Economy

We've gotten a raft of bad economic news recently — manufacturing growth has slowed, pending home sales are down. So is the recovery pausing to catch its breath? Or is this the fragile U.S. economy gasping for air? Jeff Horwich reports.

Fortune Magazine's Allan Sloan talks with Steve Chiotakis about whether the proposed financial regulations will stand the test of time.

At the G-20 summit in Canada over the weekend, leaders of the world's wealthiest nations pledged to cut their deficits in half by 2013 without stunting economic growth. With the White House projecting a $1.5 trillion deficit this year, President Obama says he's serious about tackling the nation's debt problem.

Tess Vigeland talks with Bankrate.com's Greg McBride about the Federal Reserve's new bank overdraft protection rules.

Scott Talbot of the Financial Services Roundtable gives Tess Vigeland the banking industry's perspective of the compromise financial reform bill.

Almost two years after the U.S. financial system found itself on the brink of collapse, Congress has reached a compromise on a financial overhaul bill. Congressman Barney Frank helped shepherd the bill through the House. He talks with Tess Vigeland about whether the bill is strong enough to prevent another crisis and what he thinks is missing from it.

House and Senate negotiators are meeting to hash out the last details of their financial reform bill. That's actually no mean feat. Policymakers have been talking about financial reform since pretty much the day Lehman Brothers went under. Nancy Marshall Genzer explains there are a mind-numbing number of details to hash out.

Getting back into the job market proves tough for workers in Chicago struggling against record-breaking trends in long-term unemployment.

Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln scored a come-from-behind victory in the Democratic primary. But a controversial provision she inserted into the financial overhaul bill may be a lost cause. The proposal would ban banks from trading in derivatives. Nancy Marshall Genzer reports.

The word "bubble" might come to mind when you think of the Great Recession. And now there is some worry about another bubble developing — this time in the bond market. Jeremy Hobson reports.