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November 26, 2012 Thanksgiving weekend spending shot up nearly 13 percent from last year, and there's more time between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year for people to shop. And if a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff comes just before Christmas, as some expect, it could brighten the economic mood of last-minute shoppers.

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November 13, 2012 The alternative minimum tax is looming over about 27 million more taxpayers this year. It's just one part of the so-called fiscal cliff — a big cluster of automatic spending cuts and tax hikes that will occur if Congress does not act. Those taxpayers could end up paying an average of $3,700 more without a fix.

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November 11, 2012 From higher payroll taxes to automatic cuts in military spending, the looming budget crisis could drag the economy back into recession and create turmoil in the financial markets, economists say. To better understand what's at stake, have a look at some of the key phrases involved in the crisis.

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November 7, 2012 With the election behind them, Congressional leaders are now facing automatic spending cuts and tax hikes that economists fear could plunge the economy back into recession. Can they work together to avert disaster?

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November 7, 2012 The lame-duck Congress has just weeks to jump to the rescue of an economy moving closer and closer to the so-called fiscal cliff — a $600 billion cluster of automatic spending cuts and tax hikes due to hit at year's end.

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• Media Circus: Fox Struggles With Obama's Win

November 2, 2012 Friday's jobs report was — in effect — a BEFORE snapshot of the U.S. economy. The Labor Department collected all of the data before Superstorm Sandy slammed into the East Coast and before the election outcome could be known. The election adds uncertainty over the looming fiscal cliff that has made some companies reluctant to hire.

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October 30, 2012 As the massive cleanup begins, business owners, workers and investors are wondering what impact the megastorm ultimately will have on their wallets. Did Sandy weigh down economic activity enough to drown the recovery? Or will the rebuilding efforts boost growth over the longer term?

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October 29, 2012 Economists will need many days — maybe weeks or months — to assess the financial harm being done by Hurricane Sandy. But whatever the final figure, it will be huge — well into the tens of billions of dollars — after everything from property damage to lost sales is tallied up.

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October 24, 2012 Both President Obama and Mitt Romney have suggested ways to scale back the deduction's value for wealthy taxpayers. It's one of the keys to helping reduce the federal budget deficit, but the real estate industry says the housing market is too fragile to eliminate the tax break altogether.

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October 22, 2012 When the presidential candidates hold their final debate Monday night, this one on foreign policy, they'll likely be asked to define their vision of America's role in the world. As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down, that role may shift back to economic and cultural leadership, scholars say.

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October 19, 2012 Retirement accounts have finally recovered the ground they lost when the stock market started crashing in 2008. But they have lost five years' worth of gains. So millions of small investors are doubting the old adage "invest for the long haul."

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October 16, 2012 An immediate resignation is "not the way boards do things," one analyst said about the confounding news.

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October 16, 2012 With the election just three weeks away, many voters are still scratching their heads, wondering what exactly the candidates would do to improve the economy. Audience members at Tuesday night's presidential debate could focus on economic topics such as home prices, gasoline, wages, exports and jobs.

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October 11, 2012 The vice presidential debate is bound to feature lots of budget buzzwords. They may be shorthand for policies that could have huge impacts on taxpayers and the annual $1 trillion budget deficit.

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