The Federal Open Market Committee released the minutes from its Oct. 29-30 meeting, and one of the more closely watched subjects taken up in was tapering.

Probably with an eye toward his legacy, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke at the National Economists Club Annual Dinner in Washington, defending his actions as chairman and offering some reasons for the continued bond-buying program.

Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes was unchanged in November from a downwardly revised level of 54 in October, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

The Census Bureau reported that the recession hit home values in more populous U.S. counties harder than smaller counties.

Aggregate U.S. consumer debt increased by $127 billion in the third quarter of 2013, the largest increase since the first quarter of 2008, according to the New York Federal Reserve.

The U.S. Energy Information Agency predicted that the economy—consumers and businesses and anyone else concerned with driving a gas-power vehicle—is going to catch a break next year because of lower gas prices.

Improved extraction technology and higher prices are opening up new oil resources, but that doesn’t mean the world is on the verge of an era of oil abundance, according to the International Energy Agency’s 2013 edition of World Energy Outlook.

According to a study released by the Pew Charitable Trusts on Monday, some of the largest U.S. cities have seen their municipal budgets recover from the lows of the recession, when steep drops in tax revenue and other income cut into city coffers.