With an economy in peril, it seems like everything is on sale. But when consumers hold out for record low prices, the market suffers from deflation. Stacey Vanek-Smith explains why in our latest Marketplace Decoder.
The credit markets are still stuck tight, according to the usual gauge people look at — the LIBOR index. It used to be a pretty obscure financial benchmark that only mattered to bank bureaucrats. But not any more. Mitchell Hartman explains.
The size of the stimulus package under the Obama administration still isn't known, and whether it's going to work any better, we don't know yet, either. But commentator Susan Lee thinks there's a way to help Congress be smarter about how the money gets spent.
The proposed $15 billion bailout package for Detroit is considered enough to get the Big Three out of their short-term jam. But to convince Congressional skeptics, the package comes with plenty of conditions. Our Washington bureau chief John Dimsdale has more.
President-elect Obama has been fairly guarded in his pronouncements as to what ought to be done with the economy before he takes office, even as some in both parties are calling for him to be more involved. Kai Ryssdal gets some perspective from James Thurber of American University.
Newspaper companies are hitting a serious shortage of cash in response to the fallout from the financial crisis. The Tribune company could declare bankruptcy as early as this week. Dan Grech reports.
Hedge funds have been blamed for fueling the financial crisis. Amy Scott paid a visit to one fund that's hoping to take the lemons this economy's offering and make lemonade.
In our Weekly Wrap, Kai Ryssdal talks with Fortune's Leigh Gallagher Portfolio.com's Felix Salmon about this week's jobs numbers, the "official" recession, the whip-sawing markets, and the automakers' continued pleas to Congress.
A year into a recession and job losses are getting steeper. That's not good. Recovery hinges on people working and starting to buy again. Senior Business Correspondent Bob Moon looks at where we can go from here.
Today's jobless report was worse than many analysts expected. The economy lost 533,000 jobs last month, the most since 1974. And the 6.7% unemployment rate was the highest since 1993. Jeremy Hobson reports.
