Walk into any big-box store in the country and you’d be forgiven for thinking that nothing is made in America anymore.

So many of our everyday purchases — the clothes we wear, the toys our children play with and the electronic devices we rely on for work and entertainment — are manufactured abroad.

Nearly everyone knows someone who lost a job in manufacturing in recent years. The recession that began in December 2007 has been devastating for the sector, leading to a steep drop in production and eliminating more than 2 million manufacturing jobs, about one out of every seven positions, exacerbating a long-term trend.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Stocks ended mixed Monday, fighting back from big losses, as investors weighed Moody’s warning about the United States’ AAA rating and a proposed bank regulation bill ahead of Tuesday’s Federal Reserve meeting.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) added 17 points, or 0.1%. The S&P 500 index (SPX) ended just above unchanged, eking out a fresh 18-month high. The Nasdaq composite (COMP) slid 5 points, or 0.2% after ending Friday’s session at an 18-month high.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Failings by Lehman Brothers executives and its auditor led to the bank collapse that unleashed the worst of the financial crisis, according to a report by a court-appointed investigator.

Lehman “repeatedly exceeded its own internal risk limits and controls,” and a wide range of bad calls by its management led to the bank’s failure, says the report, authored by examiner Anton Valukas.

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) — The head of a key banking panel is expected Monday to release a draft bill of sweeping regulatory changes aimed at warding off future collapses in the financial system.

While much of the attention has focused on battles over the creation of a new consumer regulator to ensure consumers get a fair shake with mortgages and credit cards, the final draft is expected to address other areas, including some lawmakers generally agree about.

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) — Senate Democrats on banking panel plan to release and start working on a financial overhaul bill next week, without Republican support.

Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said Thursday he planned to release a draft bill on Monday, even though a “few outstanding issues remain,” including consumer protection.

WASHINGTON – An overwhelming majority of Americans wants Wall Street subjected to tougher regulation in the aftermath of the bank bailout and the bonus scandals that have rocked the U.S. financial sector, according to a Harris poll released on Thursday.

The findings suggest that 82 percent of Americans want the government to clamp down more strongly on Wall Street excesses, with a particular emphasis on bonus schemes that have rewarded employees at loss-making companies such as American International Group.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The car company that is off to the worst start of 2010 isn’t Toyota. It’s Chrysler Group.

Industry experts say that even though Chrysler’s overall sales are down only 3% during the first two months of the year, estimates show more than half of Chrysler’s sales have been to fleet customers, such as rental car companies.

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.

On Monday, the insurer announced that it would sell foreign life insurance business Alico to MetLife (MET, Fortune 500) for $15.5 billion. Last week, AIG said it reached an agreement to sell Asian life insurance giant AIA for $35.5 billion.

That’s $51 billion that AIG said will eventually be used to pay down its debt to the government. The two sales mark the most significant progress that AIG has made to-date in its efforts to repay its bailout, which is worth up to $182 billion.

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.

The Great Recession cleared the country’s roads, but a recovering economy and stimulus-fed construction projects will lead to worse delays.

Got satellite radio in your car? Now might be a good time to think about installing it, as you’re likely to be spending more time in traffic as the economy recovers.

Although high gas prices and lost jobs during the 2007-2009 recession led to a decrease in the number of Americans on the road, congestion is poised to increase as workers return to the nation’s highways and stimulus-funded construction projects create bottlenecks.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Shuttered General Motors dealers hoping to get their business back should stay near the phone. General Motors is in the process of calling 661 dealers targeted for shutdown to offer them their franchises back, company executives said Friday afternoon.

That represents more than half of the dealers who lodged an arbitration appeal last month to fight their planned termination.