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Never before have the world’s central banks sent so much money sloshing through the global financial system.

From slashing interest rates and buying government debt to dangling cheap loans to banks and taking on their risky assets, central banks have taken extraordinary steps since the 2008 financial crisis to nurse the international banking system back to health.

Over the past 3 1/2 years, the central banks of the United States, Britain, Japan and the 17 countries that use the euro have pumped out so much money that their balance sheets have reached a combined $8.76 trillion. That’s a record, by far.

The infusion of money has eased borrowing costs and raised confidence in banks, governments and companies.

Critics counter that the flood of cash has made high inflation more likely. And they point to rising prices for oil, food, gold and other commodities as evidence. They warn that the easy money may allow investors to bid stock prices up to dangerous heights.

They also note that the crisis led central banks to accept high-risk investments that banks have wanted to unload. These investments have been collateral for money that central banks gave financial institutions.

Trouble is, the central banks must eventually unload the trillions in assets on their books. That carries risks, too.

A second round of low-cost loans that the European Central Bank gave banks Wednesday is the latest financial injection. The ECB issued $712 billion in loans to 800 banks, on top of $658 billion it lent 523 banks in December.

At times, the world’s leading bankers have coordinated their actions to maximize the punch. In December, for example, major central banks sought to shore up the global financial system by making it easier for banks to borrow U.S. dollars. It was the most significant joint effort by the central banks since they cut interest rates in October 2008.

The central banks feel compelled to take such far-reaching action because of their role as a nation’s lender of last resort. This function is in addition to their core task of managing interest rates and inflation through the money supply.

Each central bank’s balance sheet reflects assets it’s taken on, such as bonds and mortgage-backed investments. Their balance sheets have soared since the financial crisis exploded.

The Federal Reserve’s has reached $2.94 trillion. That’s triple its size in August 2008, just before the crisis hit. The ECB’s is $3.58 trillion, nearly twice its level before the crisis. The Bank of England’s balance sheet has jumped three-fold. The Bank of Japan’s is up 28 percent.

“This is the first time in history that we have seen anything like this amount of liquidity from central banks flooding the system,” said David Jones, head of DMJ Advisors and the author of several books on the Fed.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said the only period that even comes close would be the central banks’ efforts in the 1930s to fight the Great Depression. But many historians say the Fed prolonged the Depression by failing to provide emergency loans to banks or to take other steps that might have stemmed the damage.

“Ben Bernanke is a historian of the Great Depression,” Zandi said of the current Fed chairman. “That is why he has been so aggressive in using the Fed’s balance sheet to respond to the current problems.”

The central banks have revealed no plans to reverse course and tighten credit soon. The Fed has said it expects to keep short-term rates at record lows near zero until at least late 2014 payday advance. At a House hearing Wednesday, some lawmakers pressed Bernanke about the risks of keeping rates so low for so long.

“One of the problems with setting these horizons out so far is that the private sector starts to expect that, and if circumstances change, crawling back off that limb could be very difficult,” Rep. Melvin Watt., D-N.C., told Bernanke.

“The policy is a conditional policy,” Bernanke responded. “It’s based on what we know now. If there’s a substantial change in the outlook, we’d have to adjust accordingly.”

Bernanke hinted that if the U.S. economy continued to improve consistently, the Fed might have to consider raising rates sooner.

For now, following the Fed’s lead, other central banks have kept their benchmark short-term rates at super-lows. They’ve created low-rate lending programs for commercial banks, like the three-year loans the ECB is providing.

And they’ve bought bonds to try to drive down long-term rates.

The bond purchases are known as “quantitative easing,” or QE. The Fed has completed two such programs. Some hope it will announce a third. Supporters note that the U.S. economy remains less than robust, and unemployment is a still-high 8.3 percent. Further reducing rates on mortgages and other loans could energize the U.S. economy, they argue.

Critics counter that more bond purchases by the Fed could ignite inflation. They note that the U.S. economy has been steadily improving, and unemployment has dropped for five straight months. Remarks that Bernanke made at the hearing Wednesday suggesting a brighter economic outlook made further bond-buying appear less likely.

