NEW YORK - August 29, 2010 - Faced with mounting debt and looming costs from the new federal health-care law, many local governments are leaving the hospital business, shedding public facilities that can be the caregiver of last resort.

This spring, officials in Lauderdale County, Alabama opted to transfer their 91-year-old Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital and other properties to a for-profit company after struggling to satisfy an angry bond insurer.

WASHINGTON - August 27, 2010 - The U.S. birth rate has dropped for the second year in a row, and experts think the Depression has led many people to put off having children. The 2009 birth rate also set a record: lowest in a century.

Births fell 2.7% last year even as the population grew, according to numbers released Friday by the National Center for Health Statistics.

WASHINGTON - August 26, 2010 - New requests for unemployment benefits fell sharply last week, the first decline in a month and a hopeful sign after a raft of negative economic reports.

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

LONDON, England - August 25, 2010 - The Swiss franc has surged to an all-time high against the euro on capital flight from the eurozone after Irish, Greek, and Portuguese bonds came under renewed fire.

WASHINGTON (PNN) - August 25, 2010 - The economic Depression continues as companies cut back last month on their investments in equipment and machines and Amerikans bought new homes at the weakest pace in decades.

Overall orders for big-ticket manufactured goods increased 0.3% in July, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. But that was only because of a 76% jump in demand for commercial aircraft.

WASHINGTON - August 25, 2010 - It's starting to feel like another Great Depression. Businesses are ordering fewer goods. Home sales are the slowest in decades. Jobs are scarce, and unemployment claims are rising. Perhaps most worrisome, manufacturing activity, which had been one of the economy's few bright spots, is faltering.

"The odds of a double-dip are rising and uncomfortably high," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, referring to the possibility that the nation will tip further into Depression. "Nothing else can go wrong. There is no cushion left."

NEW YORK - August 24, 2010 - Peter Schiff, famous for issuing warnings ahead of the recent U.S. property crash, doesn't have kind words for the recent U.S. Treasury rally.