NEW ORLEANS - Both Republican and Democrat officials in Louisiana say the federal moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, put in place after the BP oil spill, is now that state’s biggest problem.
 U.S. federal government officials and many environmental activists say the temporary ban on drilling is necessary to prevent further accidents. […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke says the central bank will take further steps to boost the economy if conditions deteriorate.
The central bank chief spoke Friday to top economic officials from the United States and other nations, and leaders of major financial firms.
While Bernanke did not commit the Fed to a specific […]

WASHINGTON - Housing sales in the United States dropped sharply in July, hitting their lowest level in 15 years.
Tuesday’s report from a business group, the National Association of Realtors, says the number of previously owned homes sold fell more than 27 percent from the previous month.
While sales were down, the average price for a home […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. stocks fell for a third day as disappointing earnings and economic news showed signs of a weakening recovery.  The Dow Jones Industrial average fell more than 60 points before the opening bell on Thursday after technology giant Cisco posted weaker than expected growth. 
The Dow has fallen more than 300 points since Tuesday, […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. employment dropped for the second straight month in July as private employers did less hiring than hoped and more than 140,000 people who were hired temporarily for the nationwide census were let go. The figures are giving rise to pessimism about the nation’s economic recovery.
The Labor Department reported Friday that private employers […]

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama says the U.S. unemployment report for July shows some encouraging signs, even though the jobless rate remained at 9.5 percent.  But the president admits more improvement is needed.
The Labor Department says the U.S. economy made progress in some areas last month, but not in others.
The nation lost jobs overall, mainly […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. economic recovery lost some momentum in April, May and June, as consumer spending cooled and the trade deficit grew.
Friday’s Commerce Department report says the gross domestic product grew just 2.4 percent in the second quarter. That is much slower than the 3.7-percent growth in the first part of the year.
The GDP […]

TORONTO - Leaders of major industrialized and developing nations have returned to their home countries, after endorsing a plan that calls for the world’s richest nations to cut deficits in half within three years.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the plan at the end of the G20 summit in Toronto.
Countries will be allowed to slash […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. stock prices edged higher Friday after the U.S. Senate passed the biggest overhaul of the nation’s financial system since the 1930s. The Senate measure must be reconciled with a version passed earlier in the House of Representatives, but it still marks a major policy victory for President Barack Obama. What remains uncertain […]

WASHINGTON - Germany’s decision this week to ban speculative short selling of certain types of financial instruments has rattled financial markets around the world, further weakening the euro. 
The 16-nation currency, which has been battered by continuing concerns about the European debt crisis, fell to a four-year low on Wednesday.  Although the euro bounced back slightly, […]

LONDON - While a falling euro has grabbed financial headlines, the price of gold reached a record-high last week and has since hovered around $1,200 an ounce, that is up from $930 a year ago and $270 a decade ago. 
Analysts say a worsening debt picture among industrialized nations has reduced confidence in the world’s major […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama is challenging critics who claim his policies are not helping the country’s economy. 
Mr. Obama told factory workers in the central state of Ohio Tuesday that the United States would have been in “a deeper world of hurt” without a massive economic stimulus package and the bailout of the financial […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. government’s monthly jobs report said the economy added nearly 300,000 new jobs last month, the biggest monthly total in four years.  The economy in general and the jobless rate in particular will be factors in this year’s midterm congressional elections, and politicians from both major political parties are keeping close watch […]

WASHINGTON - A flurry of economic reports Wednesday show the U.S. job market improving.
A report from ADP, a business that processes paychecks for 24 million U.S. workers, says private employers boosted employment by 32,000 in April.
A different business group, the Institute for Supply Management, shows the largest sector of the U.S. economy, the services sector, […]

WASHINGTON - Global economic leaders declared Friday that the world economy is recovering better than expected from its worst recession in decades, and committed to continue efforts to ensure a sustained worldwide rebound.
Friday’s meetings of central bank governors and finance ministers of the world’s Group of 20 nations in Washington D.C. credited massive government stimulus […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged on Goldman Sachs with fraud, accusing the financial firm of lying to investors, costing them an estimated $1 billion.
The commission says the company lied about securities related to the U.S. subprime mortgage market just as the housing market was beginning to falter.
Goldman Sachs says […]

WASHINGTON - In U.S. economic news, retail spending surged last month amid continued low inflation - a sign that Americans believe better economic times lie ahead. Meanwhile, the head of the U.S. Central Bank says a modest economic recovery will continue, but that the United States will be hard pressed to replace millions of jobs […]

WASHINGTON - The economic downturn and ongoing under-employment in the U.S. have resulted in a big increase in the number of Americans using food stamps.  Once considered a social safety net for only the lowest income Americans, the use of federally funded food stamps has grown dramatically over the last two years. New government data […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says the nation’s jobless rate will be “unacceptably high” for a long time.
Thursday, Geithner told television interviewers on NBC that businesses are going to start creating jobs again, but also said it will take a long time to reverse the damage done by the recession.
The U.S. economy shed […]

NEW YORK - Over 10 percent of New Yorkers, nearly 425,000, are unemployed and looking for work, the highest rate in the three decades that records have been kept. The city’s jobless numbers are expected to stay at ten percent or above through next year. And that doesn’t include those who have given up looking […]

WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke stated his case before Congress Wednesday that the Fed should retain supervision of all U.S. banks and not just those institutions that are too big to fail.  The Fed chief spoke  before the House Financial Services Committee as new efforts to overhaul the nation’s financial regulations get underway.
The […]

WASHINGTON - Legislation proposed this week by U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd could result in big changes in the way financial institutions do business.  Dodd, the Democratic Party chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, says the bill expands the Federal Reserve’s role in policing large financial institutions and creates a new consumer protection agency.  But some […]

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has announced a new strategy aimed at boosting U.S. exports, saying his administration will work to level the playing field around the world for U.S. businesses and workers.
Linking America’s economic recovery with its ability to expand exports, the president used a speech to the U.S. Export-Import Bank in Washington to […]

WASHINGTON - The United States says it will debut a new design to the hundred-dollar bill next month.
In a statement Friday, the Treasury Department said it makes decisions about currency redesigns by evaluating “ongoing counterfeit threats.”
The department said the new look will help protect against fraud.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke […]