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When our series began yesterday, we brought together five economists from across the political spectrum and had them create a platform for their dream presidential candidate. It's a platform — Get rid of a tax deduction for homeowners!

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Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. Back in the late 1700s, the resentful subjects of France's Marie Antoinette gave her the nickname Madame Deficit. The queen's extravagant lifestyle ended at the guillotine. But she left behind some treasures, including a delicate pair of green and pink silk striped slippers. On the anniversary of her execution this week, they were sold by a Parisian auction house at a price fit for a queen - more than $65,000. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.

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And the Governor is one of many politicians from both parties who we're hearing from in this election season. Was it the town hall or a town brawl? That's what some pundits are asking a day after the very heated second presidential debate, between President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

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Earlier this week, a Japanese company announced a $20 billion bid for a majority stake in Sprint-Nextel, America's third-largest mobile carrier. The deal was launched by the CEO of Softbank - an executive who says he has a 300-year business plan and who is fond of making investments his peers call crazy.

Lucy Craft has this profile.

LUCY CRAFT, BYLINE: In a society where conformity, conservatism and harmony are virtues, CEO Masayoshi Son breaks all the rules, says his biographer, Shinichi Sano.

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A young Bangladeshi man has been charged with conspiring to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank in lower Manhattan. New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly commented on the arrest at a press conference last night.

RAYMOND KELLY: This individual came here for the purpose of doing a terrorist act.

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Israel's newsstands are looking noticeably less crowded these days, as a crisis in the Israeli press threatens several of the country's oldest publications. Media experts in Israel say that market competition and a tendency to buy political influence through media ownership have crippled Israel's once-thriving newspaper market.

Watching a presidential campaign, it's easy to think that the nation is deeply divided over how to fix the economy. But when you talk to economists, it turns out they agree on an enormous number of issues.

So we brought together five economists from across the political spectrum and had them create their dream presidential candidate. Over the next few days, we'll have a series of stories on our economists' dream candidate. We start this morning with some changes to the tax code.

Former Maine Gov. Angus King is convinced that if the math works out he could be the power broker in the U.S. Senate, the independent candidate whose vote will break the political gridlock in Washington. But first he has some explaining to do.