Consultants have recommended no major investment strategy changes for Florida’s public employee pension plan although it has lost billions in the financial market meltdown.

Skittish employers slashed 533,000 jobs in November, the most in 34 years, catapulting the unemployment rate to 6.7 percent, dramatic proof the country is careening deeper into recession.

The U.S. economy has been in a recession since December 2007, the National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday.

Florida’s public employee pension plan has lost more than a quarter of its peak value, but Gov. Charlie Crist and other officials Monday said the fund is built for the long haul and there’s no need to panic.

Applications for unemployment benefits soared to the highest level since just after the Sept. 11, 2001, while trade deficit shrank as demand for imports plunged, further evidence of the struggling economy.

Florida’s revenue outlook is so bleak that lawmakers should meet in special session next month or in early January to prevent an unconstitutional budget deficit, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink said Wednesday.

With more than 4 million homeowners behind on their mortgage payments, the government and major banks are scrambling to help at-risk borrowers avoid foreclosure. What exactly have they done — and can they do more?

The government and the mortgage industry are launching the most sweeping effort yet to help troubled homeowners by speeding up the process for renegotiating hundreds of thousands of delinquent loans held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

It’s a $150 billion gamble. That’s the size of the new financial lifeline the U.S. government threw tottering insurance giant American International Group on Monday. The big question: Will it be enough to stabilize the firm?

President-elect Obama is calling on economic experts to discuss the first steps toward healing a damaged economy as he forms a new administration in the face of a worsening crisis.

The nation’s unemployment rate bolted to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent in October as another 240,000 jobs were cut, far worse than economists expected and stark proof the economy is deteriorating at an alarmingly rapid pace.

A recession isn’t officially a recession until the National Bureau of Economic Research says it is. You don’t have to wait for them, though.

The government reported Thursday the economy shrank in the summer, the strongest signal yet that a recession may have already begun, a day after the Federal Reserve slashed a key interest rate to battle an economic downturn.

Gov. Bob Riley added his voice Tuesday to those of Republicans pushing for a free trade agreement with Colombia.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Treasury Department will start doling out $125 billion to nine major banks this week to get credit flowing again, giving a lift to U.S. markets on rising confidence that the government’s moves would stave off a protracted recession.