US Recovery

On the economy, in my humble opinion we're not yet into the virtuous cycle where we can count on above-trend growth to generate jobs, which boosts paychecks, which supports consumption, which signals investors to get into the game, which leads to more growth, etc. But we're headed there. The best evidence for that is the improving job market -- but this remains fragile, and risk factors lurk out there. At this point, what worries me most is the lack of a public policy cushion such that if one of those risk factors flared up, we could count on policy makers to fight back. Jeez... imagine that.

A default of Italy would trigger a European bloodbath and a world crisis compared to which the 2008 crisis would look as a blip.

NEW YORK — Wal-Mart got an early Christmas gift: Its strategy of offering the lowest prices and shoppers' favorite goods is starting to bear fru...

CHICAGO (Ann Saphir) - Borrowing by small U.S. businesses jumped in August, a bright spot in an economy whose weaknesses are so pronounced that th...

(Mark Felsenthal) - The Federal Reserve, facing rising global financial strains and recession fears, is poised to increase downward pressure on lo...

NEW YORK (Chris Reese) - Economists at top financial institutions expect the U.S. unemployment rate to fall in 2011 and 2012 despite a surprisingl...

TOKYO (Stanley White and Tetsushi Kajimoto) - The Federal Reserve does not need to consider additional monetary policy stimulus as the world's lar...

BEIJING (Kevin Yao and Zhou Xin) - China should guard against risks from "excessive" holdings of U.S. assets as Washington could pursue a policy t...

WASHINGTON: Small businesses and consumers were wary about taking advantage of easier credit in the first quarter, but loan demand among large fir...

President Barack Obama told the first meeting of his panel of outside economic advisers that the U.S. must deal with stubbornly high unemployment even...

Under the leadership of President George W. Bush, science, empirical evidence and expert advice struggled to be heard above the din of politics. It's ...