The ECB is legally barred from buying bonds directly from governments. But it’s bought 219 billion euros ($268 billion) in bonds on the secondary market to try to lower rates and reduce borrowing costs for Europe’s most troubled economies.

The ECB has also been cutting short-term rates and offering super-cheap loans to banks. In its second installment of three-year loans, the ECB is charging just 1 percent interest. The idea is to get banks to use the loans to buy government debt and further ease nations’ borrowing costs.

Earlier this month, the Bank of Japan announced an expansion of its own asset-purchase program. So did the Bank of England.

“Everyone is following the Federal Reserve’s example of printing money to get out of this economic slump,” Jones said.

The Fed’s expanding balance sheet reflects its ability to create money, use it to buy Treasurys and lower long-term rates. Lower rates make borrowing cheaper. And they typically cause some investors to shift some money out of bonds and into assets such as stocks. Stock prices tend to rise as a result.

A larger number of dollars in circulation lowers the dollar’s value compared with other currencies. That can help the economy by making U.S. exports cheaper overseas.

Central banks face a delicate task in deciding when and how to unload the assets on their swollen balance sheets without jolting the financial system.

Bernanke and other central bank officials have stressed their commitment to gradually tighten credit before inflation poses a major threat.

“Central banks around the world are making a bet that they will be able to handle inflation down the road,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial.

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Oil prices fell below $108 a barrel Tuesday in Asia as a weak demand picture offset fears of a potential supply disruption should tensions explode between the West and Iran over its nuclear program.

Benchmark oil for April delivery was down 58 cents to $107.98 at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell by $1.21 to $108.56 per barrel in New York on Monday.

Brent crude fell 69 cents to $123.48 per barrel in London.

Western nations fear that Iran is building a nuclear weapon and have been trying to get international inspectors into its facilities. Iran denies the claim and has threatened to disrupt oil supplies in response to any threats.

Despite those headwinds, some analysts said crude prices should weaken because Iran was unlikely to make good on its threat to block the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil tankers pass each day. Another factor _ the ongoing economic fragility in Europe _ will reduce future demand and help rein in price hikes payday advance.

“We therefore continue to expect oil prices to drop back sharply this year as weakening demand more than offsets concerns over Iran, which are likely to fade too,” analysts at Capital Economics said in a report.

The possible release of oil by the International Energy Agency or the U.S. could also help drive prices down, it said. The IEA embarked on a similar release of emergency crude stocks in June 2011 to ease the strain of high oil prices on the global economy.

“Either way, assuming a larger and earlier stock release than in 2011, the price of Brent crude could then quickly fall by as much as $10 per barrel,” the report said.

In other energy trading, heating oil fell 1 cent to $3.27 per gallon and gasoline futures were steady at $3.30 per gallon. Natural gas was unchanged at $2.45 per 1,000 cubic feet.

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Rupert Murdoch’s newest newspaper launched Sunday with a familiar mix of celebrity news, scantily clad women and defiant language.

The Sun’s Sunday edition hit the stands two weeks after five employees of the tabloid were arrested in an inquiry into the alleged payment of bribes to police and defense officials.

The new Sunday tabloid replaces The News of the World, which closed in July after an advertising boycott led Murdoch to pull the 168-year-old paper. Britons were disgusted by revelations that the paper had routinely hacked into the phones of those in the public eye _ including, most notoriously, a missing schoolgirl whose murder had shocked the country.

The scandal has spawned three parallel police investigations and a judge led inquiry into media ethics, all of which are ongoing. Dozens have been arrested or been pushed to resign because of the scandal, include two of Britain’s top police officers, who were accused of not doing enough to get to grips with the tabloid’s wrongdoing.

The Sun Sunday said in its editorial that the scandal had been “a sobering experience for our entire industry.”

“The Sun has been a tremendous force for good. It is worth reminding our readers, and detractors, of that as we publish our historic first Sunday edition during what is a challenging period,” it said.

