Search results for

Europe is engaged in its own bank rescue bailouts. The governments of Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg rescued financial firm Fortis over the weekend to prevent a domino-like spread of failure. Britain is nationalizing mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley.

They were civil, but the vice presidential debate in St. Louis featured plenty of clashes. Joe Biden and Sarah Palin met Thursday night for their only debate of the presidential campaign. They traded jabs for 90 minutes on topics as diverse as the current economic crisis, global warming and foreign policy.

Sen. John McCain has said that though the $700 billion bailout plan isn't perfect, failure to pass it will result in the economy's grinding to a halt. The comments were made in Independence, Mo., where McCain was campaigning ahead of the Senate vote on the plan.

The U.S. House has rejected the $700 billion Wall Street bailout plan, ignoring calls for quick passage from the Bush administration and a bipartisan line of congressional leaders. Stocks started to plunge before the final gavel.

It's been a roller-coaster day on Wall Street. New York Stock Exchange floor trader Ted Weisberg, who is president of Seaport Securities, says it has been like a camel's hump — the Dow Jones industrial average was up, then down, then up again before closing nearly 200 points down.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey has appointed federal prosecutor Nora Dannehy to pursue possible criminal charges against Republicans who were involved in the firings of U.S. attorneys. The move was recommended by a Justice Department report on the firings.

Senators promised that lawmakers would indeed be back with a bill later this week after they tweak it to pick up more support.

When the House voted on the Wall Street rescue package Monday, Republican Michael Burgess of Texas voted against the bill. Burgess says he'll continue to study the bill, but right now he's leaning toward voting no again. He says the bailout package is very unpopular in his home district.

The Senate debates a revised financial bailout bill that includes sweeteners to attract votes when it moves to the House. The core remains the same: The government gets $700 billion, incrementally, to buy the troubled assets of financial companies.

The House voted Friday on the financial rescue plan that the Senate passed Wednesday. The new version includes billions of dollars in tax breaks and credits. Keith Ashdown, chief investigator at Taxpayers for Common Sense, says lawmakers in the Senate piled on as much baggage onto what they saw as the last legislative train leaving the station.