The slow pace of America's economic recovery means many states are still hurting financially. As many as 15 states still can't agree on a budget, and that's a problem, because in many states the fiscal year begins next month. Parents are understandably anxious about what this all means for the upcoming school year. And they should be. An analysis released earlier this month by the National Governors Association and National Association of State Budget Officers ...

President-elect Barack Obama said Tuesday the deficit appears on track to hit $1 trillion soon. Speaking to reporters after meeting with top economic aides, Mr. Obama said: "Potentially we've got trillion-dollar deficits for years to come, even with the economic recovery that we are working on." — Associated Press, Jan. 6 Actually, the deficit is on track to hit $1.2 trillion this year, but what's $200 billion among friends? Seriously, what is it? To the average person, a number ...

Buying a home is more affordable that it has been in decades. But what's even more affordable in a lot of U.S. cities? Renting. The price-rent ratio compares the price of a property with the annual cost of renting. When the figure falls below 17, the monthly cost of a mortgage, taxes and maintenance is less expensive than that of signing a lease. On average, that is now the case in the U.S. But in a number of large cities, ...

Cancer stalks the women in Anna Fisher's family. Her grandmother died of "female cancer" -- probably ovarian -- in the 1940s. When Fisher was five, her mother developed breast cancer. After having a mastectomy, the mother survived for a decade, only to die from cancer originating in the other breast. Fisher also has a maternal aunt who had ovarian tumors, and five cousins contracted breast cancer. Malignancy is simply part of her pedigree. So it was no big surprise, though ...

After Wall Street stabilized last spring, it didn't take long for the economy to become a political afterthought to the major battle of the year in Washington: health-care reform. But last Tuesday's off-year election broke D.C.'s political trance like a brick through plate glass. Republicans triumphed in two major gubernatorial races thanks largely to independents fleeing Democrats over economic worries. Suddenly every politician in town cares about the economy more than anything else. So Friday's jobless number from the Labor Department will quickly become ...

China needs an "urgent" tightening of monetary policy to prevent the huge stimulus measures introduced this year from inflating stock and property bubbles, one of the country's leading bankers has warned. Qin Xiao -- chairman of China Merchants Bank, the country's sixth-biggest -- says in Thursday's Financial Times that the government should not be afraid of a "moderate slowdown" in the economy. "Monetary policy must not neglect asset-price movements," he writes. "Therefore it is urgent that China shifts from a ...

BHP Billiton on Wednesday added its voice to tentative signs of a more broad-based global recovery when the Anglo-Australian mining group reported record iron ore production in the three months ended September.

President Obama will visit New Orleans on Thursday for the first time since taking office, to address rebuilding efforts in the city ravaged by Hurricane Katrina four years ago. During his trip, Obama will visit a charter school and host a town hall meeting to hear residents' concerns, the White House said. The president's visit will focus on efforts to help rebuild the Gulf Coast, including cutting red tape and easing funding so residents can become self-sufficient. "The president made ...

Over the past 30 years, the way we save for retirement has come to be dominated by one plan: the 401. But the financial crisis and resulting market meltdown showed the 401 to be far from perfect. A number of academics and others have proposed either changes to the 401 system or scrapping it altogether. Roger Ferguson Jr., chief executive of the investment firm TIAA-CREF, is one of the few financial executives who have backed changing the system. Ferguson's ...

The U.S. economy will grow more than expected in the third quarter, but unemployment also will continue to increase and will pass 10 percent, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Sunday. Greenspan told the ABC program "This Week" that he expected 3 percent growth in the third quarter, up from the 2.5 percent he previously predicted. However, he said a "pretty awful" September employment report released Friday showed the jobless rate continued to climb. A slowing or halt in ...