Fallout: The Financial Crisis

With the federal government rapidly increasing spending and getting more involved in the private sector, business for Washington lobbyists is booming. Ronni Radbill reports.

President Obama wants to clean up the regulation of banks. As Steve Henn reports, the president might want to start out by streamlining the entire system.

President Barack Obama told a joint session of Congress last night that his plan is to help people, not banks. But Wall Street traders are getting nervous about overspending. Dan Grech reports.

With more retail stores closing in this recession, property owners are left with a lot of vacant space to fill. Some are finding creative ways to do so. Tamara Keith reports.

In this downturn, franchisees are defaulting on loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration in record amounts. That could have a huge impact on franchise lending in the future. Mitchell Hartman reports.

Kai Ryssdal reviews your thoughts on stories about the housing crisis, bank bailouts, big numbers and small gadgets.

When math wizard David X. Li invented a formula to price collateral debt obligations, many on Wall Street adopted it. But now the formula's being blamed for spurring the collapse of the financial sector. Kai Ryssdal discusses the formula with Felix Salmon, who wrote about it in Wired magazine.

American Express is paying some cardholders $300 to cancel their accounts to avoid the risk of more defaults. Is this the beginning of a new trend? Janet Babin reports.

Many people look at the major stock market indices as leading economic indicators. But as Jeremy Hobson reports, the volatile stock markets aren't always indicative of what's going on in the economy.

Struggling insurance giant AIG is seeking more help from the government as it prepares to reveal a fourth-quarter loss of $60 billion. But what happened to the $150 billion in bailout money it already received? Steve Henn reports.