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Big box stores are working through an unexpected glut of inventory: TVs, kitchen appliances, hoodies and other hot pandemic items. Part of the problem is the bullwhip effect.

Consumers began 2023 with a surprisingly strong spending spree, but businesses aren't sure it will last. People's spending will play a big role in shaping the economic outlook and future of inflation.

The deficit-cutting supercommittee is the target of intense lobbying efforts. An NPR analysis found that more than 600 separate corporations, trade associations and interest groups have said they intend to lobby around the work of the committee of 12.

Negotiators appear close to a final opioid settlement meant to resolve a tsunami of lawsuits against some of the nation's biggest drugmakers and distributors.

More is now understood about the sequence of events at Virginia Tech Monday, including gunman Seung-hui Cho's deadly classroom-by-classroom assault at Norris Hall. But questions remain.

Companies from IBM to GM have opened stores in the three-dimensional online gaming world, but they have yet to see any virtual profits. Eli Noam, director of the Columbia Center for Tele-Information at Columbia University talks with Steve Inskeep about a recent conference hosted by the center on business opportunities in the virtual world.

The list of retail bankruptcies and store closures is growing. It's being predicted that store closures will rise 25 percent this year. It would be easy to blame the faltering economy, but there's more to it than that.

Princeton, Ind., a city of 9,000, is a place for which Toyota's troubles cut closer to the bone than for most. Toyota has a plant there, and there are several Toyota suppliers in or near Princeton. Mayor Robert Hurst discusses how the fallout from the recalls has affected the town.

Federal lawmakers are moving toward a ban on using certain chemicals called phthalates in children's toys. Phthalates are chemicals that are used to make plastics more flexible.

The Labor Department says the economy lost another 539,000 jobs in April. Although that's not a good number, it's better than some of the steeper losses earlier this year. The unemployment rate is at 8.9 percent.