Consumer cutbacks could lead to falling prices, suffocating investment and worsening joblessness for months.

Machinists union members ratified a new contract with The Boeing Co., ending an eight-week strike that cut the airplane maker?s profits and stalled jetliner deliveries.

Analysts expect an array of private equity firms to face pressure as profits shrink and creditors come knocking.

Reuters - The U.S. Treasury Department is considering using more of its $700 billion rescue fund to buy stakes in a broad range of financial companies, not just banks and insurers, after tentative signs of the program's success, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Blogging about staff cuts is particularly prevalent in Silicon Valley, where companies feel pressure to break bad news on their own blogs so that they can better control the message.

The company?s chief executive is to propose a technology-fueled economic recovery plan that calls for investment in more efficient systems for various public services.

Having been brought low by their dealings in obscure securities, bankers are reluctant to start lending again until the impact of the recession becomes clearer.

In his first news conference as president-elect, Barack Obama gave crisp answers to questions and said an economic recovery would not be quick or easy.

Labor experts say the hardships of the gathering recession will hurt the working poor and younger job seekers most of all.

Stocks on the major Asian exchanges rose sharply on Monday, a day after China announced a $586 billion economic stimulus package.

Reuters - Asian stock markets and commodities retreated on Tuesday while the yen pushed higher as a souring economic outlook took some of the wind out of investor hopes sparked by China's massive stimulus plan.

Some established firms have collapsed outright, others are laying off by the hundreds, and others still are seeking mergers with larger firms to try and weather the storm.

Asian stocks markets had some of their steepest declines this month, amid fresh worries about the state of the U.S. and Chinese economies, and poor corporate news out of the United States.

Users of the voice technology can ask any question, ranging from ?Where?s the nearest Starbucks?? to ?How tall is Mount Everest??

The White House urged Congressional Democrats to speed up access to $25 billion in federal loan guarantees for ailing U.S. automakers.

Reuters - General Motors Corp has been telling U.S. government officials that a bankruptcy filing by the automaker would set off a chain reaction hitting hundreds of its suppliers and dealers as well as its Detroit rivals, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

Congress returns for its lame-duck session with a major issue facing members: whether to bail out the imperiled domestic auto industry.

Rick Wagoner, G.M.?s chief executive, and his company have become the lightning rods of the debate over whether Detroit should get a bailout.

The court upheld the right of states to prohibit the sale of doctor-specific prescription drug data that is widely used in pharmaceutical marketing.

A federal jury in Manhattan on Wednesday convicted Alberto W. Vilar on 12 counts of fraud.

Hard times are back on the American farmstead, as the price paid for crops is dropping much faster than the cost of growing them.

In a stunning turnabout, the banking giant has sunk to its knees and left it running short on time and options.

The Screen Actors Guild inched closer to a strike after two days of talks with an alliance of Hollywood studios apparently broke down.

Regulators approved a radical plan to stabilize the bank in an arrangement in which the government could soak up billions of dollars in losses.

Reuters - New Jersey's pension fund is under fire over a series of hedge-fund investments, the Wall Street Journal said.

The discovery of the toxic chemical melamine in infant formula made by an American manufacturer raises the possibility that the problem was more extensive than previously thought.

The Reserve Primary Fund has adjusted its timeline of events for breaking the buck on Sept. 16., correcting the time that its per-share value actually fell below a dollar.

British American Tobacco (BAT) says it may get £1.2bn of tax back after a High Court judge ruled it had overpaid.

Reuters - General Motors Corp is pushing some bondholders to swap their debt for equity, as Chief Executive Rick Wagoner tries to keep the automaker out of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy that would likely cost him his job, The Wall Street Journal said late Friday, citing people familiar with the plan.

China's President Hu Jintao warns of the effects of the global financial crisis on his country, as economic growth slows.