The chief executive of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, made a rare courtroom appearance on Wednesday, testifying for the government in a high-profile insider trading trial.

In the wake of the natural disaster in Japan, analysts worry factory shutdowns there could slow shipments of popular cars to U.S. — including Toyota's Prius and Honda's Fit — and the shortages could spread to other models.

So far, former executives at Intel, McKinsey, and an outsourcing company called PeopleSupport have testified in the Manhattan trial of Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire hedge fund manager who's accused of participating in an insider trading conspiracy that earned him tens of millions of dollars.

While New York's official unemployment rate averaged 8.5 percent last year, new figures from the U.S. Labor Department show the rate would almost double if it included people working part-time because they couldn't find a full-time job or people who stopped looking all together because they were discouraged about finding a job.

Many New Yorkers with ties to Japan spent Friday trying to reach family, friends and co-workers affected by the earthquake and tsunami on the other side of the globe.

While federal prosecutors said they have the tapes to prove that billionaire hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam was engaged in insider trading, defense attorney John Dowd said the government is taking "snippets" of conversations recorded on wiretaps out of context.

U.S. architectural firms are finally starting to see more work come in after suffering three years of falling revenues and laying off 30 percent of their workers.

Banks have been posting huge profits, but bonuses are shrinking — a little bit, anyway.

New Yorkers are continuing to reduce their debts, including home mortgage and credit card balances, but they're doing it at a slightly slower pace than the rest of the country.

A longtime advisor to ex-New York state comptroller Alan Hevesi was sentenced to a maximum of four years in prison for his role in a kickback scheme involving the state's multibillion dollar pension fund.

New York City, New York State and New Jersey saw a dip in economic activity at the end of last year even as the U.S. economy continued to grow, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The owners of the New York Mets turned a blind eye to Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, reaping about $300 million in phony profits from that were used to fund the day-to-day operations of the baseball team, documents unsealed in a Manhattan court accused on Friday.

Wal-Mart was ripped by sharp-tongued critics who oppose the retail giant's potential move into the city during a City Council hearing that drew more than 100 people to the former Emigrant Savings Bank in Lower Manhattan on Thursday.

Chinatown business leaders have reservations about China's largest bank snapping up an 80 percent stake in a U.S. subsidiary of a bank with branches in Manhattan's Chinatown, Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and Flushing, Queens.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said he wants to expand the powers of an already powerful state law called the Martin Act so he can more aggressively prosecute white-collar crime.

New York City and Boston are vying for the No. 2 spot in Venture Capital Deals following Silicon Valley.

Prices of homes sold in Queens and Brooklyn in the fourth quarter rose five and six percent, respectively, from the same period in 2009, according to a New York City appraisal firm.

Here's one sign that the economics of New York City companies are improving: they want to upgrade their addresses.

When I met Eddie Hsaio on Monday, he was warming himself up on an idling bus, stuck in the snow, because it was the only place to escape the bitter winds and 20 degree weather outside.

Which billboard in all of New York is the most valuable to advertisers? One Times Square It's an iconic location at the corner of 43rd Street and Broadway and is best known as the place where the ball drops each New Year's Eve. It is also covered with the most expensive billboards in the world.