Patrice Hill

Congress rips Greenspan for crisis

Angry legislators Thursday officially threw former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan off the pedestal that he once occupied as Congress' most respected economic adviser.

October 24, 2008

Commodities plunge, roil world markets

A free fall in oil and other commodities sent global markets on another wild ride Wednesday, with Latin American stock indexes dropping more than 10 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing 515 points lower.

October 23, 2008

White House open to second stimulus

The White House dropped its opposition to a second stimulus bill after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke urged Congress to pass legislation to counter what he said could be a long and deep downturn in the economy.

October 21, 2008

Teetering hedge funds fuel swings

The recent wild swings in stocks and other markets are widely attributed on Wall Street to shadowy hedge funds experiencing big losses and forced sales that have the power to move entire markets.

October 20, 2008

Commodity bust, felt by investors, helps consumers

The collapse of commodities that drove oil prices back below $70 a barrel Thursday is reverberating through the world economy from Texas to Timbuktu.

October 17, 2008

Retailer slump sinks Dow 733 points

A retail report, which showed frightened consumers pulling back on spending in September in a way not seen in decades, sent Wall Street stocks reeling again Wednesday, prompting a 733-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in its second-largest loss.

October 16, 2008

Credit markets begin to thaw

An unprecedented $3 trillion of cash is being pumped into the banking system worldwide -- potentially one-third of it from the U.S. Treasury -- and it finally started to unglue stuck credit markets Tuesday.

October 15, 2008

Dow soars 936 in frantic trading

Investors flashed a rare glimpse of optimism Monday about global efforts to ease credit and bought up bargain-priced stocks in a frenzy, staging the largest one-day rally in Wall Street history.

October 14, 2008

Global creditors end U.S. spending spree

The crash unfolding on Wall Street is not just the fall of once-mighty banks and corporations that took on too much debt, but the collapse of an American economy and lifestyle that for decades has been purchased with credit cards.

October 12, 2008

New Dow hit imperils blue chips

America's stock wealth withered anew Thursday, with investors trampling the shares of venerable corporations from Morgan Stanley to Ford in a stampede that left General Motors' stock at 1950 levels and drove major stock indexes an astonishing 40 percent or more below their peaks a year ago.

October 10, 2008

Rate cuts raise bigger concerns

Six central banks slashed interest rates Wednesday in the first coordinated rate cuts since the 2001 recession, signaling they think the U.S. and world economies are in danger of imploding.

October 9, 2008

Government reshaping financial landscape

An unprecedented series of actions, most of which were bred of desperation and occurred with increasing speed in just the past month, have left pundits wondering where this government intervention into the economy will end.

October 8, 2008

Fed’s Bernanke hints at lower interest rates

UPDATED — Federal Reserve chairman Ben S. Bernanke suggested that the Fed will cut interest rates further in the days ahead as a result of the heightened risks to the economy from the financial crisis of the last month.

October 7, 2008

Global markets quake, Dow dives

Markets went to pieces Monday despite strenuous efforts to calm them by world authorities, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling as much as 800 points to below 10,000.

October 7, 2008

$700 billion — now what?

Now that Congress has passed the $700 billion bailout bill, will calm return to the economy and Wall Street?

October 5, 2008

Job losses jolt U.S.; California squeezed

The economy sharply deteriorated with the onset of a credit crisis last month, with businesses slashing 159,000 jobs — the most in 5½ years — and California pushed to the point of alerting the U.S. Treasury it may need an emergency loan.

October 4, 2008

California may need loan from Treasury

California has alerted the U.S. Treasury that it may need an emergency, $7 billion loan within days as shortfalls in revenue have caused it to be frozen out of the credit markets.

October 3, 2008

Sept. job losses biggest in 5 years

The economy lost 159,000 jobs last month as the onset of a severe credit crisis deepened recessions in housing, manufacturing, retail and other sectors, the Labor Department reported this morning.

October 3, 2008

Economic woes spread across nation

The credit crisis that exploded last month left a blast crater in an already sinking economy, and some of the victims emerged to tell their tales Wednesday.

October 2, 2008

Crisis rocks confidence in banks

One of the biggest casualties of the financial crisis is confidence in the nation's banks, which has been eroding in a way not seen since the Great Depression as a result of the rapid-fire failure of IndyMac, Washington Mutual, Wachovia and other top institutions.

October 1, 2008