Murdoch flew to London to oversee the launch of the newspaper and was at the printing presses north of London on Saturday night to see the first editions appear.

The newspaper turns The Sun _ Britain’s biggest selling newspaper _ into a seven day operation, run by the same editor Dominic Mohan.

The front page story is an interview with British actress Amanda Holden speaking about the birth of her baby where she hemorrhaged badly and columns by model Katie Price and the Archbishop of York John Sentamu.

Journalist Peter Preston wrote in The Observer newspaper that The Sun Sunday lacks “any real revelation or guilty pleasures.”

Britain’s media ethics scandal flared again last week just ahead of the launch of the newspaper, with two men arrested on suspicion of computer hacking Friday and a senior police officer placed under investigation for allegedly leaking information to Murdoch’s News International.

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Zellipah Githui’s route to the research offices of Monsanto Co., where she was hired in early 2006, was not the typical one.

Growing up in a remote rural village in Kenya, Githui’s family members were (and are) subsistence farmers. But her parents urged their 17 children to pursue an education, and that eventually led Githui to Missouri, where she earned her MBA. Githui soon landed a job at the world’s largest biotechnology company, where she now coordinates field sampling at sites across the country.

After 14 years in the U.S., Githui recently decided to look homeward, where she has started a nonprofit group to help rural women farmers in Kenya — the people, she says, who are at the heart of her country’s food production. Last year, the organization helped 16 women farmers learn better growing practices via a Kenyan agronomist, using better fertilizers and hybrid seeds. The results were promising. Now in it’s second full year, the organization is growing.

How did you come up with the idea for your project?

I struggled with how I can help my community in a way that they can be independent and can do it for themselves. I thought about a school for orphans, or a primary school. But I woke up one morning in September 2010, and I just had the idea to do something with farming…. In Kenya, mainly the women do the farming, by virtue of the fact that there’s not much employment, and historically, not much education. In Kenya land is inherited, but it’s to the men, and the plots are getting small. So a farm we used to grow food on, we can’t anymore. The land is tired, so to speak. But we come from a productive area; we know it can be productive.

How did you start?

I went to an educated woman – a friend of the family. I knew she was a good fit, a go-getter. I said: let’s get a group together…. I said: You guys do this every day, you have the experience. You provide me a piece of land and labor, I’ll take care of the rest – the seed, the fertilizer, the manure.

How did the first year go?

They planted maize, planted bananas payday loans no faxing. Some did potatoes, some did tomatoes. The corn was very good, until the reproductive stage, when the rains failed. So there was not much harvest. It went to the cows, so they had a good season. But more importantly was the change – the ‘Ah’ that this can happen on their own farm. The farmers who weren’t part of the group, they saw the obvious changes. They learned proper planting, proper inputs. They were guided by the agronomist I hired. They learned to grow one crop at a time – they normally practice inter-cropping… They’re seeing big, big differences.

How do you fund the project?

The agronomists give them the guidance – how much seed, fertilizers, spraying they need. They give me a dollar figure, in Kenyan shillings, and I send it to them…. When I started, I had no model. I just said: I can do this, I’m going to do this. I sell jewelry at craft fairs; I’ve had garage sales.

What’s the next step?

The goal was to start small, but I want it to get bigger, too…. Right now we have a good problem: People want this. So how can I keep doing this? The next step is to find the resources. I would like this to keep growing, and changing the lives of people in my area. Personally, it’s been a very fulfilling journey, knowing where I’ve come from and where I am. It’s been very fulfilling to give back.

ZELLIPAH GITHUI

Title: Metabolite Analysis Platform Logistical Coordinator, Monsanto Co., Founder Project Gold Finger/The Rural Women Development Initiative of Kenya.

Education: Bachelor’s degrees from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, and Pittsburg (CQ) State University. MBA from Southwest Missouri State University.

Home: Florrisant

Family: Nine-year old son, 16 brothers and sisters

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In a ruling that appears headed toward appeal, a federal judge has ruled that Washington state cannot force pharmacies to sell Plan B or other emergency contraceptives.

