Countrywide's acquisition by Bank of America Corp. was supposed to help keep the troubled mortgage lender from collapse. Things might not turn out exactly as planned. ...more

August 16, 2008

The U.S. trade deficit has gone on a diet, helped by strong exports of farm products and manufactured goods and by Americans spending less as the economy limps along. ...more

August 13, 2008

On the surface, U.S. companies' second-quarter earnings were fairly respectable when you strip away the financial sector - profits for Standard & Poor's 500 members rose about 10 percent from a year earlier after falling sharply the two previous quarters. ...more

August 6, 2008

Focused on getting the nation's credit gears smoothly working again, the Federal Reserve is letting Wall Street firms draw emergency loans into next year and giving financial companies more options to help them overcome credit problems. ...more

July 31, 2008

Just for a minute let's set aside all the bad things plaguing the financial world. Even in these gloomy times, there's some good news worth checking out. ...more

July 31, 2008

The federal government is poised for a massive bailout of some of our largest mortgage banks and to help homeowners facing foreclosure land loans that are less expensive. All of that pulls at most folks' heartstrings, and it should in many cases. However, we must tread carefully when making decisions like this that will cost all taxpayers a lot of money. ...more

July 25, 2008

Wachovia Corp. reported a surprisingly large second-quarter loss Tuesday, deflating Wall Street's hopes that the nation's big banks are weathering the credit crisis well. ...more

July 23, 2008

Bank of America Corp. has become the latest in a string of big banks whose second-quarter earnings, while hurting from the impact of the credit crisis, still managed to beat Wall Street expectations. ...more

July 22, 2008

Securities regulators from several U.S. states on Thursday raided the St. Louis headquarters of Wachovia Securities, seeking documents and records on the company's sales practices. ...more

July 18, 2008

Gov. Charlie Crist said the property tax breaks that voters adopted in January would "fire up" the state's economic engine. ...more

July 17, 2008