economy
Stock prices cut into net worth
The net worth of U.S. households, hurt by a falling stock market, declined by 2 percent last year, the first annual setback in Americans' balance sheets in 55 years.
The Federal Reserve said Tuesday that Americans' total net worth was $41.42 trillion at the end of last year, a drop of $841.5 billion from their net worth at the end of 1999.
It marked the first time that Americans' net worth had declined from one year to the next since the Fed began tracking the figures in 1945.
The decline followed five straight years of strong increases in net worth as individual wealth was driven higher by the booming stock market. Household net worth rose by 12.6 percent in 1997, 10 percent in 1998 and 14.1 percent in 1999.
IRS
E-filing on the rise, but so are mistakes
The number of income tax returns sent electronically by people who do their own filing is up 35 percent over last year, despite rejections from a new system the IRS is using to validate e-filers' identities.
Counting returns from professional preparers, Internal Revenue Service officials project that one out of three individual returns will be filed electronically this year, with the rest coming in via regular mail.
But things haven't gone entirely without a hitch. Up to 15 percent of e-filed returns have been rejected initially by the IRS so far this year, usually for such things as math errors or mismatched Social Security numbers. They can, however, be corrected and easily refiled.
Economy
Retailers report sluggish sales
Consumers were more selective in February, driving down sales at the nation's retailers by 0.2 percent after a January shopping spree. They cut spending for furniture and ate out less often, though they did buy more groceries.
The latest snapshot of consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of all economic activity, suggested that the economy continues to be sluggish but hasn't fallen into recession, analysts said.
Last week, the nation's biggest retailers reported generally disappointing sales for February, dimming the outlook for a strong spring.
Market volatility, higher energy prices, lower consumer confidence and slower job growth all have been factors.
February's weakness was led by a 1.9 percent drop in sales at furniture and home furnishing stores, after a 3.1 percent increase the month before. Another big weak spot: sales at bars and restaurants declined by 1.5 percent, following a 3 percent rise.
Internet
Napster signs deal with Gracenote
Struggling to block access to unauthorized songs, Napster Inc. has signed an agreement with a company that maintains an online database with millions of song titles.
Terms were not disclosed.
Napster announced Tuesday it would lean on music catalog specialist Gracenote to help it weed out copyright music. Gracenote, a privately held company that has been compiling an online database of song and album titles since 1995, catalogs music for information access and software applications.
Gracenote also catalogs the spelling variants that have proved troublesome for Napster as the song-swap service tries to comply with a federal court injunction to block the trading of unauthorized content.
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