What a ride it's been since Sept. 11, 2001. Remember that eerie silence following the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington D.C.? I'm not talking just about the empty skies. I'm also referring to the total lack of commerce. Our economy had tanked. People were scared. Talk about no consumer confidence.

Gilbert's business development manager, Dan Henderson, will discuss the town's economic development efforts at a Chamber of Commerce networking luncheon on Wednesday.

 Hey, did you hear? Santa Claus is laying off Rudolph after the big night. Like other employers, Claus has to, ah, rein in costs. He can’t afford to keep and feed nine reindeer, even if they are tiny, for another whole year.

It's exciting that the world is so excited about Barack Obama. I'm excited, too. That he achieved the presidency says something good about America.

Michael Bidwill, president of the Arizona Cardinals, has been selected chairman of the board of directors of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council board of directors, the Valley's lead economic development group, for 2008-09.

In a rancorous and contentious campaign season, one can expect all manners of high-blown rhetoric and less-than-civil dialogue to surface, and indeed it has.

A very old story is once again being retold, with a few of the characters' names updated to besmirch the innocent. In this story, conservatives are to blame for an economic crisis because they allegedly believe there is no role for government in the economy, and all economic crises are due to lax regulation of markets.

 Mesa’s economic development office is hosting an event aimed at small business owners who may be finding themselves shortchanged in today’s rough economic conditions.

WASHINGTON - The country didn't get the energetic rebound in economic growth hoped for from the government's tax rebates in the second quarter, and the economy jolted into reverse at the end of 2007, raising new recession fears.

WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve on Wednesday lowered its projection for economic growth this year, citing damage from the double blows of a housing slump and credit crunch. It said it also expects higher unemployment and inflation.

The Chandler Chamber of Commerce will host an economic update forum luncheon noon Wednesday at Serrano’s Mexican Restaurant, 141 S. Arizona Ave.

The financial markets, home sales and the mortgage business have all taken some hard hits lately, enough for Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to offer the reassurance that the U.S. economy is strong enough to weather the blows without falling into recession.

KYOTO, JAPAN - The dual realities speak for themselves. Asia’s poverty rate has plummeted from about 50 percent to less than 19 percent in the past four decades and the average income has grown nearly sixfold, but nearly 2 billion people still live on less than $2 a day.

WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress on Wednesday he doesn't believe the economy will slip into a recession and rejected the notion raised by his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, that the economic expansion, which started in late 2001, could be running out of steam.

WASHINGTON - Restrained by a worse-than-expected slump in housing, the economy will grow at the slowest pace in five years in 2007, leading economic forecasters say. They predict consumers will get a break on inflation from falling energy prices.

Williams Gateway Airport on Monday released figures highlighting its effect on the local economy, three days before a special meeting will be held to review a contested residential development near the airport.

August 24, 2004

WASHINGTON - For the past three years, the U.S. economy has taken hits from the bursting stock market bubble, a re cession and terrorist attacks. Conditions now, finally, offer the prospect of better growth over the last six months of the year.

WASHINGTON - The economy may at last be pulling out of a three-year slump that began with a bursting stock market bubble and was intensified by recession, terrorist attacks, corporate scandals and war.