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Import prices recorded the biggest drop in five months in November as food and fuel costs tumbled, keeping inflation pressures subdued against the backdrop of weak economic activity. Overall import prices fell 0.9 percent, the Labor Department said on Wednesday. October’s data was revised to show a 0.3 percent increase rather than the previously reported 0.5 percent gain. Economists polled by Reuters had expected prices to fall 0.5 percent last month. In the 12 months to November, import prices fell 1.2 percent. Stripping out fuels and food prices, import prices dipped 0.1 percent as the costs of capital goods fell [...]

No matter where you shop for presents this holiday season, one question will remain after the holidays: When was the last time you spent some quality time with your credit card statement? With paperless billing and automatic payments, many people don’t bother to review their monthly charges and overlook any hidden messages on a statement. If you’re among the guilty of blindly paying your monthly credit card bills, here are some things you could be missing: The “reality check” box. Somewhere on a statement is a section that discloses how long it will take you to pay off your debt [...]

When it comes to shopping nobody wants to miss a deal–especially during the holidays when the list of who needs a present seems endless. But you have a secret shopping weapon in your pocket (or purse). There are a variety of apps available for smartphones that will help you save money, compare prices and find the best deal.  Here’s a look at five apps that will help you get the best price for everything on your holiday shopping list this year. RedLaser   With more than two million downloads, RedLaser is one of the more popular apps that will make [...]

Martin Sorrell fears Europe’s growth problem will last more than just one yearCEO of WPP predicts there will be slow growth until 2017 or 2018He remains optimistic for Germany, Poland and Russia, as well as “Next 11″ economiesSorrell says it will be “tough sledding” for France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom The 2013 forecast for European economic growth has turned into a prediction for decay. The European Central Bank on Thursday flipped next year’s gross domestic product forecast from growth of 0.3% to a fall of 0.9% next year.Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, told CNN’s Richard Quest he fears [...]

Online shopping is a convenient way to scratch off names on your gift list, but it also leaves you vulnerable to scammers. “People the most at risk for fraud are those looking for deals and doing things outside their normal behavior,” says Dave Aitel, CEO of Immunity Inc., which protects companies from hackers. He says shopping on recognized websites like Amazon.com are safe, it’s when you head to the unheard of lesser-known online stores that can put you at risk. . While most of the retail websites are legitimate, scammers design websites to look like real sites and trick shoppers [...]

BRUSSELS Philips, LG Electronics, Samsung SDI and three other firms were fined a record 1.47 billion euros ($ 1.92 billion) by EU antitrust regulators for fixing prices of TV and monitor cathode-ray tubes for nearly a decade. The European Commission slapped the biggest penalty, of 313.4 million euros, on Dutch-based Philips on Wednesday. LG Electronics came in second with a 295.6 million euro fine. The EU competition authority fined Panasonic Corp 157.5 million euros, Samsung SDI 150.8 million euros, Toshiba Corp. 28 million euros, and French company Technicolor 38.6 million euros. Two Panasonic joint ventures were also fined. Taiwanese firm [...]

If you think the price you always pay for an item is listed on its sticker price, think again. Some gifts carry hidden costs not factored into the advertised price – meaning more money will flow out of your pocket book or the gift recipient’s. Before buying a gift that has user costs, Leah Ingram of  SuddenlyFrugal.com, suggests talking about them with the recipient. “You don’t want to drop this super-expensive gift on somebody and have the gift recipient have all these expectations about how they’re going to use it and then they can’t,” she says. “It’s akin to giving [...]

Jobs may be hard to find these days, but according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 2 million Americans quit their jobs every month. Naturally, many of these people are hoping to move onto a bigger and better opportunity, or possibly just something more pleasant. But in a tough job market, there are no guarantees. If you are thinking of quitting your job without a replacement lined up, it is important to look before you leap. Here are five moves to make before you tell the boss: 1. Get your debt under control There are two big problems with [...]

I have a bad habit of losing my smartphone. My friends often call me on my land line to tell me that my cell phone is sitting on their kitchen counter or that they picked it up at the soccer field where I left it. But after recently installing a mobile payment application that’s connected to my credit card, I realized that the stakes are now much higher than just missing an important phone call. Since I am hoping that I will have a tablet under the tree this year, giving me yet another item to worry about, I began [...]

Funding your retirement with investment income has traditionally been thought of as a very conservative way to manage savings. Unfortunately, today’s low-interest-rate environment may make the goal of paying for retirement out of income alone unattainable for many people, and in any case it may not be as safe an approach as people think. Circumstances today call for a more flexible approach to funding retirement. Here are five things you should know about trying to live off investment income. 1. Living off income is not as stable as it sounds The notion is that if you only spend the income [...]