In other news Friday, the federal government began a criminal probe into financial firm Goldman Sachs, following the civil charges launched by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The government also reported that consumer spending helped lift the economy last quarter,…

Question: You have talked about a jobless recovery. What does it mean? Paul Solman: Boy, have we ever! Indeed, we did a whole series on the so-called “jobless recovery” back in 2003, one of whose stories was our…