Economy, Financial Crisis | featured news

The Dow rose higher and briefly topped 14,000 Friday, hitting a milestone not seen since before the financial crisis rocked the world economy.

The US Federal Reserve may have underestimated the looming 2007 global financial crisis, released transcripts from its meetings that year have shown. The documents suggested Fed Governor Ben Bernanke wanted to hold off from addressing rising panic in the markets.

Unemployment in the 17-country euro currency bloc hit another record in May as the crippling financial crisis pushed the continent toward the brink of recession, official figures showed Monday.

More than at any time since the depths of the financial crisis, the world's leaders need to pull together today, end their squabbling and divisiveness, and come up with a concrete plan to get the fragile recovery back on track.

The Federal Reserve, facing rising global financial strains and recession fears, is poised to increase downward pressure on longer-term interest rates next week in a bid to accelerate a sputtering U.S. recovery.

The federal deficit will hit $1.3 trillion for fiscal 2011, the third consecutive year of record shortfalls and an emerging campaign theme for GOP attacks on President Obama and congressional Democrats. The deficits of the last three years are at levels unseen since World War II and stem from the "long shadow" cast on the economy by the financial crisis and recession, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said on Wednesday the global economy was rebounding from the financial crisis but recovery remains unbalanced.

Austerity measures being adopted by many industrialized world governments in the wake of the 2008-09 financial crisis are undermining economic recovery, a United Nations report said on Wednesday.

The government panel, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission blames: Banks that made reckless bets, credit rating agencies that endorse risky mortgage-backed securities and government regulators who overlooked warning signs until they threatened the global financial system.

A deeply divided U.S. investigative panel issued a scathing critique of the culture of deregulation championed by Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, saying the government had ample power to avert the financial crisis of 2007-2009 and chose not to use it.