Mar 12 Watch Boost in Retail Sales Hints at Economic Recovery Retail sales increased in February, despite major snowstorms in the eastern United States and consistently high unemployment. Judy Woodruff talks to an economist about whether recovery could soon follow. Continue watching
Feb 24 Bernanke Tells Lawmakers Rates to Stay Low Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers Wednesday that though the economy is in recovery, the central bank will keep interest rates at record-low levels to stave off a return to recession. Bernanke's appearance before the House Financial Services… Continue reading
Feb 18 Fed Raises Rate It Charges Banks In its first step to unwind emergency measures put in place during the height of the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve announced late Thursday it was raising the rate it charges banks on emergency loans. Continue reading
Feb 10 Bernanke Outlines Plan to Unwind Fed's Crisis Policies Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke outlined plans Wednesday to dismantle some of the central bank's policies put in place during the height of the financial crisis. The Fed, in the future, could sell some of the assets on its balance sheet,… Continue reading
Feb 10 Watch News Wrap: Airbag Issues Prompt Honda Recall In other news Wednesday, faulty airbags pushed carmaker Honda to add 437,000 vehicles to its 15-month-old global recall, and Ben Bernanke outlined plans to unwind the Federal Reserve's crisis policies. Continue watching
Jan 28 Bernanke Approved for Second Term at Fed The Senate voted 70-30 Thursday afternoon to approve Ben Bernanke for a second four-year term as chairman of the Federal Reserve. After several hours of debate in which Bernanke supporters argued that voting down his nomination would imperil a… Continue reading
Jan 28 Watch News Wrap: Bernanke Wins Second Term at Fed In other news, the Senate approved Ben Bernanke for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve. Senate Democrats also voted to boost the federal debt ceiling by nearly $2 trillion. Continue watching
Jan 27 Fed Votes to Hold Interest Rates Near Zero The Federal Reserve, as expected, announced Wednesday it will keep interest rates near zero "for an extended period" to help support an uneven economic recovery. Sounding a somewhat upbeat tone, the Fed said "that economic recovery has continued… Continue reading
Jan 27 Watch Unmasking Interest Rates, Honky-Tonk Style In the latest installment in his series of reports making sense of financial news, Paul Solman explains how interest rates are set, with a little help from economic country musician Merle Hazard. Continue watching
Jan 27 Watch Geithner Defends AIG Bailout at Fiery Hearing Under fire from lawmakers Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner defended the bailout of insurance giant AIG as "in the best interests of the American people."… Continue watching