Pets

Demand for animal drugs is rising amongst pet owners and livestock and poultry farmers.

To keep pets out of shelters after owners die, the ASPCA is urging people to plan ahead. Identify a new guardian. Collect medical records. And yes, if you can afford it, put Splash in your will.

Animal health care is the fastest growing sector of health care. Medicine for the pets we love and the livestock we eat is a more than $4 billion business for the pharmaceutical company Pfizer.

The troubled Facebook IPO is casting a pall over high tech (wrongly, I think). The signal moment for the emergence of an even larger digital economy wasn't Facebook. It was Apple's iPad. It's the visible symbol of the rapid embrace of wireless data -- video, images, content, data and communication -- throughout the global economy. A safe forecast: The mobile Internet will transform personal finance.

The price of looking after your pet is rising as far and fast as the cost of human healthcare. Gregory Warner reports on why we are willing to pay so much for our animals.

Does the best breed at the Westminster dog show impact the broader pet economy in America?

In a time of belt-tightening, why are Americans spending more on their pets?

All this week I'll be answering last-minute tax questions as part of Marketplace Money's special report on tax season. The first one comes from...