Business_Finance

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South Korean protesters burn an effigy of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a rally in Seoul on Dec. 13, 2012, denouncing North Korea's rocket launch. (Associated Press)

A South Korean man reads a newspaper Dec. 13, 2012, on a subway train in Seoul. The newspaper's headline reports North Korea's successful rocket launch the previous day, defying international warnings as the regime of Kim Jong Un took a big step forward in its quest to develop a nuclear missile. The headline reads "Kim Jung Un's gambling, Obama to aim." (Associated Press)

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South Korean housewives shout slogans during a Dec. 13, 2012, rally in Seoul denouncing North Korea's rocket launch. North Korea successfully fired a long-range rocket the previous day, defying international warnings as the regime of Kim Jong Un took a big step forward in its quest to develop a nuclear missile. The letters read "Denounce North Korea's rocket launch and beat Kim Joung Un." (Associated Press)

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This image released by ABC7/WJLA-TV and News Channel 8, shows Joe Allbritton, founder of Allbrittion Communications. Allbritton, who became one of Washington's most influential men by building media and banking empires, died at the age of 87, on Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012, at a hospital in Houston, where he lived. His holdings include eight television stations, including WJLA, the ABC affiliate in Washington whose call letters bear his initials. (AP Photo/ABC7/WJLA-TV and News Channel 8)

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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks Dec. 12, 2012, during a news conference at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington following the Federal Open Market Committee meeting. (Associated Press)

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**FILE** President Obama speaks Dec. 5, 2012, about the fiscal cliff at the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers, in Washington. (Associated Press)

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House Speaker John Boehner, Ohio Republican, arrives Dec. 12, 2012, for a closed-door meeting with the GOP caucus on Capitol Hill in Washington. Boehner and the other House Republican leaders are calling for President Obama to come up with plan they can accept for spending cuts and tax revenue to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax hikes and budget reductions. (Associated Press)

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Gun owners and supporters participate in an Illinois Gun Owners Lobby Day rally at the Capitol in Springfield in March 2012. (Associated Press)

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House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio is pursued by reporters as he walks to the House floor to deliver remarks about negotiations with President Barack Obama on the fiscal cliff, Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Boehner said President Barack Obama is slow-walking talks to avoid the fiscal cliff, and hasn't outlined spending cuts he's willing to support as part of a compromise. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

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Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich disputes the media and congressional fear-mongering related to the pending “fiscal cliff.” He says it can broken down into more manageable fiscal “foothills.” (Associated Press)