These same free-spending consumers are needed to snatch up foreign goods and pull the world's faltering companies back from the brink.

The stock market's fall to Earth has made free-spending consumers feel a little less wealthy.

The American economy, long dominated by its free-spending consumers, is rapidly being transformed into one whose growth depends heavily on producing goods for foreign markets.

Growth Soars to 5.6% Rate With Inflation Modest Powered largely by free-spending consumers, the economy grew at a 5.6 percent annual rate during the first quarter.

Those free-spending consumers who have been propping up the economy at a time of sluggish business investment do not inhabit a parallel universe, untouched by Wall Street.

Especially in the current climate, free-spending consumers are seen as heroes, the basis of almost all hopes for economic recovery.

The American economy, long dominated by its free-spending consumers, is rapidly being transformed.

High employment, easy credit and free-spending consumers may be prosperity's engines, but these men - nearly all are men - are its mules.

Advertisers' ardor to appeal to those free-spending but finicky consumers is a big reason why ads about ads have returned.

It makes a garment that was the clothing of choice for a generation of free-spending consumers.