Today in business: 5 things you need to know

The U.S. economy unexpectedly contracts, RIM renames itself BlackBerry, and more in our roundup of the business stories that are making news and driving opinion

The GDP shrank during the fourth quarter, for the first time in more than three years.
(Image credit: ThinkStock/Creatas)

1. ECONOMY DIPS UNEXPECTEDLY

The U.S. economy shrank in the final quarter of 2012, shocking economists expecting at least modest gains. The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that GDP had contracted by 0.1 percent, the decline was the first since the Great Recession ended three-and-a-half years ago, as President Obama was beginning his first term and the nation was still bleeding jobs. Gross domestic product had risen at a 3.1 percent rate in the third quarter, but the recovery lost steam as federal spending declined by 15 percent, its biggest drop since 1973. Businesses also pared inventories while lawmakers haggled over a deficit-reduction deal. [Wall Street Journal]

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.