NPR Audio - Business

While stock prices jumped Monday, U.S. bank stocks are way down from their highs. And that makes them still a bargain for healthy foreign banks willing to take a chance. Spain's biggest lender, Banco Santander, is buying 75 percent of Penn.-based Sovereign Bancorp. Sovereign has 750 branches and is the largest surviving U.S. savings and loan. Santander already owned a quarter of Sovereign's stock.

GM has announced plans to close a Michigan metal stamping plant and stop making sport utility vehicles in Wisconsin by the end of the year. Workers at both plants will get most of their pay from the company and unemployment benefits for up to two years under their union contract.

Officials in California begin selling billions of dollars worth of bonds Tuesday. The state held off until now because of turmoil in credit markets. But officials say other states have managed to sell bonds, and they are gambling that the money is out there to cover at least part of the state's needs.

Iceland has felt the full impact of the global financial crisis.The country is in such a mess, that the prime minster has announced it could go bankrupt. The government's taken over three major banks. And now Icelandic officials are in Moscow asking the Russians for a loan. To top it all off, Reuters reports the country went up for sale on eBay, at least momentarily. The listing boasted a habitable environment, Icelandic Horses and a somewhat sketchy financial situation. Bidding started at a bargain $1.75, but bidders had many question including: will my payment be frozen?

The Bush Administration announced new steps Tuesday to shore up the nation's battered financial markets. The government will inject capital into financial institutions to help thaw frozen credit markets, create jobs and fuel economic growth.

The Treasury Department is set to announce a plan Tuesday to pump more than $200 billion of new capital into U.S. banks. The package follows similar steps by European governments announced Monday. In both cases, the moves will deepen government roles in the economy.

Britain's top share index has added to strong gains, as a plan from the U.S. Treasury to inject $250 billion into banks further eased anxiety on financial markets. The stock rebound began Monday on a British plan to pump $64 billion of taxpayer cash into three major banks.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 936 points Monday, the biggest single-day stock rally since the Great Depression. Investors wonder if the dramatic run-up can be sustained. David Wessel, economics editor of The Wall Street Journal, and Renee Montagne discuss whether the financial markets are recovering.

The downturn in the economy is fueling a robust trade in coupons. In addition to the traditional coupons that people clip from newspapers and other printed sources, Web sites and blogs offer tips and links to coupons. Some companies are also sending out coupons as text messages.

The Bush administration plans to spend as much as $250 billion of the $700 billion bailout buying stock in private banks, greatly expanding protections for the U.S. financial system out of deep concern for the faltering economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average has closed up 946 points, its biggest-ever one-day increase. The spike follows a week of massive losses on Wall Street that pushed the Dow below 10,000 points. Jeremy Siegel, professor of finance at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, attributes Monday's surge in stocks to relief the world's central banks and governments are serious about helping banks.

There is a growing consensus that if the current crisis has a proximate cause it is Treasury's decision to let the Wall Street investment firm Lehman Brothers go under. The effects of letting the investment bank collapse are still rippling around the world.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has called the CEOs of half-dozen big U.S. banks to a meeting in Washington. Paulson and the CEOs were expected to discuss Treasury's plan to stabilize the financial sector by buying equity stakes in banks.

European governments have promised nearly $2 trillion of support for the banking system in Europe. After the British announcement of massive intervention last week, governments using the euro announced similar measures when they met in Paris Sunday night.

Britain has said it would provide up to $63 billion to boost the balance sheets of three of the country's largest banks but demanded in return the departure of some of the country's top bankers. Stocks in Britain rose at the news.

Stocks have rallied into positive territory, making their biggest-ever one-day gain. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up more than 900 points. Jason Weisberg, senior vice president of Seaport Securities, says Friday's close, the G-7 meeting and the European rescue plan all contributed to the surge.

As the national economy continues to suffer in the wake of Wall Street's meltdown, California cities are also grappling with the fallout of a troubled state economy hit hard by foreclosures and soaring unemployment.

Stock markets soared after European governments announced a series of giant financial rescue plans. The packages were unveiled by Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy and others. They involve government guarantees of bank lending, as well as cash injections into troubled banks. The rescue plans may involve pay limits for CEOs, and the government taking equity stakes. Great Britain's plan involves the government buying shares in three big financial institutions, and becoming an owner of these once-private banks. The U.S. Treasury is also working on a similar plan.

