The $500 billion that the U.S. government estimates it will cost to buy the risky investments of financial institutions in coming months approaches what it costs to run the Pentagon for a year. ...more

September 20, 2008

The Bush administration, moving to prevent an economic cataclysm, urged Congress on Friday to grant it far-reaching emergency powers to buy hundreds of billions of dollars of distressed mortgages despite many unknowns about how the plan would work. ...more

September 20, 2008

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration sketched out a multifaceted effort on Friday to confront the worst U.S. financial crisis in decades, outlining a program that could cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars to buy up bad mortgages and other toxic debt that has unhinged Wall Street. ...more

September 19, 2008

In another breathtaking display of government intervention, top officials at the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve began discussing with congressional leaders a plan to buy up vast numbers of distressed mortgages held by ailing financial institutions. ...more

September 19, 2008

The Federal Reserve forged an extraordinary $85 billion rescue Tuesday night of insurance giant American International Group Inc., offering a respite from two days of chaos in the American financial system. ...more

September 17, 2008

Paulson. Merrill Lynch. Lehman. Bernanke. Names are what investors start talking about at moments like this. Names, the faith is, will rescue Wall Street and, by extension, the U.S. economy. When a market crash is big enough, people are too panicked to think about the technicalities of reform. They think about the names they are losing and names who, they hope, will save the day. ...more

September 17, 2008

The bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers on Monday and the sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America over the weekend rocked Wall Street, so it's no surprise that the ongoing crisis has many average Americans nervous. Before you start pulling money out of your bank account or sell off investments, here are some things to keep in mind: ...more

September 16, 2008

In another unnerving day for Wall Street, investors suffered their worst losses since the Sept. 11 attacks, and government officials raced to prevent the financial crisis from spreading. ...more

September 16, 2008

The Wall Street firm that started the U.S. cotton trade before the Civil War and financed the railroads that built a nation might soon fade into history. ...more

September 13, 2008

The government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac promises some real benefits for the Tampa Bay area, which for months has struggled under the force of the nation's housing downturn. ...more

September 9, 2008