Debt

LOGAN — When Erica Abbott’s husband lost his job in 2010, she said it didn’t feel like the end of the world.

But it would have had it happened a couple years earlier, back when Abbott and husband Reuben were carrying $20,000 in student loans and consumer debt.

“It was the least-stressful thing,” said Abbott, now 25, who recently taught two Utah State University workshops on Financial Planning for Women (workshop schedule, www.usu.edu/fpw).

“We didn’t have to worry about paying on student loans or credit cards.

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah legislative leaders have finalized a $13 billion budget proposal that will go to lawmakers Monday without raising taxes or cutting funding for state agencies.

PARIS — Amid a wave of criticism, Standard & Poor’s defended its decision to downgrade nine European countries and insisted Saturday that the region’s leaders aren’t doing enough to solve their debt crises.

MADRID — Another troubled European government will almost surely tumble this weekend as Spanish voters braving sky-high unemployment, the sting of austerity, piles of debt and a bleak future are expected to dump the ruling Socialists and hand their national mess to opposition conservatives.

WASHINGTON — The stage this time will belong to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

As President Obama prepared to announce new measures Wednesday to help ease the burden of student loan debt, new figures painted a demoralizing picture of college costs for students and parents: Average in-state tuition and fees at four-year public colleges rose an additional $631 this fall, or 8.3 percent, compared with a year ago.

The Federal Trade Commission has halted operations and frozen assets of a Southern California debt collection firm accused of threatening to kill pets, dig up deceased relatives, and a long list of other harassment complaints from across the country.