Thanksgiving 2009 has come and gone and so has Black Friday. Now the question is whether the nation's retailers will be blue this holiday season. ...more

November 28, 2009

WASHINGTON — More than 15 million taxpayers may owe the government $250 or more because of how the IRS last spring set up President Barack Obama's tax break that was designed to help consumers spend the U.S. economy out of recession. ...more

November 16, 2009

October sales reports from major retailers ranging from Target Corp. to Macy's Inc. are expected to offer more evidence of a spending recovery when they're released Thursday. ...more

November 5, 2009

Retail gasoline prices chugged higher Friday to a new peak for the year, forcing consumers to dig deeper into already-thin wallets to pay for fuel. ...more

October 31, 2009

Fueled by government stimulus, the economy grew last quarter for the first time in more than a year. The question now is, can the recovery last? ...more

October 30, 2009

Bank closings for the year hit 100 on Friday when regulators shut down Partners Bank in Florida. Financial institutions nationwide have collapsed under the weight of soured real estate loans and the Great Recession. ...more

October 24, 2009

The world's largest consumer products maker is finding that "new and improved" is still good but "lower price" is working better. ...more

September 11, 2009

Best Buy Co. Inc. reported Tuesday that its first-quarter profit fell 15 percent - even as Circuit City, a key competitor, closed the last of its stores - because recession-weary shoppers were still limiting big-ticket purchases. ...more

June 17, 2009

The government says consumers increased spending for a second straight month in February even though their incomes slipped because of continuing layoffs. ...more

March 28, 2009

The era of the consumer-driven economy may be over. After powering U.S. and global growth for more than a generation, the American consumer has run out of gas. Burdened by debt and no longer able to borrow against rising home and stock values, U.S. households have begun a retreat in spending that will require the nation and the world to find new economic drivers, economists say. ...more

March 24, 2009