Economy

Led by Harris County, the population of the 10 county Greater Houston Metropolitan area went over 6 million people last summer, making it the nation's fifth-largest metro area.  The US Census Bureau says Harris County added more people than any other county in the nation between April 1, 2010, and July 2011.

Even stacked together in a jar, all those pennies you have are fairly worthless. However, they may soon become collectors’ items. Canada, our neighbor to the North, has just eliminated the penny in their latest federal budget, following the example of nations like Australia and New Zealand. The Canadian national mint will stop producing the one-cent coin over the next six months, and businesses ha

A recent poll shows that more than two thirds of Americans do not approve of the way President Barack Obama is handling gasoline prices.

Did you know that America's total student loan debt now surpasses the nation's total credit card debt?  It's true.  Sometime last year, credit card debt actually declined a little, as more and more people stopped using credit cards.  But student loan debt keeps going up, and up, with no sign of stopping. Worse, there's almost no chance that any of it will ever be paid off.

During an interview earlier this week, an advisor to Mitt Romney inadvertently made a comment that is now likely to stick with the GOP hopeful for the duration of the campaign season, and it’s lead to a boom in sales for a very old and largely forgotten toy: the Etch A Sketch.

Banks are foreclosing on America's churches in record numbers -- as lenders lose patience with religious groups who defaulted on their mortgages.  The surge in church foreclosures shows many banks are no longer willing to show forbearance with struggling churches.

The more we learn about the massive $26 billion foreclosure settlement between the five biggest mortgage lenders and the states' attorneys general, growing numbers of borrowers are realizing that the deal will do little, if anything, to help them out.

The annual SXSW interactive conference in Austin is sometimes plagued with snail-slow internet speeds (when you can connect at all). But this year it’s been a little easier to find a wifi hotspot: just look for a homeless person. Yes, homeless people are now being used as wifi spots.