If the market crisis of 2008 taught employees anything about their 401(k) accounts, it was just how quickly they could turn into "201(k)" accounts (to quote those days' painfully popular water-cooler joke).It also gave the insurance industry new ammunition in

In the economy-makes-strange-bedfellows category, it's hard to beat the calculations of Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, authors of the 2005 best-seller, "Freakonomics." The book applied economic theory — not moral standards — to societal issues like effective parenting and why

Fast earnings growth is a promising sign for a stock. Expectations of fast earnings growth, however, can cause trouble. A glowing forecast for next year's earnings often persuades investors to pay many times this year's earnings for shares. The result

Good news, sort of: Third-quarter financial reports, now trickling in, are expected to show that earnings per share for U.S. companies fell 6% from a year earlier. That will mark a sharp improvement from the second quarter's 18% decline, the