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Top U.S. lawmakers voiced rising fear on Sunday that the country would go over "the fiscal cliff" in nine days, triggering harsh spending cuts and tax hikes, and some Republicans charged that was President Barack Obama's goal.

A traditionally quiet week could become hellish for traders as politicians in Washington are likely to fall short of an agreement to deal with $600 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts due to kick in early next year.

Through a combination of procrastination and bad timing, many baby boomers are facing a personal finance disaster just as they're hoping to retire. Starting in January, more than 10,000 baby boomers a day will turn 65, a pattern that will continue for the next 19 years.

Truth is, there’s no right or wrong answer. Choosing whether to lease or buy comes down to informing yourself about what each option entails, and asking yourself a few questions about your financial needs, your lifestyle and preferences.

Skipping holidays could help shore up finances. So how much money could you save by skipping Christmas this year? And what could you do with it instead? Let's take a look.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Department store chain Macy's Inc said on Tuesday it recorded an estimated pre-tax goodwill impairment charge of around $5.4 billion in 2008.

Prosecutors have filed a motion indicating that Bernard Madoff may be ready to plead guilty to a sweeping financial fraud.

Linux and open source software are a key component in the underlying infrastructure of the finance industry, but the higher layers of the stack are still dominated by a multitude of proprietary, in-house solutions. A software startup called Marketcetera aims to change that with a new, open source platform for building automated trading systems.

The avalanche of legal and personal problems tumbling onto a brazen investor grew with the addition of federal charges that he faked a distress call and crashed his plane in an attempt to foil authorities.

A gain related to its acquisition of WaMu helped J.P. Morgan post a profit despite surging provisions for credit losses and markdowns on leveraged loans.