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Millions of Americans have been forced to rely on unemployment payments for extended periods as the nation struggles through its longest period of high joblessness in a generation, and critics are taking aim, saying that the Depression-era program created as a temporary bridge for laid-off workers is turning into an expensive entitlement.

About 11.4 million out-of-work people now collect unemployment compensation, at a cost of $10 billion a month. Half of them have been receiving payments for more than six months, the usual insurance limit.

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NEW YORK – In an effort to end the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration has been trying to keep defaulting owners in their homes. Now it will take a new approach: paying some of them to leave.

This latest program, which will allow owners to sell for less than they owe and will give them a little cash to speed them on their way, is one of the administration’s most aggressive attempts to grapple with a problem that has defied solutions.

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WASHINGTON – The post office is renewing its drive to drop Saturday delivery — and plans a rate increase — in an effort to fend off a projected $7 billion loss this year.

Without drastic action the agency could face a cumulative loss of $238 billion over 10 years, Postmaster General John Potter said in releasing a series of consultant reports on agency operations and its outlook.

“The projections going forward are not bright,” Potter told reporters in a briefing. But, he added, “all is not lost … we can right this ship.”

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — A wave of disappointing economic reports has revived fears that the recovery is unsustainable, upping the ante for this week’s batch of economic news, including the big February jobs report Friday.

A strong rally in the last nine months of 2009 was fueled by a copious amount of fiscal and monetary stimulus, but also on bets that 2010 was a big recovery year. So far, the results have been so-so, and that’s left markets vulnerable and volatile.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Wal-Mart Stores posted a quarterly profit Thursday that beat Wall Street’s expectations, but the retailer’s store sales dropped during the period that included the all-important year-end holiday sales.

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, said fourth-quarter sales at its stores open at least a year – a key gauge of retailers’ performance known as same-store sales – fell 1.6% compared to a 2.4% increase for the same period a year ago.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Sick of sending big checks to the IRS? For some business owners, this tax season will bring a rare reversal: A stimulus-fueled tax change is putting cash back into the pockets of qualifying entrepreneurs.

Bill Hewitt, who owns several real estate ventures in Denver, recently collected a $150,000 refund check from the IRS thanks to the new tax rules. “Without that money, I probably would have gone under,” he says. “When you can’t get any loans from anybody, it kept me alive.”

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The watchdog charged with monitoring the government’s $700 billion bailout unleashed one of his harshest criticisms of the program to date, questioning its overall effectiveness.

In his latest quarterly report to Congress, special inspector general Neil Barofsky said that the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, has failed to boost bank lending as well as halt the spread of foreclosures — two key aims of the sprawling program.

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Honda is going “retro” with this hybrid model just introduced at the Detroit Auto Show. It goes on sale in the summer.

Back in the 1980s Honda sold a two seat car called the CR-X. The same trait that made it fun to drive — it was extremely light — also made it extremely fuel efficient. The way the EPA rated fuel economy in those days, it got an eye-popping 57 miles per gallon in highway driving. Using today’s EPA test, it would get about 51 mpg.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The tax man has gotten a lot more aggressive in slapping liens on taxpayers who are seriously delinquent in their payments.

In fact, the Internal Revenue Service issued 475% more liens last year than it did in 1999.

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Marc and Sharon LeRoux always dreamed of opening a business together. They took the plunge in 2006, tapping home equity to buy a franchise selling pre-made meals to busy families. Alas, the business failed, and last year the couple closed it down.

Fortunately, neither had quit their day jobs – Sharon is an engineer at Hewlett-Packard, Marc owns a specialty game store. But they still have $154,000 on a home-equity line of credit from the venture dragging them down. “Our income is very good, but we’re living paycheck to paycheck,” say Sharon. “And I’m sure we’re underfunding our retirement and our kids’ college.” (They are parents of Marie, 15, Nicole, 12, and Marc, 5.)

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No more stimulus, please, we’re capitalists.

That’s the view, at least, of the majority of economists surveyed in msnbc.com’s year-end roundtable. Though unemployment will remain stubbornly high, and the economic recovery sluggish in 2010, the government doesn’t need to provide another round of stimulus spending to keep the economy afloat, they say.

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With a week to go before Christmas, division CEO Raul Vazquez says Walmart.com’s holiday sales are growing two or three times faster than Web sales overall.

At that pace — and with 22 percent growth so far this year — the world’s largest retailer is coming closer to dominating the Web the way it does cities and towns across the U.S. That would mean eventually dethroning online retail leader Amazon.com, whose sales hit $19.17 billion in the 2008 calendar year.