President-elect Barack Obama warned of dire and lasting consequences if Congress doesn't pump unprecedented dollars into the national economy, making an urgent pitch Thursday for his mammoth spending proposal. His first speech since the election, which did not reveal any new details of the plan, was primarily intended to drum up support. Here are some excerpts: ...more

January 9, 2009

Preliminary data for December passenger traffic at Tampa International Airport shows the same gloomy trends shaped by the poor national economy in the previous eight months. ...more

January 8, 2009

obama and congressional leaders work on tax cuts now reaching $300 billion ...more

January 5, 2009

Janet Railey knows the drill. About noon Friday, the Dade City resident emerged from Kmart in the Townview Square mall on U.S. 301 in Zephyrhills. ...more

December 27, 2008

WASHINGTON - Citing danger to the national economy, the Bush administration came to the rescue of the U.S. auto industry Friday, offering $17.4 billion in emergency loans in exchange for concessions from the deeply troubled carmakers and their workers. ...more

December 19, 2008

The Bush administration is looking at "orderly" bankruptcy as a possible way to deal with the desperately ailing U.S. auto industry, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Thursday as carmakers readied more plant closings and a half million new jobless claims underscored the deteriorating national economy. ...more

December 18, 2008

In fiscal year 2007-08, the county issued just 397 single-family home permits, an 835 percent drop from the boom years of 2004-05. ...more

December 18, 2008

If huge loans to U.S. automakers would save the domestic part of the industry and help the nation more quickly pull out of the recession, it would be well worth supporting. ...more

December 12, 2008

Detroit's Big Three automakers pleaded with Congress on Tuesday for a $25 billion lifeline to save the once-proud titans of U.S. industry, warning of a national economic catastrophe should they collapse. ...more

November 18, 2008

We in the press deserve some blame for not warning loudly enough early enough that the fast-moving housing market was circling the drain. ...more

November 1, 2008