A group of conservative Republicans in the House proposed a financial rescue package of tax breaks and a new government-sponsored insurance program for mortgage-backed securities Thursday as an alternative to President Bush's proposed $700 billion bailout of Wall Street. ...more

September 26, 2008

Democrats won a key concession from the White House on legislation to bail out the financial industry on Wednesday, then sought to scale back the $700 billion price tag. President Bush readied a prime-time speech to rally public support for his plan to stave off a deepening economic crisis. ...more

September 24, 2008

Republican John McCain said Wednesday that he wants to postpone Friday's debate to deal with the nation's financial problems, but Democrat Barack Obama said "it's more important than ever" that the country hear from its next president. ...more

September 24, 2008

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke bluntly warned reluctant lawmakers Tuesday they risk a recession with higher unemployment and increased home foreclosures unless they act on the Bush administration's $700 billion plan to bail out the financial industry. ...more

September 23, 2008

As officials in Washington raced to put together a bailout plan for the nation's teetering financial system, Sen. John McCain hammered Sen. Barack Obama as part of the problem while Obama said any rescue should include a new stimulus package for families. ...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

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

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

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 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