"Gee, mommy you sure enjoy your marlboro"

Europe joined Asia's panic selling of stocks on Friday, knocking the benchmark world equity index to a 5-year trough, while the low-yielding yen jumped as fears grew that policymakers' efforts to contain the global financial crisis won't be enough.

Wall Street capped its worst week ever with a wild session today that saw the Dow Jones industrials rocket within a 1,000 point range before closing with a relatively mild loss and the Nasdaq composite index actually end with a modest advance

Alan Maass looks at how the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression has revealed, once again, two worlds of the haves and have-nots, existing side by side in America.

Adam Turl explains how pressure from below persuaded the Cook County sheriff to stop putting people out of their homes.

Eric Ruder shows how a different set of priorities would stack up against the $700 billion that the federal government want to spend to rescue the Wall Street banks.

Senate Finance Committee chairman Baucus asked for hard answers about AIG and its free-spending activities and wants a reply by October 23. One of his major questions: "Who can we fire?"

Oh yes indeed - Wachovia is eagerly its awaiting bailout with our billions. In the meantime, its top brokers will enjoy a cruise of the Greek isles. 75 employees, with their spouses or significant others, will cruise on our dime - all expenses paid.

Treasury Sec. Hank Paulson's $700 billion bailout plan now has a name: the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. But even as Capitol Hill debates TARP, few seem to have noticed the proposal item that puts taxpayers on the hook for future bailouts

Investigators start search for fraud at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and AIG, sources say