Charlie Herman

While the holidays are still a few months away, retailers in New York and across the country are hopeful that consumers will spend more this year. 

The National Retail Federation forecasts that holiday sales will increase more than 2 percent to just over $447 billion. While that is an improvement from last year’s small increase, it is still down from the record total set in 2007 before the recession began.

Despite falling rents and rising vacancy rates, the commercial real estate market could be improving.

According to the New York-based real estate firm REIS, even as the vacancy rate hit a 17-year high of 17.5 percent, the quarterly rate increase was slower compared to last year. And for the first time since 2008, the average rent on 4 billion square feet of office spaces was effectively unchanged from the previous quarter: rents fell one cent to $22.05 per square foot.

Home buyers and speculators continue to scoop up foreclosed homes at discount prices, according to a new report. In New York, just over 7 percent of sold homes were in some stage of ...

To help pay the billions of dollars in claims against the company, Lehman Brothers is selling off assets including real estate holdings, mortgages and even its art collection, which ...

The United Nations General Assembly kicks off this week, starting with a summit on the Millenium Development Goals, which aim to cut world poverty in half by 2015. As world leaders converge on New York for this event, they will also join leaders of the corporate and non-profit world for the 6th annual Clinton Global Initiative.

World leaders, CEOs, non-governmental organizations and philanthropists will gather in midtown Manhattan this week to develop programs to improve the lives of people around the world.

Timed to coincide with the beginning of the United Nations General Assembly, the Clinton Global Initiative requires each participant to create their own plan that is “new, specific and measureable.”

New York Governor David Paterson had harsh words for the Republican gubernatorial nominee Carl Paladino.

The number of apartments for rent in Manhattan rose in August for the first time in eight months. Real estate broker CitiHabitats said the vacancy rate increased to just over 1 percent. But even as renters had more choice, rents remained unchanged from July. The average monthly cost of a studio was just over $1,800 and just under $2,500 for a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan.

That long wait for the cable man could become a thing of the past. 

As a part of the new franchise agreement city officials have negotiated with Time Warner Cable and Cablevision, cable customers will receive status updates about their appointments with technicians through texts, emails or on the Web.

Both the House and Senate head back into session this week, and the decision whether or not to extend the Bush-era tax cuts will be high on the agenda. Takeaway's economics editor Charlie Herman and National Journal managing editor Terence Samuel look at what else Congress has to look forward to

Charles Herman, WNYC business and economics editor, offers selections and analysis of President Obama's 11 AM news conference.

Wall Street is betting on Republican candidates this election season.  

"Around January, Feburary of this current year, there was a major major shift," said Dave Levinthal, editor of the Open Secrets blog for the Center on Responsive Politics, which analyzes political contributions. "It was a dramatic shift that coincided with financial reform."

While large portions of the East Coast breathed a sigh of relief as Hurricane Earl lost strength overnight, another storm, this one economic, was also less damaging than expected.

While large portions of the East Coast breathed a sigh of relief as Hurricane Earl lost strength overnight, another storm, this one economic, was also less damaging than expected.

Private employers hired more workers during the past three months than previously thought, adding 67,00 workers in August. However, this was not enough to keep unemployment from growing. The latest jobless numbers shows that unemployment hit 9.6 percent last month. Charlie Herman, The Takeaway and WNYC's economics editor explains what this means for the economy and for the workers who still have jobs.

As large portions of the East Coast breathed a sigh of relief as Hurricane Earl lost strength overnight, another storm, this one economic, was also less damaging than expected. 

The government reports that employers cut fewer jobs than expected in August. The nation’s payrolls shrunk by 54,000.  

This was not a great report but it was "better than many thought it would be,” wrote Joel Naroff, chief economist with Naroff Advisors in a note to clients.

Barnes & Noble is closing the chapter on its four-story superstore at Lincoln Center. The 66th Street store will close at the end of January after more than 15 years of selling books and holding readings and performances.

We look ahead to this week of Middle East peace talks, a new jobs report, and auto sales numbers. On Tuesday, President Obama will address the nation from the Oval Office as combat operations in Iraq officially end. On Wednesday, we'll hear about auto sales numbers for August, and on Thursday, a new round of Middle East peace talks will begin. Friday brings the anticipated jobs report from the Labor Department.

U.S. economic growth slowed in the second quarter of this year as the government revised downwards the gross domestic product (GDP) to 1.6 percent from a previous estimate of 2.4 percent. The news caps a week of bad news about the nation’s economy, in particular, reports that housing sales fell to record lows in July.

Revised GDP numbers for the second quarter — a key indicator of financial health for the country — have just come out, and they are disappointing for those who hoped the U.S. was improving economically. Growth was cut sharply to 1.6 percent in the second quarter, and though the drop isn't as bad as some economists feared, many are wondering if a double-dip recession is becoming a reality. What do the new numbers mean, and what can we do to improve our situation?