Infrastructure is the foundation of an economy: schools, transportation, power plants, etc. Arizona faces challenges meeting current infrastructure needs and preparing for growth.

The U.S. real estate market, which was central to the global financial crisis, remains deeply troubled, and a full recovery could be years away, according to industry experts and analysts at the W. P. Carey School of Business.

Many economists and policy makers are stating that the current financial crisis demonstrates that markets and capitalism are flawed and must be regulated and controlled, if not destroyed.

In the third and final presidential debate on October 15, Senators Barack Obama and John McCain spent some time discussing health care — an issue which, in spite of increasingly dominant concerns about the economy — still seems to matter a great deal to American voters.

The way businesses and policymakers approach economic integration is quite different. Businesses tend to be pragmatic — focusing on finding immediate solutions.

We've begun to feel the pain of a recession in the real economy and that pain will get worse before it gets better. So far in 2008, job losses have averaged about 85,000 per month, but in September the number was 159,000.

The market for health insurance is different from other markets. Government is heavily involved and would become more so under reform plans now being debated. Information often is shielded from participants, whose behavior can be far from transparent.

In the last month, financial markets came as close to collapsing as they have since the Great Depression, and the root of their woes was frozen credit markets. The crisis sparked several weeks of furious and futile improvisation by U.S. regulators and lawmakers.

Back in the early 1990s, the Phoenix metro area — like the rest of the country — was suffering through a profound real estate recession and house prices declined for a record 17 straight months. Like Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played, it was thought it would never be equaled.

It's said the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and some people sweating through the credit-market meltdown might agree. Underlying the wreckage are decades of regulatory and legislative decisions that opened the door to today's financial woes.