Another positive signal for the economy today as it was revealed that the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent. The economy added 243,000 jobs, more than expected. What does this mean for the economic recovery? Joining the program is Kelly Evans from The Wall Street Journal. 

After the financial meltdown of 2008 people looked to the Securities and Exchange Commission to use its regulatory powers to get to the bottom of the crisis and possibly craft suitable punishments to prevent the same mistakes in the future. Regulation is supposed to discourage not reward bad decisions. But an analysis conducted by our partner The New York Times shows the agency has repeatedly allowed the biggest firms to avoid punishments.

Today it's official. The social networking site Facebook filed to sell shares on the stock market. In its filing, the company said it was seeking to raise $5 billion and wants the ticker FB for its shares. But Facebook is aiming higher, hoping that the initial public offering could value the company to somewhere between $75 and $100 billion.

Perhaps it was just a poor choice of words on Mitt Romney's part. Flush with victory after his win in the Florida primary, Mitt Romney appeared on CNN yesterday morning and said this: "I'm in this race because I care about Americans. I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair I'll fix it."

Twenty five of the EU's 27 member states have agreed to join a fiscal treaty to enforce budget discipline. The Czech Republic and the UK refused to sign up. And there's still the question about what to do about Greece. Joining us now is Duncan Crawford, European correspondent for our partner the BBC

The Federal Reserve announced its plan on Wednesday to keep short-term interest rates near zero through late 2014. The move signals that the Fed does not expect the economy to fully recover over the next three years. With unemployment still running high, the Fed expects the economy to expand between 2.2 and 2.7 percent over this year, instead of at 2.9 percent as originally projected.

The main focus of Tuesday’s State of the Union address was the economy and income inequality. Along with his ideas about taxation and protecting homeowners, president Obama also expressed a desire to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. Since the 1980s, the U.S. economy has shifted away from manufacturing and towards intellectual property and services. This has been due in part to the perceived expenses involved in production based in the U.S., as well as labor laws. 

The theme of last night's State of the Union was "an economy built to last." Vowing to protect the middle class and correct economic inequality, President Obama laid out his plans for financial reform: regulating home prices, penalizing banks that participated in the housing crash, imposing the "Buffet rule," and tightening regulations on private equity and Wall Street.

Mayors from across the nation are meeting this week to discuss unemployment and other economic issues hitting their respective cities. The United States Conference of Mayors, who is hosting the event, claims that nearly 80 of the country’s metro areas will not reach pre-recession levels of employment for at least five years. Mayor Steve Benjamin, an attendee of the conference, discusses his own struggles as mayor of Columbia, SC and the hardships other cities face presently in the United States.

A business and tech story that has the ring of the inevitable to it. A company that practically alone, created the modern global high-tech consumer culture has declared bankruptcy. Eastman Kodak, this morning a penny stock on the New York Stock exchange. The company that invented consumer photography, more than a century ago has filed for bankruptcy, taken out a credit lifeline, put it's portfolio of storied patents on the block, and started a clock which may tick down to the total end of an American technology story that is among other things emblematic of the digital age we live in.

This week marks the 1st anniversary of congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' shooting, the 2nd anniversary of the Haiti earthquake, and the 10th anniversary of first Afghan prisoners arriving at Guantanamo Bay. New Hampshire's primary is this week — and so is the final stage of Egyptian parliamentary elections.

On Wednesday, President Obama delivered his economic address for 2012 in Ohio. He spoke about the payroll tax cut, plans for dealing with predatory lending, and officially announcing his appointment of Richard Cordray to head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But where do the current Republican candidates stand on personal income taxes, health care costs, Medicare, Social Security, and jobs?

As the GOP field narrows itself down we wanted to take a closer look at each candidate's economic plan for the 2012 election. Which candidate is addressing your concerns about the economy, and what initiatives will have a positive impact on the size of your wallet? American Public Media's Marketplace has a good shapshot of each candidate's economic plan. We've put a more comprehensive view of the candidates' positions below.

On Thursday's show, Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich will try to explain the difference between each economic vision. Have a question about who will address your concerns? Tell us what issue you'd like the next president to tackle at 1-877-8-MY-TAKE. 

The first caucus results are in, heralding the official start of the long slog toward November's big election. Although politicians always bill the election they are involved in as being a critical moment for the nation, this time it is true. At issue in the next election will be what role the federal government plays in the lives of individual Americans. President Obama and the GOP candidates have outlined starkly different views of the social contract in the United States. The potential to shape economic growth, tax policy for the government and common person, and how wealth is distributed will shape fiscal policy for the next decade.

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 September, artist and graphic designer Megan Flood came on The Takeaway to discuss her senior project at the University of Michigan. Through audio and photographs, Living Without Doorknobs documents life in an Ann Arbor, Michigan homeless tent community called Camp Take Notice. One of the homeless men living in Camp Take Notice, Joe Gill, was a major focus of Flood's work, and his photographs of the tent community became an integral part of her project.

Every Monday, The Takeaway looks at the big news stories from the week ahead. Christmas retail numbers and post-Christmas sales are expected to be stronger this year than in 2011. Heading into a presidential election year, voters will be looking to see how much the economy has improved. And the U.S. is not the only country that might see a shakeup in elected officials. Both China and Russia are likely to makes changes in leadership in the new year, as are a number of European countries.

Earlier this month, Newt Gingrich made a lot of headlines with his thoughts on child labor laws and his policy proposal to allow children as young as 9 years old to go to work. Takeaway listeners had a lot to say about this. Among them were Bill Arnott, from Columbia, South Carolina, and Carol, from Wellesley, Massachusetts, who came on the show to their experience working as children through the prism of Gingrich's comments. (Carol asked The Takeaway not to use her last name.)

AT&T announced Monday that it would end its attempted takeover of T-Mobile, saying that it could not overcome opposition from the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission. The $39 billion deal would have been the largest corporate merger of the year, and would have created the nation's biggest mobile phone provider. The Obama administration opposed the deal on anti-trust grounds, and the Justice Department sued in August to stop the merger from happening. Michael de la Merced, Dealbook reporter for The New York Times, discusses the latest on the story.

The city of Detroit has begun suspending payments to some of its vendors in order to be able to cover basic services and make payroll.  If the city is not able to resolve its budget crisis on its own, the state is likely to appoint an emergency manager to restructure the city and rescue it from bankruptcy. Moody's has put some of the city's municipal bonds on review for a downgrade.