Economics

Teena Watson, a single mother of two now back in Philadelphia after living in Erie, saw a homeless shelter as her only option. "I came back to go to school, get a job, and try to get a better life for my children," Chanel, 7, and Nakeya, 2, Watson said. But everywhere she turned, nothing appeared to be available that she could afford and that could accommodate her disability - she is hearing-impaired and told her story through interpreter Crystal Blue, of the Society for Helping Church.

So this is what investors mean by patience: Three years after a smoldering economy reduced Philadelphia's premiere shopping district to an avenue of stalwart retailers sharing space with suddenly vacant storefronts, the rebound is on. And it's hot. The elegant old buildings that form the spine of a 4 1/2-block streetscape of shopping between Broad and 20th Streets are teeming with life. Vacancies are few as reinvestment restores glitz to a promenade that aspires to be the city's gold standard of exclusivity but that a few years ago was down on its retail high heels.

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. - Republicans and Gov. Scott Walker spent months and millions of dollars on ads in the divisive recall election telling Wisconsin voters that the state is on the economic upswing - a strong dose of good news that even Mitt Romney backers acknowledge helps the incumbent, President Obama. Nearly $59 million of pro-Walker advertising leading up to June's recall vote hardened the right-track perception in this Midwest state, where the unemployment rate ticked down last month to 7.3 percent, well below the national average of 7.8. Two weeks before Election Day, Romney faces the task of convincing voters that things aren't really looking up in Wisconsin as Walker has argued - or even though they are, four years of Obama's policies had nothing to do with it. It's a challenge in Wisconsin, Ohio, and elsewhere in the nation's midsection, where resurgent state economies and the federal government's 2009 bailout of Chrysler and General Motors are lifting Obama and some of his Democratic allies running for Senate after the Republican romp of 2010 claimed governorships, state legislatures, and congressional seats.

Today's home-economics class is as much about the consumer as the product and service being consumed. Rance Bell of Burlington Township has 26 years of service with the Air Force behind him, the first six as a German-speaking linguist and the rest as a readiness superintendent for the Sixth Airlift Squadron at Joint Base McGuire/Dix/Lakehurst. On a sunny Tuesday morning, standing as he is able in his dining room as he recuperates from foot surgery, the retired master sergeant is extolling the virtues of home-automation technology, for which he pays $55 a month to Vivint, his Utah-based provider.

If now were then, maybe Rady Sin and Saron Saom of Philadelphia wouldn't have spent the last few years as mortgage borrowers in trouble, and maybe they wouldn't have fallen prey to a scammer offering help at a high price and delivering nothing. When the city temporarily relocated their food cart from 30th and Market Streets to Chestnut Street and business fell off dramatically, the Cambodian couple began falling behind on their mortgage payments to Bank of America. "I talked and gave [Bank of America]

The Rev. John J. Farrell, 79, president of Biscayne College in Miami from 1975 to 1980 and a development office executive at Villanova University from 1980 to 1993, died Friday, Oct. 5, of heart failure at AristaCare at Meadow Springs in Plymouth Meeting. Born on Staten Island, N.Y., Father Farrell studied at the Augustinian Academy there from 1946 to 1950, then entered the Augustinian religious order and was ordained a priest in 1959. Father Farrell earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy at Villanova in 1955 and completed his theological studies in 1959 at Augustinian College in Washington.

CARACAS, Venezuela - During his reelection campaign, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez promised to deepen the public-aid programs and other measures that have formed his vaunted "21st-century socialism. " That message won him a surprising 11 percentage point win Sunday in what many had seen as a tight race. Still, he will begin his fourth presidential term under the toughest circumstances he has faced, with the prospect that his government's free-spending days may be over. That will likely limit how much Chavez can expand the government programs that have helped make him so popular.

If your furnace is 15 years old or more, now might be the right time to exchange it for a more efficient model. The obvious reason is to reduce your energy costs, keeping in mind that winter is on its way. Data from the U.S. Department of Energy show that if your current furnace has an AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency) rating of 50 percent, one with 90 percent will save you $44.24 a year on every $100 you now spend on fuel costs. In addition, upgrading your furnace or boiler from 56 percent to 90 percent efficiency in an average cold-climate house will save 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year if you heat with gas, 2.5 tons if you heat with oil. But financial and environmental considerations are only part of the story.

NEW YORK - A pair of encouraging economic reports helped nudge the stock market higher Wednesday. Measures of business activity in the service sector and job growth in September came in better than economists had expected. The market's gains were held in check by a slump in energy stocks and Hewlett-Packard's 13 percent plunge. In a meeting with analysts and investors, Meg Whitman, HP's CEO, predicted weak earnings and sales for the foreseeable future. The Dow Jones rose 12.25 points to close at 13,494.61.

Good credit is important, especially when you're looking to buy a house. Mortgage lenders have to know whether you're able to repay the debt, and have to determine through your credit history whether you're willing to pay, as well. They use credit scores to determine, statistically, how much of a loan you can afford, whether to approve it, and the interest rate. The scores are obtained from the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. The most common credit score issued is the FICO, named for Fair Isaac Co., which developed the mathematical formula.