Nov 15, 2008 7:48 am US/Eastern
CBS4 Your Money: A Week The World Talked Money
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
-
-
Stocks tumbled, capping a second straight weekly loss, as a record decrease in retail sales raised concern about the depth of the recession
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
The week began with electronics retailer Circuit City filing for bankruptcy protection. In another sign of the times, American Express won approval to become a bank holding company, qualifying for cheap money from the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank.
On Tuesday, amid growing fears U.S. automakers could run out of cash, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for another bailout to prop up the Big Three and try to save tens of thousands of jobs.
Wednesday saw the stock market tumble with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 411 points to a five and a half year low. It was caused in part by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's announcement that he would change some of his strategy on using the $700-billion rescue program, funneling more money into consumer loans as opposed to buying toxic mortgage assets from banking institutions.
On Thursday, more bleak news about employment. New unemployment claims topped a half-million. Ironically, Wall Street still staged a late-day rally of more than 550 points on the strength of what some called "technical" buying.
The day ended with the fourth-straight month of declining retail sales, some of the deepest drops on record.
It's also the day that world leaders representing what's called G20 countries arrived in the nation's capital to meet with Pres. Bush, expecting to promise to support growth, establish principles for future regulation, lay out an action plan to put these into effect and establish working groups to examine specific regulatory and institutional issues.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Zoo Babies: Cuteness Unleashed
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Reporting
