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Reuters - Apparel retailer American Eagle Outfitters prices and concentration on jeans and T-shirts, both back-to-school staples, should help give it a boost among cost-conscious teens during a challenging retail environment, Barron's reported in its August 18 edition.

AP - Questions and answers on how consumers can ensure they are getting an honest appraisal when buying or selling a home, refinancing an existing mortgage or taking out a home equity loan or line of credit:

Reuters - Bolstered by falling oil prices and a rising dollar, stocks could extend their modest gains this week, even in the face of still troubling consumer- and housing-related data.

Reuters - The financial crisis will probably not end until next year or even 2010, Germany's Handelsblatt newspaper quoted Morgan Stanley co-President Walid Chammah as saying in a preview of its Monday edition.

When it comes to housing, it's a buyer's market -- especially for first-time home buyers eligible for new tax breaks.

The American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008, passed by Congress at the end of July with hopes of shoring up the ailing housing market, also includes an important tax break. First-time home buyers who purchase a home after April 8, 2008, and before July 1, 2009, are eligible for a $7,500 tax credit (or, if the home costs less than $75,000, a credit equal to 10% of the purchase price).

Many airlines are tacking on new fees and reducing the benefits of formerly free award tickets.

On the back of a year of skyrocketing oil prices most airlines have made announcements that they will add a fuel surcharge or fee when booking award tickets.

Mr. Obama's remedy could hurt more workers than it helps.

Sunday, August 17, 2008; B06

BARACK OBAMA says that he would "end tax breaks for corporations that ship jobs overseas" and blasts John McCain for refusing to condemn such loopholes. But the offshoring issue is more complicated than Mr. Obama's rhetoric suggests. Indeed, while there's no doubt that some individuals and communities are hurt by corporate decisions to shift manufacturing or other operations overseas, overall job creation may well benefit. Economists Mihir Desai, Fritz Foley and James Hines looked at U.S. manufacturers that expanded foreign operations between 1982 and 2004 and found that they tended to grow domestically as well, hiring more U.S. employees, paying them more and spending more on research. "While there may be considerable individual variation," they concluded, "the average experience of all U.S. manufacturing firms over the last two decades is inconsistent with the simple story that all foreign expansions come at the cost of reduced domestic activity."

Mr. Obama is correct that U.S. tax policy favors American companies operating overseas: Income earned abroad is not subject to immediate taxation, as domestic income is. However, it's not clear that the tax code -- as opposed to other factors, such as lower wages or technological advances -- plays a big role in companies' decisions to move jobs elsewhere or that leveling the playing field between foreign and domestic income, as Mr. Obama proposes, would do much to save or return jobs to the United States. Mr. Obama's proposal would change the provision in which U.S.-based companies don't have to pay taxes on their earnings abroad until that income is "repatriated" -- brought back into the United States, for example as dividend payments. This deferral is meant to protect U.S. companies from being disadvantaged compared to foreign competitors operating under much lower corporate tax rates. However, this encourages U.S. companies to invest in foreign countries with lower taxes. It also gives companies an incentive to shift around income so that it is attributed to the lowest-taxing jurisdictions, draining the federal Treasury of potential revenue.

Mr. Obama has not been precise about how he would alter the rules other than to say he would end "permanent deferral" of income abroad. One possibility would be to let corporations delay paying tax on foreign income for a set time or on a share of the income. This would diminish, to some extent, the competitiveness problems the change would create. So would a reduction in the overall corporate tax rate, something Mr. Obama has said that he would consider so long as it could be done as part of a package without losing revenue. Nonetheless, U.S. companies operating abroad already labor under a bigger tax burden than most foreign competitors. Mr. Obama's suggested fix would make it even harder for them to compete abroad -- ultimately hurting workers and others here.

Reuters - Tribune Co has appointed the former chief executive of satellite television provider DirecTV as publisher of the Los Angeles Times, the paper said in its Saturday edition.

AFP - Usain Bolt was crowned the world's fastest man when he raced to victory in the blue riband Olympic men's 100 metres final in a world record time of 9.69 sec Saturday.

Reuters - UBS AG's chairman is sure the troubled Swiss bank will still be independent in two years' time, according to an interview published on Saturday.