As the recession worsened, the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose last week to a 26-year high. Bank of America readied pink slips for 35,000 workers. Worries that millions more could be added to the jobless rolls were heightened after Senate Republicans blocked help for struggling American carmakers. One of the first orders of business for the new Congress will be an economic recovery package that Senator Bernie Sanders is helping to craft. In Vermont, the season's first major winter storm blanketed much of the state with as much as a foot of snow.

Economic Collapse Bank of America announced Thursday that it expects to eliminate about 35,000 positions over the next three years as it absorbs New York securities firm Merrill Lynch & Co. The reductions represent about 10 percent of the combined companies' work force. The government reported that plummeting auto sales led a retail sales decline that stretched into its fifth straight month in November amid consumer jitters over layoffs, evaporating retirement funds, lagging home sales, stock market losses and other signs of unrelenting economic gloom.

Economic Recovery Vermont's three-member congressional delegation introduced a bill that would waive the state and local match requirement for federally-funded transportation projects. The measure could save Vermont millions of dollars. State transportation officials have compiled a list of more than $78 million worth of highway and bridge projects that could begin next year plus $80 million in rail, public transit and aviation expenditures. Gov. James Douglas came to Capitol Hill on Thursday to plead for relief for cash-strapped states stung by recession-related revenue falloffs. Douglas endorsed the legislation to waive the matching-fund requirement on transportation projects. Sanders told a summit of transportation experts on Monday in Burlington that he expects an investment in transportation not seen since the Eisenhower administration built the interstate highway network. To read more about the summit, click here.

Economic Town Meetings The future of the national economy was the subject of two town meetings Sanders hosted last weekend in Addison and Rutland counties. Vermonters said they face job losses, dwindling retirement savings and other financial problems. Some said they have to choose between heating fuel and food on a daily basis. To read the Rutland Herald account, click here. To see a one-minute expert of Bernie at one of the town meetings on YouTube, click here. To visit his new YouTube channel, click here.

Economic Bailouts In an about face, the White House and the Treasury Department signaled on Friday that they would consider dipping into the $700 billion bailout fund to aid the Big Three car companies. The possibility picked up steam after President Bush failed to convince Republican senators to support a compromise proposal to rescue the automakers. Vermont alone has 4,143 automotive jobs, paying $50,283,797 in yearly wages, according to The Center for Automotive Research. Meanwhile, an oversight committee set up by Congress criticized the Bush administration for not using the $700 billion to help average Americans, and questioned its commitment to stem home foreclosures. The panel issued a report faulting the department for not having a comprehensive plan for stabilizing financial markets and urging it to more clearly explain its efforts. The group's chairwoman is Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren. The report echoed concerns first voiced by Sanders, who introduced legislation to stop the Treasury Department from tapping a second, $350-billion round from the bailout fund. "As someone who voted against the Wall Street bailout, I have very serious concerns as to how the Bush Administration has spent the first $350 billion, and I will vigorously oppose giving President Bush the authority to release the remaining $350 billion," Sanders said. "As part of the overall financial bailout, more than $8 trillion dollars of taxpayer money has been placed at risk. This is an unbelievable sum of money and the oversight and transparency for most of these expenditures has been non-existent." To read more, click here.

Economic Scam There is a lot of blame to go around when sizing up who steered Wall Street and the worldwide economy to the edge of a cliff. One man who may come to personify the era is Bernard L. Madoff. The former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market and a major player on Wall Street for half a century was busted on Thursday by federal agents for running what he allegedly described as "a giant Ponzi scheme. The Securities and Exchange Commission said Madoff engaged in what amounted to an ongoing $50 billion swindle. Sanders, discussed the case Friday during his weekly appearance on Air America Radio's Thom Hartmann Program. "We need some very radical changes in the way Wall Street does business," he said. To listen to the show, click here.