Former jet-setting Texas tycoon R. Allen Stanford, whose financial empire once spanned the Americas, was sentenced Thursday to 110 years in prison for bilking investors out of more than $7 billion over 20 years in one of the largest Ponzi schemes in U.S. history.

More Americans sought unemployment aid last week, suggesting hiring remains sluggish. The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly unemployment benefit applications rose 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 386,000.

Dutch bank ING Bank NV will pay $619 million to settle charges that it secretly moved billions of dollars through the U.S. financial system on behalf of Cuban and Iranian customers, in violation of U.S. sanctions.

U.S. retail sales declined in April and May, pulled down by a sharp drop in gas prices. But even after excluding volatile gas sales, consumers barely increased their spending.

A steep drop in gasoline costs drove down a measure of U.S. wholesale prices in May by 1%, the most since July 2009. But outside the food and energy categories, prices increased moderately.

In the biggest revamp in wireless pricing in years, Verizon Wireless is dropping nearly all of its phone plans in favor of pricing schemes that encourage consumers to connect their non-phone devices, like tablets and PCs, to its network.

The cost to dine with investor Warren Buffett has apparently spiked in value, with one deep-pocketed bidder forking over nearly $3.5 million during a charity auction. The annual auction for a private lunch with the Nebraska billionaire closed following a flurry of activity in the final hours Friday night.

The price of oil hovered above $82 a barrel Tuesday after touching an eight-month low near $81 earlier in the session amid concern Spain's bank bailout won't be enough to stem Europe's debt crisis and suggestions OPEC could boost production targets.

The Great Recession shrank Americans' wealth so much that in 2010 median family net worth was no more than it had been in 1992 after adjusting for inflation, the Federal Reserve reported Monday.

Republicans are claiming that "the largest tax increase in American history" will hit at the end of 2012, when a long list of tax cuts will expire unless Congress acts. Only problem is it's not really true.