Hundreds of people looking for employment wait in line at an over-50s job fair in New York in April. US joblessness now stands at 9.5% and one in six are believed to be under-employed. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images A crippled housing market. Stubbornly high levels of unemployment. Falling consumer confidence. Slower growth in industrial production. [...]

There are some people who can buy a stock with the intention of holding it for years and years. If this is you, you look at a lower stock price as an opportunity to get it cheaper, or on sale. While this may work for some, people often times under estimate the risk of supposed [...]

It is hard to go on the Internet these days without seeing an ad offering exclusive advice for making it big on the stock market, or to enter a bookstore without seeing several books on investing for beginners. Infomercials promise fast, easy profits and easy-to-learn systems. But in reality, the only teacher of these lessons [...]