The decline in the purchasing power of the dollar has finally caught up with the U.S. Mint, which is planning to remove pennies and nickels from circulation. Also, the GAO wants the United States to stop printing paper one-dollar bills and to switch instead to one-dollar coins.

Each year 24/7 Wall St. publishes the results of its survey of all 50 states and then ranks them from top to bottom — from “best run” to “worst run.” CNBC does the same, only with a more concentrated focus on the business environment in each state, and then ranks the states on their overall “measure of competitiveness.” The Mercatus Center at George Mason University looks at all 50 states from the perspective of individual freedom and then ranks the states based on its Index of Personal and Economic Freedom.

The parallels and correlations between economic and business performance and personal freedom are clear and persuasive: When state governments stay within their limits of protecting lives and enforcing contracts, the states thrive. And vice versa.

The "pendency plan" just passed by the San Bernardino, California, city council includes "renegotiating" its pension liabilities with CalPERS, the country's largest pension plan.

Since Senator Saxby Chambliss' defection on Thursday from his Taxpayer Protection Pledge, two other senators and a member of the House have also bailed, claiming now that tax increases must be "on the table" to solve the fiscal cliff crisis. 

City planners in Atlanta, undeterred by the failure of bike-sharing schemes elsewhere, are moving ahead with their plans to install another one there, no doubt with taxpayer funds.

Red Dawn, the remake of the classic 1984 film, raises numerous questions about the current awareness of American citizens of external (and internal) threats to their freedom.

One of the best indicators of a state’s economic health, according to John Merline, writing in Investor’s Business Daily, is the “U-Haul Index” (first publicized by economist Mark Perry) to see what people are paying to move into, or out of, the state. Renting a 20-foot truck one way from San Francisco to San Antonio, Texas, for example, costs $1,693. Going in the other direction, however, costs only $983 for the same truck.

As Perry explains, "The American people and businesses are voting with their feet and their one-way truck rentals to escape California and its forced unionism, high taxes, and high unemployment rate for a better life in low-tax, business-friendly, right-to-work states like Texas."

The U.S. attorney who busted a stock trader in the "most lucrative insider-trading scheme ever charged" might do well to investigate the Halls of Congress to find even more lucrative schemes.

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union has threatened 1,000 protests against Walmart on Black Friday, while the giant retailer has filed a complaint against such actions by the union with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

A Spanish theater owner is protesting the VAT increase on his tickets to 21 percent by offering carrots for sale, which are subject only to a VAT of 4 percent, and giving purchasers free admission.