Today’s weekly unemployment numbers were down 17,000 from last week. These numbers are the second lowest of the year. Of course these numbers still fluctuate, and it is important to keep in mind that we need to add 100,000 new jobs a month just to keep up with population growth, just to keep things stable.

We spoke to Simon Johnson, the former Chief Economist at the IMF about the global race to economic recovery. As economies across the globe scramble to regain lost economic footing, how does the U.S. fare. Johnson said the recent decision to extend tax cuts is a “very bad idea,” and that the country should be focusing on the deficit.

The government may be one step closer to untangling itself from AIG. The compnay that received the biggest bailout from Washington during the financial crisis is hoping to payback the goverment buy selling more of its assets.

And finally, health insurers are trying to keep medical costs down by pushing consumers to shift to cheaper prescriptions. But as David Lazarus tells Jeremy Hobson, this could put those with conditions that can’t be treated with generic drugs in an expensive bind.