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 → ]

James Mayer, The Oregonian Follow Share this story Story tools Brent Wojahn/The OregonianDanna Gunn of Portland shops for shoes on the opening day of Saks Off 5th in Bridgeport Village Thursday. The store features both discounted items from the full-price Saks Fifth Avenue line and merchandise made specifically for Off 5th. 3 0 Share In 1987, Saks [ 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 → ]

Reaching 65 no longer means hanging up your work shoes Photo: ALAMY In the last three months an extra 40,000 people over the age of 65 have joined the work force, taking the total number to 823,000. This is the highest number since the Office for National Statistics started keeping these figures in [ Read More → ]

The markets are signaling that a bout of deflation may be coming. Many economists still dismiss the threat. But if they are wrong, and deflation does set in, what would it mean for stocks, bonds, gold and other investments? The last time deflation fears gripped the markets was in 2003, when [ Read More → ]

In the real estate world, there was one word that used to be the cardinal rule: location, location, location. Just about anybody — the informed and uninformed — could buy a house in a good location and easily make money by flipping, selling or refinancing the home, sometimes after just a [ Read More → ]

Whomever President Barack Obama taps to head the new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection could find it difficult to keep ahead of the credit-card industry. The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, known as the Card Act, was intended to reshape the contours of consumer finance. Among other [ Read More → ]

Millions of Brits have hit financial difficulties during the recession and struggled to make ends meet. It’s been a tough few years that will have left many people with a glitch or two on repayment records. Paying off some lenders one month and others the next could have left marks on credit [ Read More → ]

WASHINGTON - Reveling in victory, President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed into law the most sweeping overhaul of financial regulations since the Great Depression, a package that aims to protect consumers and ensure economic stability from Main Street to Wall Street. The law, pushed through mainly by Democrats in Washington’s deeply [ Read More → ]

WASHINGTON — Reveling over a new milestone in his presidency, a triumphant Barack Obama on Wednesday signed into law the most sweeping overhaul of lending and high-finance rules since the Great Depression, adding safeguards for millions of consumers and aiming to restrain Wall Street excesses that could set off a [ Read More → ]