Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Elijah Cummings on Thursday asked pharmaceutical companies to explain steep price spikes for generic drugs. Another report on Monday tallied up how banks are slapping customers with more and more fees. Unemployment was 11.8 percent in September, the Labor Department reported on Friday. Sanders has called for a massive road and bridge rebuilding program and other bricks-and-mortar projects to create millions of decent-paying jobs.

Jobless Rate Declines The 11.8 percent unemployment figure for September counts workers forced to settle for part-time jobs and those who gave up looking for work. The September rate was a little better than August’s 12 percent. A narrower measure of unemployment fell to 5.9 percent last month, the lowest level since July 2008. Nonfarm payrolls grew a seasonally adjusted 248,000 last month.

Rx Generic Prices Skyrocket An asthma medication that cost $11 one year ago has spiked to $434. An antibiotic that cost $20 for 500 pills last October shot up in price to $1,849. Sanders and Rep. Elijah Cummings sent letters on Thursday to executives at 14 pharmaceutical manufacturers asking about the “staggering price increases for generic drugs used to treat everything from common medical conditions to life-threatening illnesses.” Read more

Bank Fees Skyrocket ATM fees went up 5 percent in the past year and have skyrocketed 23 percent in five years, according to a survey of 10 major U.S. banks release on Monday. On average, a customer is charged a total of $4.35 for each transaction. Overdraft fees rose too. The average charge was $32.74 every time customers tried to withdraw more money than they had in the bank.

Medicare for All It was one year ago when the Affordable Care Act opened new health insurance markets to the public. To mark Tuesday’s anniversary, Politico asked “some of the country's smartest health-care thinkers” what we can do now. “If our goal is to provide high-quality health care for all Americans in a cost-effective way, we must move toward a single-payer system,” Sanders wrote. Read the Politico op-ed 

Student Debt Congress must help students with crushing college debt, Sanders said on Thursday. Sanders said a grassroots movement should demand that lawmakers “stop paying attention just to the 1 percent and corporate America” and lower interest rates for college students. If the Federal Reserve can give away trillions of low-interest loans to banks, “Why can’t we do the same for young people in this country?” Sanders asked in an interview with Ed Schultz on MSNBC. Watch