
Fears that we are headed toward another global financial meltdown intensified yesterday as the market tumbled following a pessimistic economic assessment from the Federal Reserve.
The sharp losses put the Dow on track for its worst weekly performance since September 2008, and forecasters polled by the Wall Street Journal this month gave the U.S. a one-in-three chance of slipping into recession over the next year.
Today on American Morning, Matt McCall, president of Penn Financial Group, talks to Christine Romans about the state of the financial markets and explains how investors should handle the downturn.
Christine Romans reports the morning business news headlines in our daily segment "Minding Your Business" on CNN’s
American Morning.
Ken Jennings, famous for winning 74 straight Jeopardy games and $2.52 million dollars on the show, has always loved geography. As a child, he slept with a Hammond World Atlas under his pillow every night.
In his new book, "Maphead," Jennings explains why both himself and many others around the world find maps and geography so fascinating.
Jennings discusses the state of geography education in the United States and comments on new navigation technology today on American Morning.
Senator Grassley is outraged at the Department of Justice and demanding answers for an inspector general report that found that the agency has often paid well above market costs for food and drinks at its conferences, including $16 muffins.
In all, the audit found that the Justice Department spent $121 million on 1,832 conferences throughout the 2008 and 2009 fiscal years.
In response, Vice President Joe Biden released a statement yesterday calling for a review of all conference-related expenses and declaring that all future expenses will have to be signed off on by the Deputy Secretary or an equivalent chief operating officer of each agency.
Senator Chuck Grassley appears on American Morning today to talk about the Justice Department's audit and the measures that are going to be enacted to regulate spending.
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Nicholas Kristof was the only print journalist to interview Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at this year's United Nations General Assembly.
Kristof spoke with Ahmadinejad just hours before the release of two American hikers from Iranian custody, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, and he describes the interview as calm, and conciliatory, with moments of tension.
Today on American Morning, Christine Romans sits down with Kristof to discuss what Ahmadinejad said about the hikers' release, Iran's relationship with the U.S., and recent protests in Syria.
Confronted with the prospect of a Palestinian bid for full U.N. membership, U.S. President Barack Obama issued a sharp rebuke yesterday to those pressing for statehood.
Hanan Ashrawi, executive committee member for the Palestine Liberation Operation, appears on American Morning today to offer her reaction to Obama's remarks and to weigh on the country's impending request for statehood.
"We do not want any delays or procrastinations in the deliberations on our membership," Ashrawi explains. "We know that the United States has been working overtime and has spent so much energy and effort trying to pressure different countries to persuade them not to vote in our favor."
Ashrawi also comments on yesterday's speech by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who called for a resolution for non-member "observer status" for Palestine as a bridge toward statehood.
"We found it extremely interesting," Ashrawi says. "We did meet with President Sarkozy and we said we would view it positively and give it positive consideration.

