Bester News

Cash strapped Christmas shoppers will have a tighter hold on their pocketbooks this holiday season, according to a national consumer survey released Friday.

Standing at the factory gate he once entered for 33 years is like visiting a cemetery for George Hall.

Question: I'm retired and my 401(k) has lost approximately 35% over the past year. My financial adviser tells me to stay the course, but the losses keep mounting. What should I do? -Dale Marcos, Lafayette, Indiana

Congress passed legislation late Thursday to extend the period of government assistance to Americans struggling in the shrinking job market.

So you've discovered how to network on Facebook and LinkedIn and you've even been known to forward the occasional YouTube video to colleagues. Well, don't go congratulating yourself on how au courant you are just yet.

The volume of shoppers is expected to decline sharply during the 2008 holidays due to such factors as the financial market meltdown and a shorter season, according to a retail industry survey released Wednesday.

Dear Lucy and Emile,

Question: My wife and I are looking into getting some financial advice. Our bank says they offer free services through their financial adviser. This worries my wife because she thinks that the adviser will push the bank's agenda. Is it safer to go with an individual adviser, or is going with one with a bank just as easy? The Mole's Answer: I'm going to go with your wife on this one. But this doesn't mean that the individual unaffiliated adviser is going to do anything different. Every adviser, including yours truly, has an agenda to push.

Al Gore put global warming into the family dinner conversation; now David Walker, former U.S. Comptroller and the star of "I.O.U.S.A.," a documentary about our ballooning national debt, says that if we don't face up to our fiscal problems, the U.S. could go broke.

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