EDGE Providence

Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz spoke with Bill Plante about his updated "Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy" now out in paperback and revisits what’s happened to the U.S. economy in the wake of the economic recession.

Americans’ economic struggles persisted in July, largely unchanged from the previous month, according to The Associated Press’ monthly analysis of conditions around the country.

Worried about the stalling economic recovery, Americans remained reluctant to spend at stores in July, especially on pricier items like jewelry, though they let go of some money for travel, according to data released Wednesday.

The federal budget deficit likely will top $1 trillion through the first nine months of this budget year, a slightly improvement from last year’s record pace.

Senate Democrats are working on a new way to jump-start their stalled election-year jobs agenda while saving unemployment benefits for hundreds of thousands of laid-off workers.

Consumer inflation has all but disappeared, the government reported Wednesday. The Federal Reserve may now be emboldened to keep interest rates at record lows well into next year - and possibly into 2012.

First-time claims for unemployment benefits likely dipped last week, economists forecast, as the recovering economy reduces layoffs.

Wholesale prices likely jumped in January, pushed higher by rising gasoline and food costs.

The U.S. spent an average of $7,681 per person on health care in 2008, for an eye-popping total of $2.3 trillion - even though spending actually slowed dramatically that year because of the recession, a new federal study says.

A whopping 82 percent are optimistic about what the new year will bring for their families, according to the latest AP-GfK poll. That sunny outlook seems at odds with other findings.