The recession may have officially ended in June 2009, but consumer confidence remains at recession levels heading into holiday shopping season. In fact, the most recent Consumer Confidence Index from the Conference Board went down 6.6 points for the month of November to 39.8 percent. By comparison, the Confidence Index was 70.4 percent in February of 2011. 

Last season, the New York City Ballet and other large dance companies in the U.S. had an average attendance of only 73 percent, according to Dance/USA. But this year, the City Ballet is facing a different attendance issue: sold-out tickets for their entire two-week run of “Swan Lake.”

What changed, you might ask? Two words: “Black Swan.” And one more word: “Oscar.”

U.S. regulators are announcing a recall of more than 10 million Fisher-Price tricycles, toys and high chairs after reports of 10 children being hurt. Here are the details of the affected toys, from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Elizabeth Warren is now the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What should she tackle first? Credit card practices? Mortgages? Student loans? Send your assignments for Warren.

The economic numbers that we’re seeing across the country seem to indicate, as Fed Chair Ben Bernanke asserted, that our nation’s economic future is “unusually uncertain.”  The Consumer Confidence index released in July reaffirms a growing pessimism on Main Street, where the decline in confidence is likely due to barely noticeable wage growth and concerns over employment. But that is not the case on Wall Street, where the stock exchange is experiencing an upward trend sparked, in part, by recent earnings reports from some big businesses that have slimmed down their costs through the recession. But what does this disconnect mean to you?  

Consumers are reporting this week that Citibank recently closed some of its Shell-branded Mastercard accounts with only days' notice and no stated reason for the cards being canceled. We ask Adam Levin, chairman and co-founder of Credit.com and former director of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, how consumers can protect themselves from such practices, and what it says about banks that are closing accounts this way.