Tracy Davidson

It’s been about 18 months since the sovereign debt crisis in Europe began attracting attention in global financial circles. In that time, the crisis has grown into the biggest challenge the European Union has faced since the adoption of the euro as its single currency 12 years ago. Greece, Portugal and Ireland are on life [...]

With 25 days to go before debt ceiling D-Day, President Obama says he’s gunning for the big deal — the comprehensive, balanced plan that would take a big knife to the country’s debt. That so-called “grand bargain” would be worth up to $4 trillion in debt reduction over the next decade. But getting that grand [...]

Housing prices are likely to keep falling the rest of this year, and probably won’t show much improvement next year either, according to a survey of economists. A CNNMoney exclusive survey of 27 economists showed the battered housing market is facing myriad problems and won’t turn around anytime soon. Of the 22 who had specific [...]

It’s still raining in North Dakota, and the price of pasta, couscous and other grain-based products is going to raise significantly over the next year. And yes, these things are connected, because pasta has become as American as apple pie and the square dance (North Dakota’s state dance, don’t you know?). North Dakota is prime [...]

The Obama administration is trying to make it easier for homeowners who lose their jobs to keep their homes. The administration today will announce that two programs providing unemployed homeowners a few months’ forbearance on their mortgages will be extended to 12 months, said three administration officials speaking anonymously because the program has not been [...]

If you want to understand why cutting the deficit is so hard, you can’t do much better than to look at the Business Roundtable. The roundtable is one of the more moderate big-business lobbying groups. Its president is John Engler, the former Michigan governor, and its incoming chairman is James McNerney, the chief executive of [...]

Two new studies suggest that your mental state – specifically being distracted and experiencing stress – can have a serious, negative impact on your finances. Northwestern Mutual recently surveyed 1,000 Americans 25 and older to analyze their financial tenacity and self-discipline. Not surprisingly, the bulk of those polled admitted they were lagging in those areas. [...]

At a General Motors plant here, transmission assembly looks a lot like musical chairs. For a solid hour, Rick Rush repeatedly inserts a small piece of metal — the parking gear of a future pickup truck — into a slot, adds a spring and lowers hydraulic machines to bolt parts together and ensure they’re properly [...]

When my husband, Earl, left his job as a national accounts manager for book publisher John Wiley & Sons, the very last email he sent from his corporate account carried the subject line “Independence Day.” Like many people who leave a job, Earl (shown at right, and above with me) used his parting missive to [...]

Banks received some long-awaited news last week: the Federal Reserve voted to cap fees charged to retailers on debit card transactions at roughly 24 cents per transaction, down from an average of 44 cents. Financial institutions had feared the Fed’s initial proposal of a 12 cent cap would go through, which would have been a [...]