Business_Finance

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Specialist Peter Elkins works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on March 1, 2013. (Associated Press)

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Senate Majority Whip Sen. Richard J. Durbin (above right) leads Sen. Charles E. Schumer, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Sen. Patty Murray out of a news conference after announcing that last-ditch efforts to avert spending cuts had failed. (Associated Press)

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada (right) and Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, face reporters Thursday on Capitol Hill to talk about the automatic government spending cuts that take effect Friday. (Associated Press)

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**FILE** A clerk bags groceries in plastic bags at the M Street Grocery in Seattle on Aug. 3, 2009. (Associated Press)

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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013, before the House Financial Services Committee. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

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This photo taken on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, near Frederick, Colo., shows an oil pump jack working on a property across from a subdivision. Colorado that week passed what it touted as one of the toughest statewide regulations of energy drilling in the nation, a sign of a growing backlash against an oil and gas boom that has moved from far-flung rural areas to densely-populated urban ones. The state's new regulations require a 500-foot setback from houses for all new energy projects and other regulations geared toward areas like the Denver suburbs that are increasingly being targeted for natural gas and oil drilling. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)

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Leaning to hear a reporter's question, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, talks Feb. 26, 2013, about the looming automatic spending cuts following a Democratic strategy session on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Associated Press)