On their own in the big city

A record number of people in the U.S. now live by themselves — and they spend $1.9 trillion a year. Businesses are beginning to take notice.
In the latest issue of Fortune Magazine.

The 100 Best Companies to work for

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Hunting for the next investors hot spots

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Today, two economies exist side by side. The U.S. and its advanced peers continue to struggle with high unemployment, idle capacity, depressed housing markets, and anemic growth. Credit remains tight in much of the developed world, despite historically low interest rates. By contrast, the global financial crisis has “left no lasting wounds” on most emerging economies, according to a recent IMF report. Emerging markets were for the most part in better shape than their advanced counterparts before the crisis, with less public debt, higher domestic savings rates, and stronger exports.

The world need rare-earth

A decade ago the U.S. was the world’s biggest supplier of lanthanides, scandium, and other rare earths. Rare-earth elements enable the creation of super-magnets, which operate at high temperatures and are also used for a range of high-tech applications, from missile-guidance systems to compact fluorescent light bulbs to wind power turbines to motors in electric vehicles. They get their name because they are spread widely throughout the earth’s crust in small concentrations that in most cases can’t be mined economically. Read more in the latest Fortune issue.

Can the USPS recover?

The more we pay our bills online and send e-cards, the more it hurts The U.S. Postal service, which last fiscal year lost $5.1 billion. Now it must cut some $20 billion. Here’s how the USPS plans to do it. In the latest Fortune issue.