Bloomberg quotes the Economic Observer as saying a trial property tax program will soon be enacted in four cities.

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"If the economy continues to decelerate to the point where it spooks households into spending much less this holiday season on retail goods, we could have a real problem, " said Craig Thomas, an observer with the economic data clearinghouse Economy.com.

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He says the Bush administration needs to give Obama's economic team some sort of observer status at that meeting.

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