Eleazar David Meléndez

General Electric Co., the blue-chip U.S. conglomerate widely seen as a bellwether of the state of the American economy, is going on a hiring spree. The company is set to employ 12,000 new workers over the next five years, including 5,000 veterans hired through a special priority-placement program, GE said Monday.

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in several nations this weekend demanding political justice, economic opportunity, and a change to the status quo. Demonstrators -- who powered the Arab Spring, the worldwide Occupy protests during the summer, and the anti-austerity marches of the European autumn -- are back on the streets in a winter of discontent.

Investors flocked to the security of safe-haven assets Friday, like U.S. Treasuries and cash dollar holdings, ahead of what is expected to be a volatile weekend in Athens, already rocked by riots and tense government negotiations.

Greece's prime minister struck back at critics in a letter to his Cabinet Friday evening, delivering a rousing plea in which he asked Greek government officials to coalesce behind a new ambitious but achievable program of fiscal austerity; however, the letter acknowledged that would be difficult politically, difficult economically, and socially difficult.

The historic streets of Athens are the site of much mayhem and political theater as tens of thousands of Greek citizens have taken to the street to demand their government cancel further austerity measures.

Consumers are feeling relatively upbeat about where the economy will be six months from now, but right now, after maxing out their credit card and perhaps purchasing a big-ticket item over the holidays, they're planning on sticking to a budget. Those are the main findings from a preliminary survey of February consumer confidence conducted by the University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters, which was released Friday morning.

Hours after Greece's ruling coalition announced it had concluded an 11th-hour agreement on new austerity measures in an effort to satisfy foreign lenders, it seemed that everyone - from creditors abroad to political allies back home - was turning on the Greek leadership.

Following days of exhausting political drama, high-level brinkmanship and stern rhetoric in both public and private statements, the red-eyed leaders of Europe's leading financial institutions reached a deal Thursday with Greece's governing coalition to impose further austerity measures on that country in exchange for a €130 billion bailout ($172.56 billion).

U.S. borrowers tacked on $19.6 billion in revolving -- mostly credit card-related -- debt in December, according to preliminary data from the Federal Reserve. Non-revolving credit was also up. Borrowing grew across all categories -- be it charges on commercial credit cards, student promissory notes, auto loans of fixed-term mortgages.

Money market accounts could soon be joining "free checking" in the dustbin of retail banking history. That's what various portfolio managers who make up a large chunk of the industry are saying could happen if certain regulatory provisions being discussed in Washington are enacted.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke held his policy prescription cards close to his vest Tuesday morning, skirting around several questions from Senate Banking Committee members that seemed designed to pigeonhole the central bank chief into supporting ideologically-charged positions. At the same time, the top U.S. central banker was effusive in his defense of the Federal Reserve's expansionary monetary policy.

A political impasse over a new bailout for Greece dominated the tone of trading in risky assets Monday, as U.S. investors - whose attention had been on U.S. economic developments the week prior - once again focused on the Continent.

The shock to the U.S. economy after the housing bubble burst in 2008 was like an earthquake which has left one part of the land higher than another part, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said, in a somewhat critical note on the actions of the U.S. central bank.

A failure on the part of Greece's politicians to agree on an austerity framework rippled through the currency markets of London, the government halls of Budapest and the pits of the New York Stock Exchange Monday morning. The nonevent was only the headline occurrence in a morning that was also filled with contradictory, and at times despondent, statements out of Athens.

Stocks and high-yield bonds rallied in U.S. markets Friday, after yet another round of positive economic data proved a boon to investors betting that the economy will improve at a faster rate than previously forecast.

Almost every major global economy showed positive momentum in the manufacturing sector during January, according to data compiled by various economic-research organizations.

A group of Brazil-based hackers took down the main corporate Web site of New York-based Citigroup on Friday, as the loosely associated collective continued its weeklong campaign of attacks on Web properties of major international banks. The public site of Brazil's central bank was also taken down.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner sounded a relatively cautious note on the state of capital markets regulation reform Thursday, detailing the work various branches of the federal executive have done, what the results had been so far, and what expectations he held for 2012.

As a protest for being evicted from their parking lot trailer home, Mateus and Leonor Silva returned last week to set the structure ablaze. Portugal, among several other European countries, are seeing social unrest after adopting severe austerity measures that have cut back on services for the needy, including the unemployed and homeless

Portugal and Greece dominated the headlines out of Europe Wednesday, as both nations appeared to be opening new chapters in the continuing Eurozone sovereign debt crisis. Paradoxically, positive developments in one country were actually seen as the reason negative news were emerging from the other.

Boosted by non-residential developments, builders increased their December 2011 spending at a rate higher than economists had expected. The gain confirmed previously observed trends about the ongoing economic recovery in the U.S., which has seen better than expected progress in industry while still facing a soft residential housing market.

A leading indicator of the state of global industry -- whose biggest dips in the past have come just before the world economy fell into recession -- is dropping like a lead anchor. Some savvy market forecasters are saying this should be sounding alarm bells. But what do the experts who actually work in shipping have to say?

Facing both a slew of regulatory developments and volatile capital markets, banks are seeing some parts of their traditional revenue model threatened. One solution: charge customers more fees, either by raising the price of existing fees, charge for services that used to be free, or offering new services at a cost.

In a remarkable statement to CNBC this morning, one of the most important dissenting voices within the Federal Reserve said the U.S. central bank's assesment of the economy is too pessimistic, and will likely change as the year progresses. Even more notably, he stated the Fed will likely begin raising benchmark interbank lending rates before mid-2013 -- a direct contradiction on a statement by the Fed last Wednesday.

The University of Michigan/Thomson Reuters Index of consumer sentiment, a widely followed metric that measures how consumers perceive both the economy and their own finances, rose to 75.0 in January, according to the organizations behind the monthly survey.

The U.S. economy is not robust by any means, but the recent manufacturing-driven recovery, if tepid, is finally beginning to erase memories of the disappointing slowdown in 2011. On the wings of the recent gains, growth in most sectors of the economy is likely to continue - and maybe even pick up momentum towards the end of the year.

Japanese electronics giant NEC Corp. stunned the Japanese markets Thursday, announcing it expected to lose ¥100 billion ($1.3 billion) and lay off 10,000 employees globally next year. The view -- announced during the company's quarterly earnings release conference call -- was a wild swing from previous statements, where the company had set positive 2012 earnings guidance of ¥15 billion.

Silver is currently on a bullish cycle and the price of bullion is likely to rise from current levels around $32 per ounce to $50 and beyond this year, Swiss banking giant UBS said in a note to clients Tuesday.

The chief economist at Swiss banking giant UBS said Tuesday afternoon that Greece would likely default on its sovereign debt obligation, putting underwriters of insurance against such an event on the hook for billions of dollars in payments. He was only the latest market observer to say a default was imminent.