For the third time this year, lawmakers are dragging the nation perilously close to a "fiscal cliff." Congress must pass a budget by Oct.1 or risk a government shutdown.

A GOP group in the House is behind an effort to defund the Affordable Care Act through the process of keeping the federal government funded. Speaker John Boehner may have to choose whether to stand by them and force a government shutdown, or makes a deal with Democrats to avert it. Steve Inskeep talks to former Ohio Republican Rep. Steve LaTourette for insight into Boehner's dilemma.

Nezha Hayat is the first woman to serve on the board of directors of a bank in Morocco. She is involved in running the Casablanca Stock Exchange, and she's pushing for more women to play decision-making roles in the country's economy. David Greene talks to Hayat about her experience rising through the ranks of a field dominated by men.

Somehow, information about the Fed's bond buying decision got into computers in Chicago faster than the speed of light. Those milliseconds meant millions.

The housing sector remains one of the U.S. economy's bright spots. In major cities across the nation, prices in July were up a bit more than 12 percent on average from a year ago.

The Senate is considering a bill to keep funding the federal government past next Tuesday. The measure was passed last week by the Republican-controlled House, and it includes language to defund the Affordable Care Act. To discuss what is the path forward, Steve Inskeep talks to Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois.

The neighborhood hardware store, the cozy diner, the independent bookstore — they have seen customers leave in droves for Lowe's, Starbucks and Amazon.com. After shrinking dramatically during the Great Recession, small businesses are starting to grow again. But they still face plenty of headwinds.

The automaker's stock is set to go on sale to the public in mid-November. But that sale could be as much about brinksmanship as it is an IPO.

Fall foliage, it's not just a bunch of pretty colored leaves. In some Northeastern states, it's key to the tourist trade between summer and winter. But the timing has to be just right to take advantage of the long Columbus Day weekend.

Small businesses are celebrated and exalted as the hard-working, most deserving members of the political economy. They get tax breaks, and they're touted as the engines of job creation. But it turns out that when trying to figure out what a small business is, there is no one definition.