Diane Swonk

Retail sales were up 0.6 percent in last month. Cars and discount stores did well in May, while department stores dragged.

Uncertainty over the Federal Reserve's next move is throwing investors for a loop and unsettling markets. Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial, explains what the 'Fed Dread' is all about.

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits jumped last week by 13,000 to 380,000. But what about all those Americans working at home?

There are some economic headwinds blowing strong right now. And one of them is coming from Spain where a disappointing bond auction yesterday sent government borrowing costs to a 5 month high and renewed fears about the European Debt Crisis.

The U.S. government has confirmed that the economy grew 3 percent last quarter, and that could mean that the U.S. economy and the European economy are going to diverge this year as the U.S. grows and Europe shrinks.

The American economy seems to be moving along at a healthy clip, from jobs to hamburgers.

The future of Greece hangs in the balance as it is still uncertain whether they will be able to dig themselves out of their debt hole -- with a lot of help from the rest of Europe.

Economist Diane Swonk discusses what is it about a strong market that makes it good for a company, like Facebook, to go public.

After last week's relatively high weekly jobless claim numbers, they are back down this week -- to the lowest level in almost four years.

This year's holiday season was slightly bigger by volume, but the week after the holidays saw a bit of a slide.