NEW YORK - July 8, 2010 - Amerikans focused on deeply discounted clothing that they needed in June amid escalating worries about jobs, resulting in sluggish sales for many retailers, according to early reports released Thursday.

June’s lackluster performance is raising concerns about the back-to-school shopping season and whether or not we are really experiencing an economic recovery.

NEW YORK - July 8, 2010 - Mortgage rates fell for the second straight week to the lowest point in five decades, but they may not be enough to jump-start the housing market.

Mortgage company Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate for 30-year fixed loans dropped to 4.57%. That's down from the previous record of 4.58% set last week and the lowest since Freddie Mac began tracking rates in 1971. The last time rates were lower was in the 1950s, when most long-term home loans lasted just 20 or 25 years.

NEW YORK - July 6, 2010 - China’s property market is beginning a “collapse” that will hit the nation’s banking system, said Kenneth Rogoff, the Harvard University professor and former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund.

As China’s economy develops, “especially at the speed it’s growing, it’s going to have bumps,” said Rogoff, speaking in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Hong Kong. He also said that while recoveries across the global economy are “very slow,” the danger of a plunge further into Depression is great.

NEW YORK - July 5, 2010 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average is repeating a pattern that appeared just before markets fell during the Great Depression, Daryl Guppy, CEO at Guppytraders.com, told CNBC Monday.

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

LONDON, England - July 4, 2010 - The U.S. workforce shrank by 652,000 in June, one of the sharpest contractions ever. The rate of hourly earnings fell 0.1%. Wages are flirting with deflation.

"The economy is still in the gravitational pull of the Great Recession," said Robert Reich, former U.S. Labor Secretary. "All the booster rockets for getting us beyond it are failing."

"Home sales are down. Retail sales are down. Factory orders in May suffered their biggest tumble since March of last year. So what are we doing about it? Less than nothing," he said.

NEW YORK - July 4, 2010 - There's slow growth and then there's no growth. Nouriel Roubini believes European economic growth will hit a brick wall by year's end.

NEW YORK - July 3, 2010 - For years, most people who worked for state or local governments accepted a fact of life: Their pay wasn't great. The job security was. Now that's gone, too.

States and municipalities are facing gaping budget gaps. Many have responded by slashing services, raising taxes and, for the first time in decades, making deep job cuts.