NEW YORK -- It was supposed to be our IPO, the people's public offering. Facebook, the brainchild of a young CEO who sauntered into Wall Street meetings in a hoodie, was going to be bigger than Amazon, bigger than McDonald's, bigger than Coca-Cola.

Americans' confidence in the economy climbed in May to the highest level in almost six years as rising real estate values and record stock prices boosted household wealth.

Give American Airlines credit for trying a new method to board passengers more quickly. Airlines constantly tinker with the boarding process, and this time American says it has found a way to cut an average of two minutes from the 40 minutes to 45 minutes ...

Yesterday, J.C. Penney announced a serious first quarter loss of $348 million, or $1.58 per share and a revenue slump of 16.4% to $2.635 billion as same store sales dropped 16.6%.

Global consulting firm Accenture has agreed to buy digital marketing company Acquity Group for $316 million, the companies announced Friday.

The outgoing Governor of the Bank of England warned against blaming individual bankers and said the banking sector was given "too much status and standing in society.

Let your decision on when to retire be a monetary one that will give you the best bang from your Social Security benefits. "Most people still take their Social Security benefits as soon as they possibly can, and many of them are leaving money on the table," says ...

THE threat posed to future Australian liquefied natural gas projects by US shale gas has deepened with the Obama administration approving a terminal in Texas as the first allowed to send shipments to Japan.

According to multiple reports (the first coming from All Things D), the social blogging site is in serious talks with Yahoo Yahoo, which is looking to secure a strategic investment, partnership or even an outright acquisition.

The current recovery may be middling, but count Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as an optimist about our economic prospects in the decades to come.