Bonnie Kavoussi of The Huffington Post lists the top 32 economics reporters to follow on Twitter.

She writes, “We can’t blame you for finding the economy complicated. Thankfully, there are good economics reporters available to explain what is happening out there and why. Want easy access to their articles and what they’re reading? Just follow them on Twitter.”

He list includes:

1. Joe Weisenthal, Business Insider;

2. Heidi Moore, The Guardian;

3. Ezra Klein, The Washington Post;

4. Annie Lowrey, The New York Times;

5. Matt O’Brien, The Atlantic;

6. Ryan Avent, The Economist;

7. Jim Tankersley, National Journal;

8. Kevin Roose, New York Magazine;

9. Josh Barro, Bloomberg View;

10. Phil Izzo, Wall Street Journal.

See the entire list here.

The economy is getting better. The government says so. But don’t break out the champagne yet. There are several factors that can drag it down.

Here’s the Wall Street Journal take:

The U.S. economy expanded at its fastest pace since late 2011, but those gains could be reversed as superstorm Sandy and the fiscal cliff create a drag during the final three months of 2012.

The nation’s gross domestic product—the broadest measure of goods and services produced in the U.S.—advanced at an annual rate of 2.7% between July through September, the Commerce Department said Thursday. The revised figure is up from the previously reported 2.0% gain and nearly matched economists’ expectations for a 2.8% advance.

But the factors that led to the upward revision—growing inventories, strong federal spending and robust exports—may not persist. Add in other headwinds, and the economy could struggle to grow in the fourth quarter.

“We will have a negative impact on fourth-quarter GDP from the effects of Sandy, but there’s a rebuilding process and we’ll have a positive impact in subsequent quarters,” Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher said in a speech Thursday.

And from the New York Times story:

“It’s a nice headline number,” said Nigel Gault, chief United States economist at IHS Global Insight, “but it exaggerates the underlying momentum in the economy. Sustainable improvements in growth are not driven by inventories.”

What’s more, the revised figures show that spending by businesses on equipment and software declined by 2.7 percent in the third quarter, the first decrease since the end of the recession in mid-2009.

Mr. Gault attributed the weak spending by companies in large part to growing uncertainty among executives about whether Congress and the White House can reach a deal before Jan. 1 that prevents more than $600 billion in automatic tax increases and spending cuts from going into effect early next year. “The No. 1 thing is the fiscal cliff,” Mr. Gault said.

The impasse in Washington has not only dominated the political debate since the election, but also become a leading worry for corporate America. President Obama met with business leaders on Wednesday to seek their support in negotiating a compromise, the second time he has sat down with prominent corporate chiefs this month, while Wall Street has wavered with each zig and zag of the debate.

While many pundits have reminded people that the fiscal cliff is a negotiation, Republicans rejected President Obama’s opening deal. The Wall Street Journal reported:

President Barack Obama made an opening bid in budget talks with Republicans that calls for a $1.6 trillion tax increase, $50 billion in infrastructure spending in 2013 and new power to raise the federal debt limit, a provocative set of demands that Republicans said represented a step backward in efforts to avoid looming tax increases and spending cuts.

The proposal marked an opening salvo in negotiations over the fiscal cliff and represented a particularly expansive version of the White House’s wish list, with a heavy focus on tax increases and spending proposals—including keeping in place a payroll-tax cut and extended unemployment benefits.

Republicans haven’t put any comparable offer on the table. They have indicated willingness to accept $800 billion in revenues over 10 years, half the amount Mr. Obama proposed. And they have sought far more in spending cuts in exchange for their concessions on taxes.

Retailers aren’t doing so well either. Here’s from the New York Times:

Sales at stores open at least a year declined in November at major American store chains, including Macy’s, Nordstrom, Kohl’s and Target, sending a shiver through the retail world Thursday.

The reporting period included Thanksgiving and Black Friday, the official kickoff of the critical holiday shopping season. Early reports regarding those days had been mixed, and the individual retailers’ dim results suggest a big challenge in the coming weeks for retailers.

Over all, the 16 retailers tracked by Thomson Reuters that reported results Thursday recorded a 1.6 percent increase in sales at stores that were open at least a year. Analysts had expected a 3.3 percent jump.

