Archive for May, 2008

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Amid soaring oil prices that some say are caused by nothing more than rampant speculation, the government Thursday announced a wide ranging probe into oil price manipulation and said it would get more information on the effect investors are having on the market.

An influential coalition of Fortune 500 companies and environmental groups that was formed to support climate-change legislation has splintered over the Lieberman-Warner bill that is headed next week to the Senate floor.

One of the great things about shopping on sites like Amazon has been not having to pay a dime in taxes (or shipping, if you've spent enough). Since the dawn of Web commerce, the rule was that as long as a retailer didn't have a physical presence in the shopper's state, the company didn't collect a sales tax.

Tech stocks rallied for the fourth session in a row on Friday, on Dell's improved earnings. But the broader market struggled amid rising oil and gas prices, and a mix of economic news that did little to temper fears about a slowdown.

The Treasury Department said Friday it sent out 5.7 million economic stimulus payments this week, totaling more than $4 billion, as part of the government's plan to reinvigorate the nation's sluggish economy.

Times are tough. The economy is weakening, consumer confidence is at a low and Americans are struggling just to buy basics like gas and groceries. So when it comes to getting goods that fall beyond the bare necessities, shoppers are getting smarter.

Brian and Ginny Washburne are scaling back on road trips, including trips to see grandma.

The tank is near empty as we drive across the Brooklyn Bridge in search of a cheap fill-up outside of Manhattan. Approaching the brownstone-packed Park Slope neighborhood, I type the zip code "11217" on my laptop which is connected via aircard to automotive.com, one of at least a half-dozen sites that promise to locate the lowest-priced gas station wherever you may be driving in the country. Automotive.com gets our first test because the firm promoted itself to CNN.