The state’s true goal in adopting the rules at issue was not to promote the timely access to medicine, but to suppress religious objections by druggists who believe that such drugs can have an effect tantamount to abortion, U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton said in his ruling Wednesday.

Washington’s rules require that pharmacies stock and dispense drugs for which there is a demand. The state adopted the dispensing regulations in 2007, following reports that some women had been denied access to Plan B, which has a high dose of medicine found in birth-control pills and is effective if a woman takes it within 72 hours of unprotected sex.

State lawyers argued that the requirements are legal because they apply neutrally to all medicines and pharmacies, and because they promote a government interest _ the timely delivery of medicine, including Plan B, which becomes less effective as time passes.

But a pharmacy and two pharmacists sued, saying the rules infringed on their religious freedom, and the judge agreed.

The state allows all sorts of business exemptions to the rules, he noted. Pharmacies can decline to stock a drug, such as certain painkillers, if it’s likely to increase the risk of theft, or if it requires an inordinate amount of paperwork, or if the drug is temporarily unavailable from suppliers, among other reasons.

“The most compelling evidence that the rules target religious conduct is the fact the rules contain numerous secular exemptions,” the judge said. “In sum, the rules exempt pharmacies and pharmacists from stocking and delivering lawfully prescribed drugs for an almost unlimited variety of secular reasons, but fail to provide exemptions for reasons of conscience.”

The decision comes as contraception has been debated in political and health care circles around the nation. A controversy erupted this month when religious groups protested a new federal rule that required church-affiliated universities, hospitals and nonprofits to include birth control without co-pays or premiums in their insurance plans.

The outcry prompted President Barack Obama to change the rule to shift the burden from religious organizations to insurance companies. Lawmakers in a few conservative states have taken up the fight with proposals that serve as direct challenges to Obama’s ruling.

Leighton, in his decision Wednesday, did not strike down Washington’s rules, but said simply that the way they were applied to the plaintiffs in this case was unconstitutional.

The state remains free to try to enforce the law against other pharmacies that violate the stocking and dispensing rules, whether for Plan B or other drugs; it remains unclear whether courts would reach a similar conclusion if pharmacies objected to selling other drugs for religious reasons.

“I remain concerned about the impacts on patients if pharmacies are allowed to refuse to dispense lawfully prescribed or lawful medications to patients,” said Gov. Chris Gregoire, who insisted on the dispensing rule’s adoption. “I am especially concerned about those living in rural areas, many of whom may have few alternatives and could suffer lengthy delays in receiving medication or go without entirely.”

The judge, an appointee of President George W. Bush, first blocked the state’s dispensing rule in 2007. But a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel overruled him, saying the rules did not target religious conduct. It sent the case back to Leighton, who held an 11-day trial before reaffirming his original decision.

Further appeals were expected, both from the state and from groups that intervened on the state’s behalf. Before taking more than an hour to read his 48-page opinion in court, Leighton acknowledged that he crafted it for the benefit of a “skeptical” appeals court.

The interveners included women who were denied timely access to Plan B when they needed it _ one of whom cut short a vacation in central Washington to return home to Bellingham, where she knew she could obtain Plan B from her regular pharmacy _ as well as HIV patients, who argued that if druggists could refuse to dispense Plan B for religious reasons, some might also refuse to dispense time-sensitive HIV medications.

“The question really is whether the patient’s rights come first or the pharmacist’s rights come first,” said Andrew Greene, a lawyer for the interveners.

Assistant Attorney General Rene Tomisser said Leighton’s ruling was “more detailed” but made the same mistake he made in 2007.

Margo Thelen, of Woodland, one of the pharmacists who sued over the rules, said she had to leave one job because she refused to dispense Plan B _ and now she can continue working at her new job without fear of being fired.

“Speak to anyone who shops in a pharmacy,” she said. “Their product isn’t always available.”

Two Supreme Court cases guide judges in determining whether laws that infringe upon the free exercise of religion are legal.