It was the major chains’ results that were most troubling. Target, Kohl’s and Macy’s typically promote holiday shopping heavily, while Nordstrom sales tend to give an indication of how higher-income consumers are feeling.

Lagging retail sales, slowing GDP, and the uncertainty of the nation’s budget all combine for a bleak picture heading into next year. Let’s hope economics reporters can keep up with it all.

Two days after the election, many in the press have turned to analyzing the fiscal cliff and how the president and congress will solve the looming problem. With less than six weeks until the end of the year, it’s not a minor problem.

First off, the Congressional Budget Office said if nothing is done the economy will be pushed back into a recession next year and unemployment would climb back to 9.1 percent by the end of 2013. More from the Wall Street Journal story:

The CBO analysis said if Congress reaches a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff later this year the federal budget deficit would be $503 billion higher than it otherwise would have been in fiscal 2013, and $682 billion higher in fiscal 2014.

Barring congressional action, federal income, dividend and capital-gains tax rates will increase on Jan. 1., 2013, and the estate tax will revert to a higher rate while applying to smaller estates. Meanwhile $110 billion in cuts to federal spending on defense and other domestic programs will take place as an initial down payment for $1 trillion in cuts that are required through the next decade under last year’s deficit deal.

Negotiations between the White House and Congress are expected to begin soon to reach a budget compromise to avoid the fiscal cliff.

Let’s hope they start today since no one wants to see the economy slide backwards. But it isn’t just up to the president, as Bloomberg News points out:

Obama can’t do it alone. Prospects for a broad deficit- reduction deal also turn on whether Republicans — who kept their majority in the U.S. House in the elections while falling short of capturing the Senate — are willing to compromise with the president on using tax revenue to reduce the deficit. They have refused to consider raising taxes to help pay for a deal, even one underwritten disproportionately by spending and entitlement cuts.

At a news conference on Capitol Hill yesterday, U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, said all sides are “closer than many think” to a U.S. tax-code overhaul. Still, he didn’t waver from his party’s opposition to tax increases, which Democrats have said is a prerequisite for any deal that cuts spending on social programs or curbs the growth of programs including Medicare.

Obama campaigned on a proposal to raise taxes on individuals earning $200,000 annually and couples making $250,000. Exit polls indicated that while voters overwhelmingly don’t want to see their own taxes rise, 47 percent back raising taxes on the wealthy.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said the divided-government election result showed that voters want Obama to do more to collaborate with Congress to fix the nation’s problems.

Investors are certainly signaling that a solution can’t come soon enough. This from Reuters:

Shares on Wall Street fell on Thursday as investors continued to adjust for upcoming negotiations over the so-called fiscal cliff, overshadowing a batch of positive economic data.

Investors worry that if no deal is reached in Congress over the fiscal cliff — some $600 billion in spending cuts and tax increases set to kick in early next year — it could derail the American economic recovery.

But the prospect of haggling among lawmakers about ballooning federal budget deficits has deepened the uncertainty for investors, who have sold stocks partly on the expectation taxes will go up on capital gains and dividends.

And as CNN Money points out, some think the election brought the President and lawmakers closer together, while others believe the partisan divide on taxes grew wider:

The fiscal cliff is the legislative equivalent of a slow-motion train wreck that Congress and President Obama can avoid … but only if they work together.

Some seasoned Washington observers think they will do just that, despite their troubled history, because they don’t want to be blamed for what happens if they fail.

But others say there’s a good chance they won’t because the election did nothing to ease the partisan chasm over taxes. They argue that only a market crash or a crisis over the country’s debt ceiling will force their hand.

Among the fiscal cliff policies at issue: reductions in both defense and non-defense spending; the expiration of the Bush tax cuts; the end of a payroll tax holiday and extended unemployment benefits; and the onset of reimbursement cuts to Medicare doctors.

 Lawmakers must choose whether to leave those measures in place, replace some or all of them, postpone them or cancel them entirely. Their decision will affect the economy, the country’s credit rating and the U.S. debt burden.

With all this at stake, no wonder stocks have been down and all eyes are turned to Washington to see what happens. Even if a final deal isn’t close, we’re guaranteed to get every update – including who sneezed in the committee meeting.

I hope the coverage is robust. We’re all depending on it.