Business & Economy

In his new book, Wall Street: America's Dream Palace, Steve Fraser focuses on the lotus of the financial world, paying attention to four of its archetypal characters — the aristocrat, the confidence man, the hero and the immoralist.

An anti-social Goth gal-pal adds fun and a bracing feminist perspective to Stieg Larsson's witty, hard-boiled tale, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

With the markets in flux and a massive government rescue package in the works, New York Times columnist Gretchen Morgenson looks into potential conflicts of interest in the nearly $700 billion deal.

The bankruptcy of financial services giant Lehman Brothers and the 500-point drop in the stock market on Sept. 15 have sent shock waves through the financial community. Law professor Michael Greenberger discusses the potential ramifications of the recent turmoil.

Thomas Friedman is a man bent on revolution. In his new book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, the three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist writes about the need for a green revolution — and calls upon Americans to lead the charge.

TV critic David Bianculli reviews Mad Men, the drama about advertising execs during the Kennedy years. Season two of the Emmy-nominated series begins on Sunday night on AMC.

Parsing the presidential candidates' tax plans is necessary to understanding their general takes on the economy. Economist Len Burman has been doing just that. He is a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, which has just released a report comparing the candidates' proposed tax policies.

To win this coming election, presidential candidate John McCain must prove that he is as strong on the economy as he is on military and foreign affairs. His senior economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, discusses McCain's approach to economic policy.

Jason Furman has been given the task of formulating Barack Obama's economic policy. He's the presidential hopeful's top economic adviser, and he will talk about where Obama stands on the most pressing economic issues.

Humans aren't the only ones smarting from the economy's downturn: Animals are also feeling the sting. Stephanie Shain, director of outreach for companion animals at the Humane Society of the United States, explains.

According to financial journalist Paul Muolo, a series of Wall Street missteps and misdeeds caused the subprime mortgage crisis.

Your 401(k) might not be the secure retirement plan you think it is. Economist Teresa Ghilarducci examines pension plans and offers advice on retirement security. Ghilarducci's new book is When I'm Sixty-Four: The Plot Against Pensions and the Plan to Save Them.

Harvard Law professor returns to Fresh Air to talk about how credit-card debt is becoming more costly due to increased fees and interest rates. Warren is a bankruptcy expert and an outspoken critic of abusive lending practices.

Prof. Elizabeth Warren, a specialist in bankruptcy and contract law at Harvard Law School, reports that one in four credit reports contain errors significant enough to affect a credit score.

Journalist James Glanz is Baghdad bureau chief for The New York Times; he's just reported on a government study criticizing the Bush administration for broadly overstating certain gains in Iraq.

The New York Times columnist has made his name with riffs on topics large (Boeing's comeback) and small (his own defunct iPod). A Pulitzer Prize finalist and the winner of several notable journalism awards, he's a regular contributor to NPR's Weekend Edition.

Perplexed by the U.S. economy? You're not alone. Law professor Michael Greenberger joins Fresh Air to explain the sub-prime mortgage crisis, credit defaults, the shaky future of other types of loans and what we can expect from the U.S. financial markets.

Repression in Vladimir Putin's Russia, journalist Edward Lucas writes, is matched by a new aggression abroad. It amounts to what Lucas calls "a new Cold War" fought with cash, natural resources, diplomacy and propaganda.

Most Americans have a vague notion about the national debt, but how many of us really understand the repercussions of a $9 trillion debt? In their new book, Where Does the Money Go?, authors Scott Bittle and Jean Johnson examine the way a looming federal budget crisis threatens to affect personal savings, retirement and mortgages.

Gretchen Morgenson, financial reporter and business columnist for The New York Times, talks about continuing fallout from the subprime lending crisis and how it's affecting consumers.