BLOOMBERG: The longest and deepest U.S. economic slump in seven decades has been dubbed the “Great Recession” by the Associated Press. The AP Stylebook Online notified subscribers this month it had added the term as a reference for the downturn that began in December 2007. The entry will also be in the printed edition of the Associated Press Stylebook when it is published later this year, along with “a couple of dozen other terms,” said David Minthorn, manager of news administration and one of the manual’s three editors. The book, first published in 1953 and updated annually, is a mainstay in newsrooms and journalism classrooms. Sales of the book, which included new entries ranging from collateralized debt obligation to Twitter, totaled 50,000 in 2009, and there are some 24,000 paid users of the online edition. Inclusion of the Great Recession is “a starting point” to making it the official name for this most recent period, said Grant Barrett, a dictionary editor and writer about language as well as co-host of the public radio show, “A Way With Words.” MORE
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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY: The federal, state, and local tax systems in the United States have been marked by significant changes over the years in response to changing circumstances and changes in the role of government. The types of taxes collected, their relative proportions, and the magnitudes of the revenues collected are all far different than they were 50 or 100 years ago. Some of these changes are traceable to specific historical events, such as a war or the passage of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution that granted the Congress the power to levy a tax on personal income. Other changes were more gradual, responding to changes in society, in our economy, and in the roles and responsibilities that government has taken unto itself. MORE