Today's Top Stories 10-25-11

BLOOMBERG

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry said he will propose a tax overhaul that would cut corporate rates and give individuals the option of paying a 20 percent flat tax on their income.

President Obama said he will take executive action to move ahead with his economic proposals while keeping up pressure on Congress to act on his broader package of tax cuts and spending.

Herman Cain has his 9-9-9 plan. Rick Perry will unveil his flat tax this week. What separates Mitt Romney from other Republican presidential contenders is that he doesn’t want to scrap the Internal Revenue Code.

Hungary’s central bank kept interest rates unchanged for a ninth month as the European debt crisis raised the country’s borrowing and risk costs and pressured the forint, cutting room to ease policy.

Hong Kong’s exports declined in September for the first time in almost two years and the government warned the outlook is “bleak,” adding to the risks the city will enter a recession.

Denmark’s banking crisis has left in its wake a number of cheap acquisition targets that may entice buyers to take advantage of an industry brought to its knees by a sequence of insolvencies.

Occupy Wall Street protests against income inequality, joblessness and big banks may have some unintended consequences. They’re hurting nearby merchants as police barricades deter shoppers.

Delta Air Lines Inc. reported third-quarter profit that trailed analysts’ estimates as higher fuel costs eroded the benefit from rising fares. The shares tumbled the most in three weeks.

The Bank of Canada left its main interest rate unchanged, cut its growth outlook for the Canadian economy and removed a reference to withdrawing stimulus as the global economy slows.

India raised interest rates for a 13th time since the start of 2010 and signaled it’s nearing the end of its record cycle of increases as the economy cools.

South Africa delayed plans to rein in the budget deficit as a growth slump curbed tax revenue and the government maintained spending plans to support the economy and create jobs.

Home prices in 20 U.S. cities dropped more than forecast in August, highlighting one of the obstacles facing the economic recovery in its third year.

U.K. home values will fall 5 percent in 2012 as buyers are deterred by government job cuts, rising unemployment and low wage growth.

AP Top Stories

Some 5 to 20 million tons of debris--furniture, fishing boats, refrigerators--sucked into the Pacific Ocean in the wake of Japan's March 11 earthquake and tsunami are moving rapidly across the Pacific. Researchers from the University of Hawaii tracking the wreckage estimate it could approach the U.S. West Coast in the next three years.

The announcement that Islamic sharia law will be the basis of legislation in newly liberated Libya has raised concerns, especially among women, despite Islamists insisting moderation will prevail.

Home prices rose in August in half of major U.S. cities measured by a private survey, a sign that prices are stabilizing in some hard-hit portions of the country.

Red and pink streaks filled the sky across parts of the country after Earth’s magnetic field was hit by a coronal mass ejection, enabling the Northern Lights to be seen across the southeastern part of the United States.

Consumers' confidence in the economy fell in October to the lowest it's been since 2009 when the U.S. was in the middle of a deep recession.