In one, the court held that the state of Oregon could outlaw the use of the hallucinogenic peyote for everyone, even though some groups might use it in religious conduct.

In the other, the court held that a city in Florida could not outlaw animal sacrifices for religious purposes, while allowing the slaughter of animals for food, hunting and pest eradication.

Leighton said Washington’s rules are akin to the Florida case. Though they appear to be neutral by their plain language, the state allows pharmacies not to stock or sell drugs for various business reasons, he said.

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Federal regulators said Tuesday that they’ve approved new suppliers for two crucial cancer drugs, easing critical shortages _ at least for the time being _ that have patients worried about missing life-saving treatments.

The Food and Drug Administration said it will temporarily allow importation of a replacement drug for Doxil, a drug for ovarian and other cancers that hasn’t been available for new patients for months.

The agency also has approved another supplier for a preservative-free version of methotrexate, a crucial drug for children with a type of leukemia called ALL and for high-dose treatment of bone cancer. The version with preservatives can be toxic or cause paralysis in children and other patients getting the drug high doses.

The FDA also has approved the release of a batch manufactured by Ben Venue Laboratories Inc., shortly before it closed several factories and its complex in Bedford, Ohio, possibly for a year, due to serious quality problems. That closing is what turned the on-again, off-again methotrexate shortage that began in late 2008 into a crisis almost overnight, with fears that patients would begin missing treatments as soon as the end of this month.

The FDA increasingly has been able to prevent drug shortages by getting advance notice from manufacturers, with 195 shortages prevented in 2011, mostly late in the year after President Obama issued an executive order giving FDA additional powers to address the shortages. Still, about 280 drugs are in short supply.

“A drug shortage can be a frightening prospect for patients,” FDA Dr. Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg said in a statement. “Through the collaborative work of FDA, industry and other stakeholders, patients and families waiting for these products or anxious about their availability should now be able to get the medication they need.”

Drug shortages have increased dramatically in the U.S. over the past six years, particularly for generic injected drugs, which are the workhorses of hospitals but are difficult to make and produce little profit for drugmakers.

The shortages are caused primarily by problems with sterility and other serious issues that have led to shutdowns of production lines and occasionally entire factories. In addition, consolidation among generic drug manufacturers, as well as manufacturers deciding to end production of marginally profitable drugs, has led to decreased capacity. That means when one manufacturer suddenly stops production, the small number of others making a drug can’t quickly pick up slack.

The inability to get crucial medicines has disrupted not only carefully timed chemotherapy regimens, but surgery and care for patients with infections, pain and other serious conditions. At least 15 deaths since 2010 have been blamed on the shortages, which have set a record high in each of the last five years.

Of late, the cancer drug shortages have attracted the most attention, partly because missing multiple treatments can sharply reduce the chances of curing the disease. In the case of methotrexate, its use as part of the treatment for acute lymphoblastic lymphoma results in nearly 90 percent of children being cured, so parents and doctors were particularly upset at the prospect of it not being available.

The FDA said Tuesday it has temporarily approved importing an alternative to Doxil called Lipodox, made by Sun Pharma Global FZE. It’s also given approval to APP Pharmaceuticals to begin making a preservative-free version of methotrexate in addition to its current drug that includes preservatives.

The agency was to discuss details of its efforts on the two cancer drugs at a noon news conference.

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During the last three years, state Rep. Steve Webb, the ranking Democrat on the House utilities committee, has accepted more in free gifts from Ameren than any Missouri public official has accepted from any single lobbying group.

In 2011, he also received more in meals and event tickets from AT&T — $1,674 worth — than any other Missouri politician received from the telecommunications giant, according to data from the Missouri Ethics Commission.

Missouri is one of a few states that places no limit on lobbyist gifts to lawmakers, and by no means is Webb, who represents Florissant, the only politician who gets into ballgames and concerts for free.

