Four years ago — when $300 golf rounds, $500 hotel rooms and $2,000 business suits rarely raised an eyebrow — Chris Knott fidgeted in his chair when industry confidants suggested he raise the prices of the shirts, sweaters, trousers and other accouterments in his Peter Millar line of clothing.

With prominence comes privilege, often in the guise of access to powerful people.

In “Up on Cripple Creek,” The Band had another kind of distilled corn in mind — and maybe down the gullet — when it sang of “a drunkard’s dream if I ever did see one.”

Mac Williams admits it grudgingly — after being prodded a few times. Yes, the president of the Alamance County Area Chamber of Commerce concedes, it hurt when Burlington-based Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings decided to put a billing center in Greensboro.

Recession’s gloom might be lifting for some private-sector workers, but the downturn’s doldrums likely will linger at least another year for state employees.

It wasn’t as bad as Peeks Creek, where in 2004 a landslide killed five people, but when mud gushed down the mountain below a Maggie Valley amusement park recently, the disaster potential was greater.

He never hears the sirens or sees the black smoke billowing above the tangled metal.

I got a news release the other day from SBR Consulting, a Charlotte human-resources company, touting its study of how the recession has changed the views of young workers — “millennials,” specifically those in the workforce born after 1977.

There are certain words and phrases which, when spoken out loud, tend to provoke expressions of regret as bad memories cascade.

Ponder this: Mike Easley might be a victim of the housing bubble.

If you failed to trade in that gas guzzler for an Earth-friendly fuel sipper in a deal greased with federal money, don’t despair.

Coastal homeowners have long lived in fear that a big storm could force them from their seaside sanctuaries.

Once a Wall Street darling with a stock price that peaked at nearly $50 a share in 2003, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. has been serving up annual losses since 2004, and its stock hasn’t surpassed $5 in more than 18 months.

To Garner Mayor Ronnie Williams, it’s simple: Wake County commissioners talk big about recruiting and retaining jobs, but they don’t follow through — at least not for his town.

When it comes to recession, even casinos have trouble beating the odds.

Max Lloyd stands atop a ridge in northeastern Guilford County. A steady breeze from the nearby Haw River combs his hair as he surveys long rows of neatly espaliered chardonel vines.

Kevin McDonald moves around the main campus of the nonprofit he founded in Durham with the confidence of someone coaching a championship team.

This marks the 23rd time Business North Carolina has named a Mover and Shaker of the Year, and like our current pick, more than a third have been bankers.

The recession wasn’t as brutal to the Triangle as it was to other parts of the state, but the blows it dealt weren’t all love taps.

The ’00s weren’t kind to the Triad. Employment in the region slipped about 5% during the decade as manufacturing jobs left.