The government ran a $1.3 trillion for the budget year that ended last month, the third straight year it has operated more than $1 trillion in the red.

For more Americans, being out of work has become a semi-permanent condition.

Europe has a debt crisis. America has a jobs crisis. Corporate profits could be in trouble. World financial markets are in turmoil. And no one seems prepared to ride to the rescue.

Consumers spent a little more in August despite seeing their incomes drop 0.1 percent, the Commerce Department said Friday.

The economy is showing signs of modest improvement not enough to reduce high unemployment but enough to ease fears that another recession might be near.

Confronted with an economy that has decidedly underperformed this year, economists are scaling back their growth forecasts for 2011 and next year.

The Federal Reserve sketched a dim outlook for the economy Tuesday, suggesting it will remain weak for two more years. As a result, the Fed said it expects to keep its key interest rate near zero through mid-2013.

The U.S. economy expanded a little faster at the beginning of the year than previously estimated. But the pace was still anemic and economists don't see that changing until later this year.