What’s stopping small businesses from hiring? One popular story line of the recession is that small businesses, which employ about half the workforce, are afraid to hire because they don’t know what health-care reform and tax changes will mean. Based on that narrative, some stock market observers predict that the November [ Read More → ]

NEW YORK — This year’s back-to-school season isn’t as big a bust for retailers as they feared — or as last year’s — but it’s not great either. Americans are spending only when the item and price are just right, according to August reports from major chains released Thursday [ Read More → ]

Back in 2008, a South Florida financial executive found himself firing each of the 70 employees reporting to him. Then, he, too, became a casualty of the crumbling economy. The executive asked for some anonymity in exchange for his honest account of what followed. Sweating through an unfriendly job market, he [ Read More → ]

WASHINGTON — It’s starting to feel like another recession. Businesses are ordering fewer goods. Home sales are the slowest in decades. Jobs are scarce, and unemployment claims are rising. Perhaps most worrisome, manufacturing activity, which had been one of the economy’s few bright spots, is faltering. “The odds of a [ Read More → ]

Anna and Charlie Reynolds of St. George, Utah, were worried about losing their home to foreclosure last year. Then they got a lucky break—from an unlikely savior. Some investment funds are emerging as the best hope for millions of U.S. households, like the Reynolds, above, who were behind on [ Read More → ]

WASHINGTON - Unable to make a sizable dent in unemployment, Democrats are on the political equivalent of a golden oldies tour, pledging support for Social Security, Medicare and other venerable programs while trying to stoke voter fears about Republican intentions. The Voting Rights Act, Americans with Disabilities Act and most recently, [ Read More → ]

A year ago, Stephen Udden was laid off, a victim of outsourcing when the telecommunications company where he worked as a software engineer project manager moved operations overseas, and his office in the United States was shuttered. The Foxborough resident has since been updating his skills. He has received business strategy [ Read More → ]

BERLIN — Germans are famous for being hard workers - but retirement at 70? That’s the prescription of two think tanks, which say years more toil are inevitable due to stubbornly low birthrates and the ballooning costs of the cradle-to-grave welfare system in a country that already has decided to bump [ Read More → ]

In suburban Toronto, a couple we’ll call Wayne, 34, and Julia, 35, are raising their two children, ages four and six. Julia hasn’t worked for years and doesn’t want to return to a job. They want to save for the kids’ education, move up from their $600,000 house to one [ Read More → ]

WASHINGTON - Consumer borrowing fell in June for a fifth straight month as households keep cutting back on credit card use. Borrowing dropped at an annual rate of $1.3 billion in June, the Federal Reserve reported Friday. That marked the 16th drop in overall credit in the past 17 months. Americans backed [ Read More → ]