Economy

The European Commission is investigating credit-rating agencies on claims that they failed to warn investors about subprime risks. And there are other worries, too. Stephen Beard reports.

Doing the numbers is starting to get downright gloomy. Markets in Asia and Europe are dropping by 2 and 3 percent after yesterday's Wall Street plunge on continuing subprime concerns. This time mortgage lender Countrywide was the biggest troublemaker.

Commentator Robert Reich says the full-blown credit crisis of recent weeks is the price we're paying for letting financial entrepreneurs take over our economy, a problem that's not going away unless we level the playing field.

Uncertainty continues to plague stock markets here and around the world. And after an unusual profit warning from Wal-Mart yesterday, overseas investors are particularly concerned that American consumers are out of spending money.

Some pundits are pinning the blame for market uncertainty of late to former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, but is it fair to second guess 18 years of decision-making in hindsight? Besides, he did warn borrowers two years ago, John Dimsdale reports.

Mortgage-backed securities seem to be at the root of the markets' problems these days. So what exactly are they? Kai Ryssdal turns to portfolio manager Mike Hatley to help us all understand.

Goldman Sachs announced it's pouring $3 billion with the help of investors into one of its hedge funds that lost 32% of its value in the past week. It might walk like a bailout and talk like a bailout but, as Amy Scott reports, don't call it a bailout.

Should the Federal Reserve pump money into the system to help out institutional players who took big risks when times were good and money was cheap? Commentator Krishna Guha says that's looking at it the wrong way.

Many of us are feeling some kind of financial pinch at the moment, what with high energy prices, rising school fees, health insurance costs... But don't count on the boss to help you out much. Helen Palmer reports.