The U.S. financial crisis

Tracking the Wall Street meltdown and historic bailout effort

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Caption: Trader Christopher Crotty rubs his eyes as he works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday. ((Richard Drew/Associated Press))

Map: Global reach of the credit crisis(external link)
Oct. 6: When Wall Street sneezes, other markets catch a cold. Here are some of the global ripple effects of the U.S. financial meltdown.
Photos: Market jitters(external link)
Oct. 1: Anxiety grips stock exchanges around the world, from Wall Street and Tokyo to Moscow and Karachi.
Who's who: The bailout bill(external link)
Sept. 30: A guide to the key players in the U.S. government's rescue plan.
Henry Champ: Strange bedfellows pulled the plug on bailout bill(external link)
Sept. 30: I would have thought spotting the Loch Ness monster would have been more likely than watching some of the coalitions of congressmen and women that lined up to defeat President George W. Bush's $700-billion bailout package Monday.
Money Talks: Some fiscal-crisis reading(external link)
Sept. 29: Just as we were all used to thinking of the world in terms of "post 9/11," we get hit with "post 9/15." We now have to think in terms of the financial world post Black Monday. We Canadians got hit to the tune of $38 billion — that’s just a footnote in the global picture, where the American bill alone is estimated to reach $1 trillion.

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Caption: Republican presidential nominee John McCain. ((Ron Edmonds/Associated Press))

Henry Champ: The 'distraction' of a would-be dealmaker(external link)
Sept. 26: Set aside for a moment whether or not you support the Bush administration's plan for a Wall Street financial bailout. Let's just look at the involvement of Republican presidential nominee John McCain.
America's biggest billionaire losers(external link)
Sept. 26: Feeling crushed by the fall in the financial sector? Worried about your investments? You're not alone. As Wall Street faced a wipeout this year, some of America's richest people got sucked into the vortex too, losing millions.
What billionaires say about the Wall Street crisis(external link)
Sept. 23: How will John Catsimatidis — supermarket billionaire, New York mayoral hopeful and the 215th wealthiest person in America — know when the crisis on Wall Street is over? "The situation is going to get better when you feel good about buying Citigroup stock," he says. "Right now, nobody feels good about buying it."
Why they hate short sellers(external link)
Sept. 19: Every market and every game has its own whipping post. In baseball, it's the umpire. At the gas pump, it's the big oil companies. And in the stock market, it's the short seller.
Canadian impact
How will global economic factors affect the Canadian economy? What does it mean for your investments? How worried should Canadians be? Economic trend expert Jim Carroll took your questions on Sept. 17.
> Your interview(external link)
Experts debate how to fix financial system(external link)
Sept. 19: As stock markets grapple with the fallout from the recent turmoil on Wall Street, experts are asking what can be done to prevent a similar financial fiasco in the future.
Henry Champ: Candidates, can you spare a solution?(external link)
Sept. 16: It certainly sharpened the focus, this week's turmoil on Wall Street. Both presidential campaigns jumped into action.
Timeline: Financial bumps and meltdowns in Canada and the U.S.(external link)
Sept. 15: Tracing banking crises of the 20th century and recent years, from the bank panic of 1907 to this year's Wall Street failures.
Financial crisis 'worst I have ever seen': BMO economist(external link)
Sept. 15: It might not have had the visual impact of Hurricane Ike in Texas, but Monday's shakeup on Wall Street likely is a similarly once-in-a-lifetime event. "This is the worst I've ever seen," said Sherry Cooper, chief economist at BMO Financial Group.
Wall Street fallout shakes economy(external link)
Sept. 15: Fallout from Monday's turmoil on Wall Street could have a major impact on the overall North American economy, experts say. That's because the financial problems faced by brokerage houses holding mountains of mortgage-backed paper debt will mean job cuts and monetary losses in other sectors, economists said Monday.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: After the bailout(external link)
Sept. 8: The government's weekend takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ensures that the two titans of the mortgage finance industry, which together control half the $12 trillion U.S. housing market, will wind up looking very different from the way they look now.