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Existing-home sales increased slightly less than expected in the month of January, up 4.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.57 million, and sales were up 0.7% compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. This marks the third month in four that sales of existing single family homes, townhomes, condos and co-ops has increased. December home sales, originally seen up 5.0% month-over-month, were revised down to a 4.38 million unit pace, reflecting an 0.5% drop.

"These are good numbers and we've seen many housing numbers lately that have come out positive," says IHS U.S. economist Partick Newport, who believes good weather and positive economic momentum pushed sales higher.

Since the beginning of the year, there's been a lot of chatter over whether the U.S. housing market may have hit bottom. Analysts at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman

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If you had any lingering hopes that U.S. presidential elections are based on ideas and candidates, think again. More than in years passed, money is turning out to be the biggest determining factor during this race for the White House due to the unlimited amounts of cash flowing into the coffers that support the candidates, those things called super PACs. (See: Super PACs: It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's—Well, It's complicated)

The super PACs supporting the top Republican presidential candidates raised around $22 million in January and ended the month with $5 million more than the campaigns themselves, according to the most recent report from Federal Election Commission. The candidates' campaigns raised slightly less at $21.1 million. Mitt Romney's campaign raised $6.5 million in January and spent nearly three times as much; former House Speaker New Gingrich raised $5.6 million and spent $6 million while both Rick Santorum and Ron Paul raised $4.5 million.

Due to the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, individuals and corporations are now able to contribute as much as they would like to a super PAC. As a result, the money has not stopped flowing from some of the country's wealthiest and the candidates have almost come to rely on the financing in their favor.

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When LinkedIn went public in May 2011, shares of the stock more than doubled during its first day of trading. The stock closed at $94.25 after opening at $45 a share. The high demand and pop in price for the stock had the world questioning whether another tech bubble was in the making.

Nearly a year later, the professional social networking site has put any concerns about its business to rest. In its biggest jump since going public, shares of LinkedIn rose 17% last Friday after beating Wall Street's fourth quarter earnings estimates. Sales doubled from the previous year to $167.7 million and the company reported a $6.9 million profit, or 6 cents per share, in the fourth quarter.

LinkedIn is up 103% since its May IPO.

The Daily Ticker's Henry Blodget sat down with LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman to talk about the company's success and his vision for the future, which Henry notes is often overlooked when valuing a technology company.

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Is college worth the cost?

There is an on going debate in this country on just that question given the skyrocketing costs of higher education and the lingering debt burden that can take years for students to repay. The student who graduated in the class of 2009 had an average of $24,000 in student loans. But that's just the average. Some students are accountable for sums totaling $100,000. (See: The Economic Agony of Today's Twenty-Somethings)

A college degree was historically the bedrock of any successful career. High school students were expected to go to college after graduating. But then along come the famed success stories of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and more recently Mark Zuckerberg. The three tech titans were college dropouts, yet they all managed to amass huge amounts of wealth.  When Facebook eventually goes public, Zuckerberg's stake in the company will make him one of the top ten richest people in the world with a net worth

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A day does not go by without numerous headlines on the rampant debt problems facing the global economy. From Greece's organized default to the sovereign debt problems facing other European nations, to the budget battle right here at home between President Obama and members of Congress, people cannot escape reading about these crises.

We live in a world burdened, or crippled, by debt. That is today's reality. But according Philip Coggan, author of Paper Promises: Debt, Money and the New World Order, the current state of indebtedness is nothing new, nor is it going anywhere fast.

"Over time we have had many debt crises like this before, this is not just about the collapse of Lehman Brothers," he tells The Daily Ticker's Daniel Gross in the accompanying interview as they discuss the premise of his book. "Over history many monarchs have defaulted on their debts and many other governments have defaulted on their debts. When things are

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January retail sales were slightly less than expected Tuesday, but they did rise a seasonally adjusted 0.4% to $401.4 billion compared to December sales that were flat, signaling another small improvement in state of the U.S. consumer.

To get a retailer's perspective on the consumer, The Daily Ticker's Aaron Task sat down with menswear designer John Varvatos of the eponymous brand who says the situation has "definitely improved."

"I think [consumers] are shopping again," says Varvatos. "I think they are more thoughtful in they way they spend their money but they are shopping."

Varvatos, whose early career included top positions at Polo Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, has grown his brand from his first store in 2000 located in New York's SoHo neighborhood to nine stores across the United States almost twelve years later. His designs are also available in some department stores as well as online at his website.

Although his target

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China's Vice President Xi Jinping, who is on track to take over for President Hu Jintao when he retires, is in the United States this week meeting with President Obama, members of his cabinet and business leaders across the country to set the framework for future bilateral relations.

Zachary Karabell, author of Superfusion: How China and America Became One Economy and Why the World's Prosperity Depends on It, joins The Daily Ticker's Henry Blodget and Daniel Gross to discuss the current state of the U.S.-China relations.

"From the Chinese perspective things are going their way," he says. "[But] from the American perspective not so much." Most notably he's referring to the fact that China is the largest holder of U.S. debt, after the U.S. government, and the fact that the U.S. remains a huge market for Chinese imports.

China owns $1.1 trillion in U.S. treasury securities, or about 7% of the country's debt, reports CNN. And while the

Nearly 850 million people use Facebook each month and roughly 480 million people use it every day. With a user rate like that and an upcoming $75 to $100 billion initial public offering, one might think Facebook is not only a highly visible company, but also one of Corporate America's most reputable.

But that's not really the case, according to the findings discovered by Harris Interactive. The company recently conducted its 13^th annual Reputation Quotient Study, which measures companies' reputation with consumers.

In performing the survey, Harris first asked 17,000 people to chose the companies that are most visible to them on a daily basis. The respondents were then asked to rate the top 60 most visible companies on wide rage of attributes, including emotional appeal, products and services, social responsibility, vision and leadership, workplace environment and financial performance.

Apple bumped Google for the number one spot as the most reputable company in America, followed by