Mark Brooks

Greece has imposed a series of emergency taxes and spending cuts in exchange for international bailout loans, but the measures hurt economic growth and caused a surge in unemployment and poverty.

Benoit Coeure said in the text of a speech Thursday in Copenhagen that such an agency could end "the bailout culture" and spare taxpayers by forcing losses on troubled banks' creditors and shareholders instead of using public funds to rescue them.

Stock prices gyrated through the day as investors struggled to determine whether the Fed might soon pull back -- even gradually -- on its extraordinary efforts.

Gold for June delivery fell $10.20 to settle at $1,367.40 an ounce, a drop of 0.7 percent.

The White House Budget Office said Wednesday the GOP plan does not guarantee current low interest rates for students and creates uncertainty for them.

South Sudan must export all its oil through pipelines owned by Sudan. South Sudan resumed oil production in April this year, 16 months after a shutdown caused by disagreements with Sudan over oil transit fees.

Infrastructure projects -- such as building social housing -- could create jobs and stimulate economic activity. But that alone is not enough, given that the economic downturn has been one of the most prolonged since the Great Depression.

Deputy Secretary Neal Wolin made the statement in testimony he prepared to deliver to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

In testimony to the Joint Economic Committee, Bernanke notes the economy is growing moderately this year and unemployment has fallen to a four-year low of 7.5 percent.

European officials say tax fraud costs the 27-nation bloc an estimated 1 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) a year at a time when much of the bloc is in recession and governments are forced to tighten their budgets despite record unemployment.

"We pay all the taxes we owe -- every single dollar," Cook said. "We don't depend on tax gimmicks."

Lois Lerner is the director of the IRS division that handles applications for tax exempt status. That division was responsible for giving extra scrutiny to tea party and other conservative groups seeking tax exempt status.

Silver, copper, platinum, and palladium also fell.

The National Retail Federation, representing more than 9,000 retailers across the country, has rejected the settlement, in part, because it includes a provision barring retailers from filing future lawsuits over swipe fees.

The nutrition company's previous auditor KPMG resigned last month after insider trading allegations against a rogue executive of the accounting firm.

Douglas Shulman, who vacated his position last November when his five-year term expired, told the Senate Finance Committee he didn't learn all the facts until he read last week's report by a Treasury inspector general confirming the targeting strategy.

Benchmark crude for June delivery was down 47 cents to $96.24 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Some of the questions on Tuesday will be direct: What did you know, and when did you know it?

The strategies Apple uses are legal, and many other multinational corporations use similar tax techniques to avoid paying U.S. income taxes on profits they reap overseas.

Winner of contest designed a writing aid.