Jan 08 Friday's Headlines: U.S. Loses 85,000 Jobs, Unemployment Rate Holds at 10% The U.S. unemployment rate remained steady at 10 percent for the second straight month, according to a report from the Labor Department. Although that might signal some economic stability, U.S. employers cut 85,000 jobs in December, suggesting that broader… Continue reading
Jan 08 Watch News Wrap: Stocks Muted on Weak Job Numbers In other news, stocks rose slightly Friday despite news that the economy shed 85,000 jobs in December, and the FBI arrested two men suspected of planning terror attacks in New York. Continue watching
Jan 08 Watch Job Growth Stalls as Economic Outlook Remains Murky The unemployment rate held steady at 10 percent in December, according to new figures released Friday. As part of his continuing series of reports on making sense of the economy, Paul Solman travels to Atlanta to gauge the hiring outlook… Continue watching
Jan 07 Conversation: The Latest in E-Readers By Tom LeGro In another in our series, "The Next Chapter of Reading," Jeffrey Brown talks to Wired staff writer Priya Ganapati, who is at the International Consumer Electronics Show, about what she's seeing in the latest e-reader products. Continue reading
Jan 07 Gift Cards Deliver Merry Christmas for Retailers After a dismal holiday shopping season in 2008, U.S. retailers posted gains in December, with a wave of consumers going to the mall to redeem holiday gift cards responsible for lifting last month's retail sales 2.8 percent over December… Continue reading
Jan 06 Schwarzenegger Seeks 'Federal Fairness' in Final State of the State Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the actor-turned-lawmaker who rode into office waving a broom with which to sweep California's capital clean, tried to salvage a troubled financial situation in his final State of the State address on Wednesday. Facing a… Continue reading
Jan 06 Why Can't We Let Too-Big-to-Fail Companies Fail? Question: Paul, I want to ask you about the “bigness” issue — “too big to fail.” If the big corporations produce most of the economy’s products, such as those companies listed in the Dow & S&P 500, percentage-wise, but employ… Continue reading
Jan 05 After Big Monday, Markets Subdued Tuesday A day after the Dow soared more than 150 points -- raising hopes that an economic recovery is taking root, global markets have been mixed Tuesday, with modest ups and downs after a rash of conflicting economic reports. In… Continue reading
Jan 05 Going, Going, Gone: 2009 Was a 'Recession Battered' Year As early as mid-2007, there was speculation that the bubble had begun to deflate, and by late 2008 it had burst outright, laying the groundwork for a rough 2009. Sales at Sotheby's and Christie's each declined around 50% from the… Continue reading
Jan 05 How Can We Recover if New Jobs Are Low Paying? Question: How can we recover if even the few jobs out there are so low paying? Income has not kept up since the mid-‘80s when so many people lost their jobs the first time. When spending was down, banks and… Continue reading