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While it's always important to keep in mind that neither one week nor one month make for a trend, there is good economic news to pass along:

— There were 323,000 first-time claims filed for jobless benefits last week, down by 21,000 from the week before, the Employment and Training Administration says. It was the fewest for any week since late September. Reuters says the news suggests "some strengthening of labor market conditions."

— Wholesale prices fell 0.2 percent in October from September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It's the second month in a row that those costs dipped. The decline was led by a 1.5 percent drop in wholesale energy prices. The data reinforce the sense that inflation is well under control.

The day's other major economic story looks to be the vote Thursday morning by the Senate Banking Committee on the nomination of Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Janet Yellen to become the central bank's chairman.

Yellen, who if confirmed by the full Senate would be the first woman to lead the Fed, is expected to easily win the committee's OK. President Obama's fellow Democrats hold 12 of the panel's 22 seats and at least one of the committee's Republicans — Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee — has said he supports the nomination.

Ben Bernanke's term as Fed chairman officially ends in January.

Bitcoin, the virtual currency that exists as alphanumeric strings online, is on the verge of getting into politics.

The Federal Election Commission is expected to vote Thursday on a proposal to allow bitcoin contributions to political action committees — even as skeptics say that bitcoins could undermine the disclosure standards of federal law.

The FEC is acting as other federal agencies are also exploring the uses, and dangers, of digital currency. At a Senate hearing on Monday, federal law enforcement officials cited Silk Road, an online illegal marketplace that used bitcoins before it was shut down.

Edward Lowery III, chief of the Secret Service Criminal Investigative Division, told the panel: "While digital currencies may provide potential benefits, they present real risks through their use by the criminal and terrorist organizations trying to conceal their illicit activity."

Still, no one at the Senate hearing wanted to stifle virtual currency, and neither does the FEC. The commission was brought into the issue by the Conservative Action Fund, a political action committee that is seeking approval to accept bitcoins as contributions.

"Our interest here is we know this is happening; we're getting requests to make this happen. We really want to understand: How do we do this right?" said Dan Backer, the PAC's lawyer, at an FEC meeting on Nov. 14.

But the six commissioners weren't sure about nongovernmental currency, as commission Chairwoman Ellen Weintraub, a Democrat, acknowledged.

Planet Money

Adam Davidson Talks Bitcoin With Stephen Colbert

This is the first in a three-part report on Philadelphia schools in crisis.

Sharron Snyder and Othella Stanback, both seniors at Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin High, will be the first in their families to graduate from high school. This, their final year, was supposed to be memorable. Instead, these teenagers say they feel cheated.

"We're fed up with the budget cuts and everything. Like, this year, my school is like really overcrowded. We don't even have lockers because it's, like, too many students," Sharron says.

Franklin High doubled in size because it absorbed hundreds of kids from two high schools the district could not afford to keep open this fall.

But "we didn't gain an extra counselor, we didn't gain extra teachers," Othella says.

Timeline: The Quest To Fix Philadelphia Public Schools

1998 — Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell and David Hornbeck, school district superintendent, sue Pennsylvania, accusing the state of not adequately funding the city's public schools. The suit goes nowhere.

2001 — Pennsylvania moves to take over the school district, citing a total breakdown in administration as well as scandalously low test scores and graduation rates. Hornbeck and the city's elected school board are ousted. The state creates a five-member School Reform Commission (SRC).

2002-2011 — The SRC oversees a massive expansion of charter schools and takeover of struggling schools by private third-party operators. Dozens of private foundations pour millions of dollars into Philadelphia, mostly to subsidize charter schools.

2011 — Philadelphia loses almost $200 million due to federal aid budget cuts.

Feb. 2012 — The SRC hires a global business consulting group to help the district devise a cost-cutting plan. The group's $2.7 million fee is paid with private donations, reportedly from powerful pro-charter, pro-voucher advocates. The group wants to expand privately run, publicly funded charter schools, shut down 60 traditional public schools over five years and reorganize all other schools.

June 2012 — In the face of a $304 million budget deficit, the SRC eliminates athletics, art, music and most extracurricular activities. Layoff notices go out to 3,800 district employees, including teachers, counselors, administrators, aides and clerical staff.

Fall 2013 — Still broke, the district announces it will have to permanently close more than 20 schools. The mayor borrows money to open the remaining schools with bare-bones budgets. Many parents are asked to buy paper, books and basic supplies for schools to operate.

Oct. 2013 — The SRC restores music, art and athletics programs and rehires some guidance counselors and support staff after Gov. Tom Corbett releases $45 million he had been withholding pending discussions with Philadelphia's teachers union. Superintendent William Hite warns that without union concessions on pay and health benefits, the district next year will be back to where it was: broke and unable to operate.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. will pay $4 billion to consumers who were hurt by faulty mortgage underwriting, part of a larger $13 billion deal to settle the bank's liability in the collapse of toxic securities during the housing crisis.

The deal is expected to be announced this week.

NPR's Jim Zarroli reports that "a source familiar with the settlement says that as much as $1.7 billion will go to homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. Portions of the money will also go to restructure mortgages. And in an unusual agreement the bank will use part of the money to fight blight in distressed neighborhoods by doing things such as tearing down rundown buildings."

Last month, we reported that JPMorgan had reached a tentative deal with the Justice Department to pay $13 billion to settle civil charges related to wrongdoing by some of its units during the housing crisis. The sum represents the largest-ever such settlement.

And last week, the bank agreed to pay $4.5 billion to large institutional investors who bought mortgage-backed securities whose risk they said JPMorgan misrepresented. Many of those securities were loaded down with subprime mortgages and quickly tanked when the housing bubble burst.

Reuters reports:

"The agreement is to require JPMorgan to spend the money by the end of 2016 under the watch of an independent monitor, [a person familiar with the deal] said. ...

"The total deal is also to include a $2 billion penalty and at least $4 billion for federal housing finance agencies under a previously announced agreement. The fact that the $13 billion deal would include $4 billion for some form of 'consumer relief' has been known for weeks. The details of how the $4 billion would be spent were reported earlier on Monday by The Wall Street Journal."