The US economy grew at an annual rate of 3.0 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, the Commerce Department said in its final estimate Thursday.The department’s third estimate for gross domestic product growth in the period was unrevised from its prior estimate and capped a year of steadily accelerating growth. GDP grew 1.8 percent in the third quarter.The Commerce Department said the fourth...

The Internet contributes more to the American economy than the entire federal government, according to a new study by the Boston Consulting Group.The Internet accounted for $684 billion, or 4.7% of all U.S. economic activity in 2010, Boston Consulting Group found. By way of comparison, the federal government, contributed $625 billion, or 4.3%, to the nation's output.If it was considered its own s...

Why are some nations rich and others poor? In a new book called Why Nations Fail, a pair of economists argue that a lot comes down to politics.To research the book, the authors scoured the world for populations and geographic areas that are identical in all respects save one: they're on different sides of a border.The two Koreas are an extreme example. But you can see the same thing on the border...

If banks are doing so great, then why are they lending money to Uncle Sam instead of to you?U.S. banks bought more Treasury debt and bonds issued by government wards Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the first two months of this year than they did in all of 2011, Bloomberg reported Monday.This behavior doesn't exactly say much for the health of the economy. And it raises questions about the true heal...