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European Union nations — except Britain and the Czech Republic — have agreed to sign a treaty to enforce budget discipline in the eurozone. European leaders meeting in Brussels Monday also promised to stimulate growth and create jobs.

Frank Newman looks at why China’s economy is booming while America’s lags. He looks at why this is the case, and addresses some fundamental misunderstandings about our economy in Six Myths that Hold Back America: And What America Can Learn from the Growth of China’s Economy.

With no income tax, Tennessee lives and dies by the sales tax. Revenues have increased each of the last 21 months, but the budget still isn't where it was five years ago. Still, Gov. Bill Haslam has proposed lowering the tax on food and trimming back the estate tax.

Greek officials have been working with private lenders to try to reduce their debt-load. Meanwhile European Union officials are in Brussels to deal with the financial crisis. Renee Montagne talks to Zanny Minton Beddoes, an editor at The Economist, for an update on the crisis.

New York and New Jersey were able to avoid big cuts to instruction in their public schools thanks to the U.S. government's stimulus spending, according to a new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. 

President Obama recently called Chile “a model for the region and the world.” Ricardo Lagos, president of Chile from 2000 to 2006 talks about his country's rise on the world stage. In The Southern Tiger: Chile’s Fight for a Democratic and Prosperous Future, Lagos chronicles Chile's journey from terror and repression under General Pinochet to an open society with a thriving economy.

The Federal Reserve announced its plan on Wednesday to keep short-term interest rates near zero through late 2014. The move signals that the Fed does not expect the economy to fully recover over the next three years. With unemployment still running high, the Fed expects the economy to expand between 2.2 and 2.7 percent over this year, instead of at 2.9 percent as originally projected.

The main focus of Tuesday’s State of the Union address was the economy and income inequality. Along with his ideas about taxation and protecting homeowners, president Obama also expressed a desire to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. Since the 1980s, the U.S. economy has shifted away from manufacturing and towards intellectual property and services. This has been due in part to the perceived expenses involved in production based in the U.S., as well as labor laws. 

The theme of last night's State of the Union was "an economy built to last." Vowing to protect the middle class and correct economic inequality, President Obama laid out his plans for financial reform: regulating home prices, penalizing banks that participated in the housing crash, imposing the "Buffet rule," and tightening regulations on private equity and Wall Street.

Coney Island Bialys and Bagels, a historic bagel shop in New York City, was almost toast when two Pakistani men rescued it. Zafaryab Ali and Peerzada Shah, both Muslim, say they plan to keep the shop kosher. "Kosher and halal is very, very close, like brother and sister, maybe twins," Ali says.

The arrests in New Zealand of four people wanted by the U.S. for alleged online piracy raise a number of questions. NPR asks two experts for answers.

Mayors from across the nation are meeting this week to discuss unemployment and other economic issues hitting their respective cities. The United States Conference of Mayors, who is hosting the event, claims that nearly 80 of the country’s metro areas will not reach pre-recession levels of employment for at least five years. Mayor Steve Benjamin, an attendee of the conference, discusses his own struggles as mayor of Columbia, SC and the hardships other cities face presently in the United States.

A business and tech story that has the ring of the inevitable to it. A company that practically alone, created the modern global high-tech consumer culture has declared bankruptcy. Eastman Kodak, this morning a penny stock on the New York Stock exchange. The company that invented consumer photography, more than a century ago has filed for bankruptcy, taken out a credit lifeline, put it's portfolio of storied patents on the block, and started a clock which may tick down to the total end of an American technology story that is among other things emblematic of the digital age we live in.

Besieged by the digital age it helped spark, the once-dominant photo giant hopes to restructure and raise cash by selling some of its more than 1,000 patents.

Standard & Poor's said its downgrades reflect its belief that the eurozone hasn't done enough to mitigate its debt crisis. The downgrades could have deep implications for the health of the monetary union.

Big banks announced around 60,000 job cuts in 2011. With businesses and consumers still focused on reducing debt, there isn't the same need for financial services as there was before, says one banking analyst. The outlook in the years ahead is for a smaller, more stable and less profitable industry.

This week marks the 1st anniversary of congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' shooting, the 2nd anniversary of the Haiti earthquake, and the 10th anniversary of first Afghan prisoners arriving at Guantanamo Bay. New Hampshire's primary is this week — and so is the final stage of Egyptian parliamentary elections.

Despite the intervention of a federal mediator tasked with overseeing contract negotiations, the New York City Opera on Sunday announced a lockout of performers, the day before the year’s first rehearsals were to begin for La Traviata.

The unemployment rate is near a three-year low and there were 1.9 million private-sector jobs added to payrolls last year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says.

On Wednesday, President Obama delivered his economic address for 2012 in Ohio. He spoke about the payroll tax cut, plans for dealing with predatory lending, and officially announcing his appointment of Richard Cordray to head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But where do the current Republican candidates stand on personal income taxes, health care costs, Medicare, Social Security, and jobs?