President Barack Obama sought Thursday to put some detail behind his lofty drive to double U.S. exports over the next five years, calling the effort imperative to putting people back to work. But doubts remain about how many net jobs his trade agenda will create – and how he will get it done.
In a [...]

Information on 15,000 HSBC customers with Swiss accounts has been stolen, the British bank said Thursday, potentially exposing foreign clients to prosecution by tax authorities in their home countries.
A former IT employee of Swiss subsidiary HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) SA, identified by French authorities as Herve Falciani, stole the information between late 2006 and [...]

The Treasury Department sank billions into auto finance giant GMAC Inc. without an exit strategy or proof the company was viable – a decision that could cost taxpayers $6.3 billion, a new watchdog report says.
The government said the $17.2 billion bailout was a necessary step to save troubled automakers General Motors and Chrysler. GMAC [...]

Reports of sudden acceleration in the Toyota Prius have spiked across the country. But that doesn’t mean there’s an epidemic of bad gas pedals in the popular hybrid.
Experts on consumer psychology say the relentless negative media attention Toyota has received since the fall makes it much more likely that drivers will mistake anything unexpected [...]

The number of newly laid-off workers requesting unemployment benefits slipped last week, the latest sign the employment picture is slowly brightening.
The Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell by 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 462,000. That’s close to Wall Street analysts’ estimates of 460,000, according to Thomson Reuters, and the second straight drop.
Still, [...]

The foreclosure crisis isn’t over, but the pace of growth may finally be slowing down.
RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday that the number of U.S. households facing foreclosure in February grew 6 percent from the year-ago level, the smallest annual increase in four years.
More than 308,000 households, or one in every 418 homes, received a [...]

PepsiCo says it’s raising prices on its popular Tropicana orange juice because of the deep freeze that hurt much of Florida’s citrus crop.
The company is shrinking its most popular size by about 8 percent – while maintaining its price – and raising prices on another size starting in May.
The 64-ounce container of orange [...]

The son of an immigrant shopkeeper has become the first person from a developing nation, and the first from Latin America, to be named the world’s richest person.
Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim has passed U.S. billionaires Warren Buffet and Bill Gates to earn the top spot on Forbes Magazine’s world’s richest list.
Forbes’ Keren [...]

American households saw their wealth increase at the end of last year, mainly because the healing economy boosted stock portfolios.
The Federal Reserve says household net worth rose 1.3 percent in the fourth quarter to $54.2 trillion. It marked the third straight quarter of gains. Net worth had risen 4.5 percent in the second quarter [...]

Information on 15,000 HSBC customers with Swiss accounts has been stolen, the British bank said Thursday, potentially exposing foreign clients to prosecution by tax authorities in their home countries.
A former IT employee of Swiss subsidiary HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) SA, identified by French authorities as Herve Falciani, stole the information between late 2006 and [...]