But from 2009 to 2011, Webb received tickets to 51 separate events — from the World Series to shows at the Fox Theatre to professional wrestling — with 40 of the events coming courtesy of utility companies. Twenty-eight sets of tickets came from Ameren and, in all, the utility spent $8,094 on Webb and his family during the three-year span.

“It’s not a conflict of interest,” Webb said. “First, I’m the ranking Democrat on the utilities committee. I work closely with these different utility companies on pending or upcoming legislation.”

Webb said going to events and dinners with lobbyists gives him a chance to form a relationship and discuss issues with them, and that the gifts don’t affect his views. He said he gives away some of the tickets.

And while Webb isn’t the only member of the utilities committee who’s received gifts from Ameren, he has accepted far more than any other members. Republican Jeannie Riddle of Callaway County comes in a distant second, with $1,799 in gifts accepted by her and her family and staff during the past three years.

The utilities committee oversees legislation related to the development and regulation of utilities, communication and technology, and energy-related matters.

Excluding Webb, 17 of the committee’s 25 other members have accepted gifts from Ameren. Combined, they have received $6,502 in gifts, about $1,600 less than Webb.

In 2010, Webb also accepted $777.50 worth of tickets and food for Rams and Cardinals games and a Jay-Z concert from Laclede Gas Co. In November 2011, he received $279 in concert tickets from Kansas City Power & Light Co.

“I think it’s obvious that they have no influence on how I may feel on any particular issue,” he said, citing his strong opposition to a bill that would change discrimination workplace laws, a measure supported by the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association, of which Ameren and AT&T are members. Ameren CEO Tom Voss is chairman of the RCGA.

And if Ameren’s spending on politicians is so influential, Webb said, why haven’t large pieces of legislation involving the company — such as last year’s proposal to charge consumers to obtain a site permit for a second nuclear plant near Fulton, Mo. — been passed by the Legislature?

A bill similar to last year’s legislation was referred to the House utilities committee last month. Webb is one of several dozen co-sponsors of the bill, which would allow an electrical utility seeking an early site permit to recover up to $45 million in costs from ratepayers. The bill also would reduce the share of utilities’ operating revenues that can go to fund the Public Service Commission, the state’s utility regulator.

“I’m a minority in the minority party,” Webb said. “We don’t push the legislation. We don’t decide what legislation comes to the floor.”

George Connor, a political science professor at Missouri State University, said it was nearly impossible to prove that lobbyist gifts have an impact on how a legislator votes. But typically, he said, “They’re not giving you gifts to get you to vote a certain way, they’re giving you gifts because you vote a certain way.”

The most important thing for a lobbyist to have is access, Connor said, and handing out tickets is one way to achieve that.

While gifts may not influence a politician, he said, “The appearance of impropriety is just as bad as impropriety, as far as I’m concerned.”

Webb said that lobbyist gifts were not nearly as significant as the unlimited campaign donations Missouri allows. Free tickets and meals are ’small potatoes compared to someone getting a $100,000 check,” he said.

Ameren, which has raised its rates four times during the last five years, recently proposed a 15 percent rate increase. Webb said he was concerned about the proposed hike and had discussed the matter with Ameren’s lobbyists. “We don’t want any unfair rate increases,” he said.

It’s up to the state’s utility regulator to decide whether the increase is fair, Webb said.

“Ameren has some of the lowest rates in the nation,” he said. “We want to keep it that way.”

Webb said that it might not be necessary for his meetings with lobbyists to take place at concerts and baseball games but maintained that gifts from utilities weren’t a problem.

“Some may have a difference in opinion on whether or not you should be taking tickets,” he said. “My opinion is, there’s nothing wrong with it.”

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Long-term unemployed workers in states with persisting high joblessness soon would no longer be able to count on unemployment benefit checks for up to 99 weeks under legislation before Congress.

Under this week’s compromise for extending a Social Security tax cut through the rest of 2012, federal unemployment benefits for people who have been out of work more than six months are being scaled back.

If Congress passes the bill and President Barack Obama signs it into law, the current maximum 99 weeks of benefits will gradually fall to 73 weeks by September. For people in all but about a dozen of the highest unemployment states, the benefits will be cut off after 63 weeks.

