WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s the last thing a nervous consumer and a fragile economy needed: a confidence-killing nosedive on Wall Street. Americans struggling with lean wages, job insecurity and high gasoline prices have seen a 15-percent plunge in stock prices shrink their 401(k) accounts over the past 2 1/2 weeks. When consumers feel less wealthy, […]
WASHINGTONÂ — Republicans and Democrats quickly doled out blame to each other for the first-ever downgrade in the nation’s sterling credit rating, an expected but unsettling move that further clouds prospects for the recovery of the fragile U.S. economy. The back and forth came after Standard & Poor’s, one of the world’s three major credit […]
