How the Economy's Wheels Came Off ; for Five Pivotal Weeks, a Financial Crisis Pushed the Economy to the Brink of Disaster Series: The Great Recession (Part One)

Summary

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First in a series of stories assessing how last fall's financial meltdown and the Great Recession have changed our lives.

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How the Economy's Wheels Came Off ; for Five Pivotal Weeks, a Financial Crisis Pushed the Economy to the Brink of Disaster Series: The Great Recession (Part One)

NEW YORK -- The nation was focused on a tropical storm spinning off the Carolinas and a hurricane headed for Florida. People were gaming out how a political novice named Sarah Palin might upend the presidential campaign.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 11,220 on Sept. 5, the Friday after Labor Day last year. There was an economic slowdown under way -- no one doubted that. Whether it amounted to a bona fide recession was semantics, a question for economists.

But on Sunday morning, the federal government took an extraordinary step: It seized control of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Fredd...

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