Democrats had hoped to keep the number as close as possible to 99 weeks, arguing that the benefits are critical for those struggling to make ends meet and provide a boost to the economy. Republicans wanted to reduce the maximum time span for benefits to 59 weeks, saying too many people don’t seriously look for a job until the government checks quit coming.

The agreement would let both parties claim victory: Democrats say they preserved the program for another year, while Republicans claim they won major concessions by scaling back the program.

About 43 percent of the nation’s nearly 13 million unemployed have been without work for more than six months, double the rate of any other economic downturn since the Great Depression. If Congress had not reached a deal to reauthorize the program, about a million people would have lost benefits next month.

“It’s far from perfect, but it seems to be a responsible approach to the current problem of long-term unemployment,” said George Wentworth, an attorney with the National Employment Law Project, a worker advocacy group that supports long-term benefits.

It was not immediately clear how many people might lose out on benefits later this year under the new plan. Currently, 22 states are eligible for 93-plus weeks of unemployment insurance; just 18 get the full maximum of 99 weeks. The average unemployed worker receives less than $300 a week in benefits.

Wentworth said the gradual decrease would help cushion the blow for those relying on the benefits.

The plan would extend the current 99-week maximum through May for states with the highest unemployment rates. Benefits would drop to 79 weeks in June and to 73 weeks in September. Unless Congress extends the federal benefits again, people losing their jobs after July 1 will get only 26 weeks.

“This agreement is a step in the right direction,” said James Sherk, a policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “However, two years of benefits was excessive when passed and a year-and-a-half of benefits in an improving labor market is still excessive.”

The program was already winding down anyway. Under the current formula, the maximum coverage period would have fallen to 79 weeks in October.

The job market has been steadily improving and fewer people are filing for the benefits. On Thursday, the Labor Department reported that the number of people seeking unemployment benefits last week was the lowest it’s been in four years.

The new law will allow states to make benefit applicants take drug tests if they lost their job because they failed a drug test or are applying for a job that requires one. Republicans dropped an effort to let states require all applicants to take a drug test, or require applicants without a high school diplomas to pursue a GED certificate.

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Robert Zoellick plans to step down from his post at the head of the World Bank when his current term ends on June 30.

Zoellick, 58, informed the bank’s board of his decision on Wednesday. The World Bank, a multinational organization, provides financial assistance to developing countries — $247 billion during his five-year term.

"I’m honored to have led such a world-class institution," he said in his statement. "When the world needed the bank to step up, our shareholders responded with expanded resources and support for key reforms that made us quicker, more effective and more open." (The world’s 10 largest economies)

The bank said it had its first general capital increase in more than 20 years under Zoellick’s term. He emphasized that the bank’s health made it a "natural time to move on."

Zoellick previously served as international vice chairman at Goldman Sachs (, Fortune 500) and in various government positions, including U.S. trade representative. He was also an executive vice president of Fannie Mae from 1993 to 1997.

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were the two major multinational organizations started in the wake of World War II to provide assistance and economic stability to troubled nations in an effort to help maintain global economic growth.

Zoellick is the 11th head of the World Bank since its founding in 1946. Historically, the World Bank has been headed by an American, while the IMF has been headed by a European.

But last year, when the IMF was looking for a new managing director, there were calls for a non-European in the position, due to the IMF’s role in backstopping emerging economies. Given the World Bank’s similar focus, there could also be a push for a non-American as its next president.

Despite those calls, French finance minister Christine Lagarde won the IMF job, which opened up due to Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s resignation in the wake of sexual assault charges that were later dropped.  

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Sales at U.S. retailers rose less than forecast in January, reflecting an unexpected drop in purchases of automobiles.

The 0.4 percent gain reported by the Commerce Department today in Washington was half the 0.8 percent rise median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Sales excluding cars climbed 0.7 percent, more than projected and the biggest gain since March.

Chains like Target Corp. (TGT) and Limited Brands Inc. topped analysts