Economy, Recession | featured news

Consumers spent more on autos, furniture, clothing and gas in July, pushing up retail sales by the largest amount in four months. The gain signaled that Americans are a little more confident in the economy and could helped dispel fears that the country is headed for another recession....

The weak economy is hitting Americans where they spend a lot of their free time: at the TV set. They're canceling or forgoing cable and satellite TV subscriptions in record numbers, according to an analysis by The Associated Press of the companies' quarterly earnings reports.

More than $2.5 trillion have been wiped off the value of world stocks this week on mounting concerns the global economy is heading toward another recession.

A sequel to the Great Recession in the United States just two years after the downturn is not likely because demand for temporary workers, a leading indicator of both upturns and downturns, remains steady, staffing industry executives say.

Job growth in the U.S. rebounded higher in July and the unemployment rate edged lower, the government reported Friday, providing a pinch of good news amid turmoil in global markets and intensifying fears of a recession.

The city of Central Falls, Rhode Island — one of a handful of U.S. cities and counties facing fiscal collapse in the wake of the economic recession — has filed for bankruptcy.

Eight of 90 banks have flunked stress tests that project how they would fare in another recession, and 16 more barely passed, Europe’s banking regulator said Friday. The failing banks should “promptly” take steps to strengthen their financial cushions against losses, the European Banking Authority said as it released the results. The banks that barely passed may also face pressure to strengthen their finances along with the ones that failed.

On a chilly evening in February, a commuter train bound for Worcester, Mass., broke down outside Boston, transforming passengers' usual 80-minute commute into a four-hour nightmare.

European Central Bank Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny does not expect the U.S. economy to enter a double-dip recession and is more concerned about fast-growing developing markets, he told a newspaper.

In a healthy recovery, states and localities produce jobs, expand social services and help fuel the nation's economic growth. Then there's the 2011 recovery. The U.S. economy is moving ahead, however fitfully. Yet state and local governments are still stuck in recession. Short of cash, they cut 30,000 jobs in May, the seventh straight month they've shed workers. Rather than add to U.S. economic growth, they're subtracting from it.