The debate over health care has become an all-out battle, as the administration, lawmakers and a panoply of interest groups vie to promote their own agendas. In coming weeks, we’ll be putting some of their competing claims to the test Under the Microscope.

I was giving a talk recently and asked everyone who had credit cards to give them to me. Then I issued a challenge: Can anyone tell me at least three of the new reforms under the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009?

Credit card rewards programs are suddenly less rewarding.

If you’re worried that significant cracks in your nest egg will scramble your retirement plans, you’re not alone. In 2008, more than 40 percent of U.S. workers saw their 401(k) plan balance drop by 30 percent or more in the wake of the biggest market meltdown since the Great Depression.

The most common way Americans make a living in China, not surprisingly, is by teaching English to the Chinese or to American children in an international school.

The Obama administration is reviewing habitat protective decisions set under President George W. Bush, alleging political interference that favored economic development over conservation. It has already revoked a plan to quadruple federal public forest open to logging in western Oregon, citing…

HARRISON, N.Y. — The live-in nanny is the first downstairs. She packs the school lunches at a kitchen window, overlooking three acres of velvety grass and little streams that slope toward a gate with a sign that says “Birch Hill.”

Q For many years, I’ve had a serious chronic illness that is not curable but is somewhat treatable. Since a relapse last year, I’ve had to work a slightly flexible schedule to accommodate doctors’ appointments. Other than that, I haven’t needed any accommodations, and it has not affected my work…

With home equity lost to a burst housing bubble and homeowners strapped for cash, backyard swimming pools aren’t making quite the splash they were three or four years ago.