Planet Money

As expected, the Federal Reserve lowered the interest rate we all care about by another half point, to 1. Economic historian John Steele Gordon says the idea is to get people to borrow money again — responsibly this time, please. Plus: What's a yen-carry trade?

A survey finds consumer confidence at its lowest level in 35 years. An economist walks us through the wreckage. Plus: A guy in Rhode Island says he has stopped spending money. Simon Johnson, economist, diagnoses the trouble with that.

They binged on debt — some of it for building factories and such, some for flat-screen TVs. Now the foreign investment that made it all possible has turned for home, leaving the countries of emerging markets in trouble deep.

A listener in Portland, Ore., tells us she was laid off on Thursday. But never fear. MIT economist Simon Johnson, of Baseline Scenario, is ready to help. Plus: What's a Wall Street circuit breaker? And what's a healthy bank?

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan tells Congress how his worldview got upended. An economist eyes the hedge fund trouble to end all troubles. And a political analyst says our global situation was a long time in the making.

An Icelandic ex-patriot says, no, her nation won't starve. That's true, says an Icelandic reporter, but the thrill's still gone. Plus: David Kestenbaum rings up a report on the next crisis, and Adam Davidson gets an unlikely nod for . . . Treasury Secretary.

Mark Cuban owns the Dallas Mavericks, a cable network and the brand-new BailoutSleuth.com. Plus: We answer a listener question about auctions and credit default swaps. Hang in there; we're all catching up.

A listener asks where the money went, and whether it was ever there in the first place. An economist explains. It has to do with deleveraging. With an additional stop in Seattle, for a postal worker's view of the economic crisis.

Yes, we're scared in the United States. We can feel a recession coming. But in Iceland, folks are living out an astounding economic collapse. Plus: The wizard of Wharton tees off on Henry Paulson, and a listener asks what a write-off is.

Inflation went down last month, which turns out to be unnerving instead of good news. That's partly because consumers are keeping their money in their pockets, even with cheaper prices on the shelves. Plus: An expert gives us a tour of one bank's balance sheet.

Economists whack the McCain and Obama plans around. And meet the listener who got an unpleasant surprise in his credit card statement — the company lowered his limit $500. He says he never saw it coming.

Federal officials today announced they were using the $700 billion bailout to buy shares in banks. The idea is to get money into them quickly so they can start lending money again. It's a big idea — and a smart one, many economists say — but the devil is in the details. We hear one of the earliest objections.

Wall Street set a new benchmark today. Oct. 10 marked the first time the Dow Jones Industrial Average has traveled a thousands points in a single day. Meanwhile, the wheels of the great bailout machine rolled forward. A listener asks everyone's mortgage question. And a panhandler finds his niched in the faltering global economy.

Thanks to a little-noticed provision that's sort of in the $700 billion bailout, the U.S. Treasury says it's preparing to partially nationalize the banking industry. It's a big deal. And not everyone we talked to thinks it will work.

The U.S. lowered a benchmark interest rate today, along a slew of central banks in other countries. Amir Sufi says the fix may lie in getting people to spend more money, somehow. Simon Johnson objects to Europe's patchwork response to the financial crisis. And David Kestenbaum finds a guy who knew the bailout boss way back when.