On Wednesday the Obama administration denied a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline project. TransCanada, the company behind the proposal, hopes to build a 1,700 mile pipeline that will carry oil from the tar sands of Canada to the refineries lining the Gulf Coast along Texas. Although it will cost $ 7 billion to build, TransCanada claims the project will create ten of thousands of jobs. Environmentalist are most concerned about the water supply in ecologically sensitive in Nebraska's Sand Hills region, which TransCanada claims it has addressed by creating a new proposal that circumvents the Sand Hills.

Wednesday sites like Wikipedia and Reddit pulled the plug for 24 hours to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), acts that threaten the existence of such sites. SOPA is up for heated debate not only in congress, but online also. Steve Tepp, who represents the working man in Hollywood, and Scott Harbinson, who deals with movie business clients, discuss why they support SOPA and PIPA.   

The issue of how to keep big banks in check is the topic of national conversation as the country slowly climbs out of the recession. Questions on how to prevent another economic recession and regulate the financial sector are part of the heated debate. Joe Nocera, Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times explains how "complexity risk" — what results when there are too many regulations — could pose a threat to the financial system.

As evidenced by the Congressional debt panel's failure, MF Global's $600 million missing investor funds, and lagging employment numbers, the U.S. has a long way to go in terms of solving the economic problems that created the 2008 financial crisis. And there are plenty of potential pitfalls abroad — China's inflation rate is at 10 percent, and the euro zone's ongoing debt crisis. Yet, there are bright spots with many manufacturing, energy, and tech sector jobs growing.

In an effort to help alleviate the symptoms of Europe's debt crisis, the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and other international banks funneled U.S. dollars into European financial systems on Wednesday. The move helped markets by making American dollars more easily available outside the U.S. Stocks shot up in reaction to the news. The increased liquidity had the immediate effect of boosting the Dow Jones industrial average by 484 points. It was the biggest single day gain since March 2009. Some wondered, however, whether the move was a smart long-term investment, or just a temporary fix.

When the TV cameras are gone, what is it like to spend the night at Occupy Wall Street? It's been a month since protesters first began to occupy Zuccotti Park, near Wall Street in New York City. Since then, temperatures have been dropping as the number of protesters in New York and across the globe grows. This leaves many wondering how many protesters will be left when winter hits. Well, we aimed to find out — and to understand better just who was spending the night there and why.

All over the news — including here on The Takeaway — we've been hearing about Occupy Wall Street and the complaints of the "99 percent" against politicians and big corporate interests. But what exactly is the Occupy Wall Street movement alleging? One of the protesters' main complaints is that the political system is currently in the grips of corporate financial control. They may have a point, but how strong is their argument? Is our political system truly broken by the amount of money injected to campaign financing or by the lobbyists who peddle influence on K Street? Or, have money and special interests always been part of the political process?

Police have arrested at least five Occupy Wall Street protesters, who continue to march toward the New York Stock Exchange. The march began after news broke that the mayor of New York had cancelled a planned cleaning of Zuccotti Park, where protesters faced eviction after living in the park for the past four weeks. Protesters were attempting to clean it up themselves to avoid leaving. The Occupy Wall Street protest is entering its second month as the movement has spread across the country. The Takeaway hears from Zucotti Park this morning.

In recent years, cash-strapped governments have started looking to lost cargoes as a way to raise money. They do so because the latest generation of robots, lights, cameras and claws can withstand the deep sea’s crushing pressures and have opened up a new world of shipwreck recovery. The most recent discovery? A shipwreck off Ireland with an $18 million dollar cargo of silver.

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.

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."

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.

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.

Economist Jeffrey Sachs has a new book, "The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity," and the heart of it is a single argument: all of the nation’s current economic, political and productive woes share a similar root cause: that America’s financial and political leaders are failing to take the moral steps necessary to restrain a society of markets, and policies run amok, and that we need to become a "mindful society."

On Thursday, President Obama spoke at a press conference from the White House on his jobs proposal, calling it "an insurance policy against a possible double-dip recession." Obama hopes to fund the plan via a plan pitched by Senate Democrats this week, to tax Americans with incomes above one million dollars per year. Senate Leader Harry Reid plans to bring the jobs bill to the Senate floor next week.

Bank of America's decision to charge customers $5 per month to use debit cards has prompted many, including President Obama, to criticize the banking giant. Other large banks, including Chase, Wells Fargo, SunTrust, and HSBC, are following suit, with plans to charge their customers varying monthly debit card fees. This leaves many Americans wondering what steps they should take next, and where they should do their banking.

On Wednesday, Senate Democratic leaders proposed a five percent surtax on Americans with incomes of $1 million or more per year. Senate majority leader Harry Reid said the surtax would raise nearly half of $1 trillion over the next decade, which is the amount necessary to cover President Obama's jobs bill. A recent CBS news poll showed that 64 percent of Americans think that those who earn more than $1 million per year should pay more in taxes, which means the public may be on board for the new tax. Now, Democrats will need to gain Republican support for the measure.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is gaining momentum, and not just in New York — it's spreading across the country, to places like Boston, Miami, and Seattle. As the number of people camped out in Zuccotti Park in New York and other American cities grows, so does the amount of media coverage and the number of incidents involving clashes between police and protesters. Three protesters offer their dispatches from the demonstrations.

For millions of Americans, debit cards have become a free and easy way to make their purchases. Last week, Bank of America announced that starting next year, it will charge its customers $5 a month to use debit cards. Other banks have begun to follow suit — Wells Fargo and Chase are charging $3 monthly debit card fees, while SunTrust is also charging $5. President Obama has expressed his distaste with this decision, saying "My hope is that you're going to see a bunch of banks say to themselves, 'You know what? This is actually not good business practice.'"

Senate leaders say the Chinese government's practice of forcing the value of the Yuan artificially low, in comparison to the U.S. dollar, gives Chinese companies an unfair advantage in trade, and is harming the American job market. To combat this, the Senate has passed a bipartisan bill, which the White House is reviewing, to pressure Beijing to alleviate some of those financial controls.