke's safety after photos and videos have emerged of him dressed in military fatigues and standing alongside rebel fighters. Sharon VanDyke talks about what she knows about her son's whereabouts, and his intentions.