Rushing to rescue Citigroup, the government agreed to shoulder hundreds of billions of dollars in possible losses at the stricken bank and to plow a fresh $20 billion into the company.
In a record bailout of a private company, the government on Monday provided a new $150 billion financial-rescue package to troubled insurance giant American International Group, including $40 billion for partial ownership.
The nation’s unemployment rate bolted to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent in October as another 240,000 jobs were cut, stark proof the economy is almost certainly in a recession.
President Bush on Tuesday announced a $250 billion plan by the government to directly buy shares in the nation’s leading banks, saying the drastic steps were “not intended to take over the free market but to preserve it.”
 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that there aren’t enough black Americans in the State Department.Â
