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The first article Arizona mirrors nation on high-wage jobs, from The Business Journal reports that the proportion of high-wage jobs in Arizona is nearly identical to the national average, according to a new analysis of federal employment data. About 15 percent of all jobs in the U.S. pay high wages, defined as paying at least 50 percent more than the overall average wage, according to The Center for Competitiveness and Prosperity Research, a unit of the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. "Arizona ranked 17th -- in the middle of a group of competitor states, but near the bottom of a group of New Economy states," he said.

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2006/06/26/daily33.html?jst=b_ln_hl

The third article Cost to borrow rises with rates, from The Arizona Republic reports that the anticipated Fed action today would lift the federal funds rate by one-quarter of a percentage point to 5.25 percent. That would be the 17th such increase since the Fed began to tighten credit in June 2004. This step would leave both the funds rate and the prime rate at their highest points in more than five years. Before the Fed's series of increases, the prime rate stood at 4 percent and the funds rate was at 1 percent. It was a boon for borrowers, a bane for savers.  Those extraordinarily low rates were needed to help brace the economy after the stock market bubble burst, the 2001 recession set in, terrorists struck the U.S. and accounting scandals rocked Wall Street.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0629fed0629.html