Leaders from the 15 countries that use the Euro as currency met at a summit in Paris over the weekend to plan a bailout for European banks.They've developed an international program in hopes of stimulating markets across Europe.

Economists Robert Merton and Myron Scholes won the 1997 Nobel Prize in economics. Their formula for evaluating stock options laid the ground work for risk-management in modern financial markets. Nasim Taleb, a professor at New York University and a hedge fund owner, wants the prize revoked because he says their formula doesn't work.

The British government said Monday it will inject $64 billion into some of its largest financial institutions. British taxpayer funds will to go the Royal Bank of Scotland, and Lloyds TSB which is merging with a big mortgage lender. The bailout means top officials at these banks will leave their posts.

Detroit automakers have been suffering. There are worries that GM, Ford and Chrysler might not have enough money to make it through the downturn. And over the weekend, there were reports that the carmakers could be looking into dramatic moves including a possible merger between General Motors and Chrysler.

Automakers may be in a crunch but they still have to advertise. With more viewers skipping television commercials with technology like TiVo, automakers are trying to draw attention to new models by getting them cast in TV shows. This fall, GM has found supporting roles for two models in an NBC series. Chrysler's Dodge Ram stars in a Fox TV show. Ideally, a TV show can immortalize a car, like the talking Trans Am on the 1980s series "Knight Rider." Though — fans beware — in the 2008 version of "Knight Rider," the Trans Am has been replaced by a Ford Mustang.

The U.S. government plans to buy stock in struggling banks to help end the financial crisis. The plan sounds similar to something financial experts saw in Sweden.

Princeton economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman won the Nobel economics prize on Monday for his analysis of how economies of scale can affect trade patterns and the location of economic activity.

The U.S. is nearing the end of its observance of Latino Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct. 15). Aside from fun cultural activities and interesting books there are minefields to navigate too to avoid offending co-workers.

As the stock market crisis hits parishioners' pocketbooks, charities and churches across the country are bracing for decreased giving. It's unclear just how big a hit nonprofits are in for, but at least some Sunday collection plates are already feeling lighter.

One of the reasons the credit market has frozen is that money market mutual funds are not investing in "commercial paper" — that is, they're not making the short-term loans to businesses that those firms need to operate.

Europe is taking stronger, coordinated action to restore confidence in the continent's banking system. Fifteen euro zone countries have agreed to guarantee future loans among banks through the end of next year, according to French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

According to a report by the U.S. Department of Labor, 760,000 jobs have been lost in the past nine months. For some Americans who still have jobs, the pressures they face on a daily basis may be as difficult to bear as job insecurity.

Donna Giannola is a 49-year-old graphic designer who has been laid off three times in the last decade and is struggling to stay afloat.

A Weekend Edition investigation shows that some unscrupulous auto repair shops and used-car dealers have victimized consumers by stealing or not replacing air bags. Get tips for spotting air bag fraud and see what one victim found inside her car.

About the same time Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and the stock market began plummeting, one of the nation's leading sellers of safes started to see a sales boost. The company's CEO says he thinks the increase is due to people losing faith in banks.

Finance ministers from around the world tried to show they are working in a coordinated way to tackle a global financial crisis that has proved to be far more serious than anyone anticipated.

President Bush was short of specifics in his brief statement after Saturday morning's meeting. Will the meeting itself be enough to calm the worldwide markets after the weekend, or will the finance ministers have to offer a concrete plan to stabilize the world's financial systems?

How can G-7 leaders or the five-point plan solve the financial crisis? Scott Simon discusses this week's economic news with NPR's John Ydstie.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has said the government will go ahead with a plan to buy stocks in financial institutions. Meanwhile, The Group of Seven industrialized nations agreed to work together to fix the global economy.

Markets have fallen despite President Bush saying the U.S. is using a "wide range of tools" to address the chaos in the financial markets. Many finance-watchers blame tight credit markets for the trouble. Banks are not lending to on another.

President Bush has said the U.S. is using a "wide range of tools" to address the chaos in the financial markets. The stock market, however, has continued its downward slide. Many finance-watchers say the credit markets are to blame. Banks are simply not lending money to one another.