Over the last five years, the economies of Wal-Mart countries outside the United States have grown 40 percent faster than the world average. So what's going on? Does the ability to buy giant bags of Froot Loops at cut-rate prices inspire economic growth?

Measuring financial strain, county by county.

The fallout from the recession has cut deeply into the housing security, employment and income of many Americans. But some parts of the country are clearly faring better than others. Here, three interactive maps show foreclosure and jobless rates as well as household income by county.

How hard is it to find a job in your city? Here's the number of unemployed per job posting for the 50 most populous metropolitan areas in the U.S.

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released a new report, Income Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the U.S., 2008. Above are median household income in America by household type.Married-couple families continue to lead by a wide margin.

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released a new report, Income Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the U.S., 2008. Above are the percentage of families living below the poverty level, by type of household.

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released a new report, Income Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the U.S., 2008. Above is a picture of the uninsured in America by income category.

Spending increases, tax credits, tax increases and cost reductions as outlined by the Congressional Budget Office.

An analysis of almost 10,000,000 insurance claims by the AMA to seven private insurance companies and Medicare between March 2007 and March 2008 reveals that more than half a million (574,591) claims were denied, and the chart above displays the percentage of claims denied by each insurer during that period.

When the Obama stimulus plan was proposed, the president's economic team put out a report in January of 2009 that purported to show what would happen with and without the fiscal stimulus. The chart above is from page four that report, together with the actual results over the past couple months.