Economy

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.

The Fed will be looking at two key inflation measures this week: Tomorrow we'll get a read on July wholesale prices and Wednesday the Labor Department reports on consumer prices. But officials may have something else on their minds. Amy Scott has more.

Central banks around the world stuffed unprecedented wads of cash into their banking systems to stop last week's global market freefall. It's worked for now, but some in the industry are waiting for more bad news. Stephen Beard explains.

With markets around the world still rocking from the subprime lending debacle, central banks pumped a third of a trillion dollars into the global banking system to increase liquidity. Bob Moon helps us define what that means.

The U.S. subprime mortgage crisis is now sending economic shockwaves around the globe. Major markets are dropping percentage points by the day, but will the fallout spill over and dampen overall economic growth? Debate is raging.

With markets and investors in something of a state of panic, we turn to industry insiders King Penniman and Bill O'Grady to explain what's happening and who's ultimately responsible for this mess.

At a news conference, President Bush made it clear what he thinks of a higher gas tax to fix the nation's infrastructure. He also fielded a larger-than-usual array of questions about the state of the U.S. economy.

Chris Farrell suspects all that Fed talk about inflation is just a cover, an excuse to keep interest rates at current levels because it doesn't want to bail Wall Street investment banks out of the mess they created... and heavily profited from.

Since the '90s, it's been tech stocks that have kept the economic community riveted. But commentator David Frum says abstract is out: The "new economy" we keep hearing about is heavy and bulky and transported by rail.