Bush Concedes Defeat On Colombia Trade Pact. President Bush said yesterday that a trade agreement with Colombia is "dead" unless House Democrats agree to hold a vote on the pact, effectively admitting defeat on a White House priority.

Hands-free headsets live up to the task at hand. Wireless Bluetooth headsets remind me of early seat belts. Drivers may have recognized the safety benefits but were reluctant..

Chairman Bernanke Delivers Remarks at Harvard University. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke delivers remarks on the economy, June 4, 2008.

Interactive ads click with viewers. Cable operators such as Charter, as well as their satellite TV rivals, all are experimenting with such interactive ads. Their..

Is the Dollar Ready To Rise? Strategists See Reason to Hope. With higher prices at the gas pump and the grocery store, consumers might not be looking favorably at the dollar -- one of the reasons for the recent run-up in commodity prices. But for investors, bad feelings about the dollar could dissipate if it shows greater strength.

Microsoft says willing to restart Yahoo talks. Microsoft Corp said on Monday it would be willing to reopen talks to buy all or part of Yahoo Inc, but only if a new Yahoo board is elected -- a big boost for financier Carl Icahn's board slate.

SUV Drivers Burned Twice: At the Pump, on the Car Lot. Americans' love affair with 22-inch rims, eight cylinders and four-wheel drive wrapped in an 8,000-pound package is over. And the breakup is going to cost.

Despite Interest Rate Cuts, Foreclosures Hit Record High. Even though lower interest rates have made many adjustable-rate mortgages more affordable, foreclosures continue to reach new heights as more than 1 million homeowners face losing their home, according to industry figures released yesterday.

Economists Debate Link Between War, Credit Crisis. For House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the connection between the Iraq conflict and the U.S. economic downturn is simple: "The president has taken us into a failed war," the California Democrat said recently. "He's taken us deeply into debt, and that debt is taking us into recession.".

Oil Costs To Offset Stimulus Package. On the eve of President Bush's visit to Saudi Arabia, crude oil prices set a record for the fifth day in a row yesterday, eating into tax rebates being mailed to U.S. households and prompting FedEx to slash its quarterly earnings forecast by $100 million because of rising fuel costs.

A Backlog Of Cases Alleging Fraud. More than 900 cases alleging that government contractors and drugmakers have defrauded taxpayers out of billions of dollars are languishing in a backlog that has built up over the past decade because the Justice Department cannot keep pace with the surge in charges brought by whistle-blowers,..

Can't Get Ahead, Hard To Keep Up. Offering the gloomiest assessment of economic well-being in close to half a century, a new survey has found that most Americans say they have not made progress over the past five years as their incomes have stagnated and they have increasingly borrowed money to finance their lifestyles.

New cars will skimp on fuel but not on amenities. Automakers are working as fast as they can to meet a new consumer landscape: Buyers want not just fuel-efficient cars but also..

Investors' Growing Appetite for Oil Evades Market Limits. Hedge funds and big Wall Street banks are taking advantage of loopholes in federal trading limits to buy massive amounts of oil contracts, according to a growing number of lawmakers and prominent investors, who blame the practice for helping to push oil prices to record highs.

Public's View of Economy Takes Fast Turn Downward. The public's ratings of the national economy continue to sour, with assessments deteriorating faster than at any point in Washington Post-ABC News polling. Views on the Iraq war have also turned more negative, with six in 10 now rejecting the notion that the United States needs to win there to ef..

New law leads to fight over guns at Atlanta airport. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta is reminding the public of a rule that may seem obvious to many travelers: No guns are allowed at..

IndyMac to stop most mortgage loans, cut 3,800 jobs. IndyMac Bancorp Inc, one of the largest U.S. mortgage lenders, said on Monday it will eliminate 3,800 jobs and stop making most home loans after regulators concluded it was no longer "well capitalized.".

Buoyed by Foreign Money. Not every part of the nation's economy is sagging, despite all the grim news: Exports are surging.

Food Costs Jump Most in 18 Years. Rising global grain prices helped spark the largest increase in monthly food costs in nearly 20 years, as consumers paid more in April for cereals and baked goods, and the dairy, meat and other animal products that rely on feedstocks, the government reported yesterday.

Economy - Monday. Investor's Business Daily - The Federal Reserve and the SEC formally agreed to share information about commercial and investment banks. Regulators want to beef up oversight of Wall St. firms, especially now that the Fed has started letting brokerages borrow directly from the central bank since Bear Stearns' mid-March near-collapse. The Fed has oversight of bank and financial holding companies, while the SEC regulates securities firms, including brokerage giants Goldman Sachs, Lehman Bros., Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.