Patrice Hill

U.S. growth slows to 2.2 percent in first quarter

Growth in the U.S. economy slowed to 2.2 percent in the first quarter from 3 percent at the end of last year, even as unusually mild winter weather gave a strong boost to consumer spending and car sales, the Commerce Department reported Friday morning.

April 27, 2012

Gas prices stall early in season

Gasoline prices appear to have peaked more than a month earlier than usual this year at less than $4 a gallon, reflecting reduced tensions with Iran and declining demand for fuel in the U.S. and China, oil analysts say.

April 17, 2012

Jobless rate falls again, but job growth disappoints

The U.S. unemployment rate slipped further to a three-year low of 8.2 percent last month as businesses kept churning out new jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday morning.

April 6, 2012

Bernanke: Fed actions prevented a depression

For Americans who have forgotten, or who never knew, how much worse things could get — shantytowns, gnawing hunger and a desperate 1 in 4 people out of work — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is providing a reminder.

March 28, 2012

Fueled by mild winter, consumers save enough cash to fill up the tank

It's not making headlines, but this year's unusually mild weather and low home-heating costs substantially offset the pinch from fast-rising gasoline prices and underpinned the revival of consumer spending.

March 21, 2012

Fed more upbeat about economic outlook

The Federal Reserve upgraded its outlook on the U.S. economy Tuesday, noting recent strong improvements in the job market while downplaying higher gasoline prices that are temporarily stoking inflation.

March 13, 2012

Obama’s re-election fortunes ride on rising economy

President Obama's re-election prospects are getting a boost from the plunging unemployment rate and the pickup in the economy and financial markets this year, economic and political analysts say.

March 11, 2012

Strong job gains hold unemployment down to 8.3 percent

The rapid improvement in the nation's job market continued in February with employers adding another 227,000 jobs — enough new openings to hold the unemployment rate at 8.3 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday morning.

March 9, 2012

China’s appetite for commodities a boon for businesses

While much of the world is still struggling to recover from the great slump of the past few years, nations and states that cater to China's enormous appetite for energy, food, metals and other commodities have been doing swimmingly.

February 26, 2012

Youths show economic frustration in streets around the world

After the Great Recession swept through the global economy and crushed the job prospects and financial security of millions of young people, thousands took to the streets in the past year from Cairo and Moscow to Washington and Wall Street to demand a new economic and political order.

February 20, 2012

Millennials forced to put lives on hold

Nicholas Rastenis has been through the wringer. After getting a master's degree in fine arts from Yale University in 2008, he expected to land a job at a top design firm. But nearly four years later, after many months of joblessness, austerity and anxiety, his ambitions in life have come down quite a bit.

February 19, 2012

Unemployment rate falls to 8.3 percent with broad hiring gains

The U.S. economy was firing on all cylinders in January, drawing the unemployment rate down to a three-year low of 8.3 percent and creating nearly a quarter million new jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday morning.

February 3, 2012

Jobless rate has fallen because of dropouts

The big drop in the unemployment rate in recent months came at a fortunate time for President Obama, but economists say it as much because of young people dropping out of the labor market as it is the result of businesses adding jobs.

February 2, 2012

Retiring later a tough sell in cutting deficit

Suppose Congress could adopt a simple measure that all at once takes a giant step toward taming huge budget deficits and gives a powerful boost to the economy and employment. It would pass in a minute, right?

January 29, 2012

Economy picks up the pace with 2.8 percent growth in fourth quarter

The U.S. economy picked up speed last quarter, growing at a 2.8 percent pace compared to a 1.8 percent rate in the summer quarter of 2011, the Commerce Department reported Friday morning.

January 27, 2012

Fed pushes for government action to help revive housing

Top Federal Reserve officials are prodding the White House and Congress to take more aggressive action to stop the free-fall in the housing market, warning that the U.S. economy will remain sluggish and vulnerable and will not fully recover until housing returns to better health.

January 18, 2012

West’s pressure on Iran may squeeze U.S., too

As tensions heat up between Iran and the West, the prospect of a big spike in oil prices to as high as $200 a barrel suddenly looms over the U.S. economy, threatening to overshadow what have been promising signs of gathering strength.

January 12, 2012

Latin oil supplies for U.S. start to dry up

The political and environmental debates swirling around the proposed $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to Texas miss a crucial point, energy analysts say: The Canadian oil is needed to replace fast-dwindling production from two other major suppliers of oil — Mexico and Venezuela.

January 2, 2012