David J Fazekas

President Obama tours the Midwest. Texas Governor Rick Perry, begins fundraising for his campaign. A Congressional 'super committee' will begin work on a debt-reduction strategy.

In the wake of Standard and Poor's decision to downgrade the U.S. credit rating, and an economy still struggling to keep its head above water, the Federal Reserve decided yesterday to keep the nation's interest rate close to zero through 2013. The rate has been static for the past two years. The response on Wall Street seemed mixed. At first stocks took a bit of a dive, but they recovered.  The Dow closed up 429 points yesterday after a late rally.

Stock markets went into a free-fall yesterday, witnessing drops reminiscent of the great economic collapse of 2008 that the world has still yet to recover from. The S&P 500 saw all of its stock fall and the Dow Jones industrials fell 634.76 points, the sixth worst drop in over a century. How informative is the S&P downgrade? What can we take from their assessment of Washington?

The markets continued their volatile ways yesterday with stocks taking a major nose-dive. Investors went into panic-mode trying to find anything safe to put their money into. Most put their money into the U.S. government's debt, but uncertainty remains. With so many factors affecting the global markets, how do we decide how investors will react and influence the markets?

Markets had severe case of the Monday's yesterday as stocks plunged. The Dow Jones industrials saw a drop of 634.76 points and not one stock in the Standard & Poor's 500 index saw an increase. In a word, investors were in a panic, desperately trying to find anything with value to put their money in.

The credit rating agency Standard and Poor's downgraded the United States' credit rating for the first time in its history, from AAA to AA+, last Friday. This news sent shock-waves around the globe, sending markets into free-fall, and forcing global leaders into emergency meetings.

There are reports of fresh artillery fire early this morning in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, Syria, following a bloody weekend that killed dozens and forced thousands to flee as the Syrian regime continues its violent crackdown on protesters. In response to the violence, Saudi Arabia joined the chorus of international condemnations, removing their ambassador from Syria. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has called for an end to the bloodshed. The crackdown by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has left more than 2,000 people killed by the count of some human rights groups.

Credit ratings agency Standard and Poor's downgraded the U.S.'s credit rating for the first time in history on Friday, causing jaws to drop across the country, and raising the blood-pressures of leaders worldwide as many held emergency meetings to fend off any backlash this news might create. President Obama will be preparing this week for his upcoming bus tour to reconnect with voters in the Midwest. Meanwhile, News Corp. will release their fourth quarter results on Wednesday, the PGA Championship kicks off on Thursday, and Dennis Rodman will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday.

Despite Congress finally passing a debt deal and President Obama signing off on the plan yesterday, the national mood was not celebratory. It's been a bad week for the economy, and it appears that it will only get worse. Last Friday, G.D.P. data showed disappointing economic activity in the nation's second quarter, and this week the Commerce Department released a report showing consumer spending fell in June. New employment figures, the economic indicator used to gauge growth, will be released Friday, and many are expecting them to be dismal.

The debt deal President Obama signed into law yesterday may bring about the end of years of huge Pentagon budgets. The Pentagon will need to slash $350 billion from the defense budget over the next decade, and that number could potentially increase to $600 billion. If the joint bipartisan committee created under the debt plan fails to reach an agreement on future spending cuts, a "trigger" mechanism will force across-the-board cuts of $1.2 trillion over the next decade. While supporters say this is these cuts are overdue, critics and defense hawks argue they will undermine national security.

On May 1, a group of U.S. Navy SEALs entered Pakistan in Blackhawk helicopters and raided a compound in Abottobad, where they found and killed the world's most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden. An extraordinary story has now emerged of what is perhaps the most successful covert operation in U.S. history. 

The House of Representatives passed a landmark deal yesterday as the United States inched closer to defaulting on its debts. As the bill makes its way over to the Senate many are noting the influence that the Tea Party had on the outcome. During the debate, some Republican freshman members were urging leaders not to make any concessions, and some felt any increase in the debt ceiling was out of the question. How will these new Tea Party members react to Speaker Boehner's compromise?

The nation's debt crisis has all eyes on the politicians on Capitol Hill. But we wanted to know how the debt crisis is playing out in different cities across the country — what local fears and concerns are, and what people have to say about what's happening in the District of Columbia. We headed to Denver, Colo., Detroit, Mich., and Miami, Fla. to hear what people have to say about the current debt crisis.

The August 2 deadline for Congress to agree on a budget deal and avoid defaulting is looming uncomfortably close. Last night, President Obama and Senate Majority leader Harry Reid said tonight that congressional leaders of both parties have agreed on a plan to lift the debt ceiling. They will present the plan to their caucuses this morning, and hope for the measure to pass through votes by both the House and Senate, in order to avoid a U.S. default by August 2.

Yesterday, the United States Postal Service released a list of 3,653 post offices it will be reviewing and could potentially close because of low activity and workload. Most of these threatened branches are in rural areas of the United States.

President Obama stood before the nation and pleaded with Congress to come to an agreement as soon as possible, in a prime-time speech to the American public last night. "We can't allow the American people to become collateral damage to Washington's political warfare," he said. House Speaker John Boehner immediately followed Obama's speech with his response, agreeing that the debate needs to be resolved, but urging Obama to sign on to the Republican proposal to raise the debt limit.

The music world lost one of its young stars over the weekend when Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London home. The singer was known for her unique vocal style and unapologetic rock star lifestyle. Winehouse was 27-years-old, the same age many of music's legends said goodbye to us far too early. They are known as the "27 Club" and they include Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain.

The methodical killing of over 90 people by a gunman in Norway over the weekend has gripped the world with horror. The accused, Anders Behring Breivik, is currently in police custody, and has said he acted alone. Marcus Mabry, editor-at-large of The International Herald Tribune, the international edition of The New York Times, believes this tragic event has made Europe aware of a different kind of threat that they never knew was out there - extremist right-wing groups.

European leaders came to an agreement yesterday to help keep Greece and the rest of the euro zone from falling further into financial crisis. Greece will receive a second bailout, in the amount of 109 billion euros, or $157 billion. The move by the euro zone comes as Ireland and Portugal are still teetering on economic turmoil. The European Financial Stability Facility, the euro zone's rescue fund, will be given broad new powers to assist countries that have not yet been bailed out. It is unclear how French and German citizens, who have opposed any bailout, will react to the deal.

There are two major stories in the news both revolving around deals that have been held up by long, entrenched standoffs.

First, the debt debate wages on in Washington. After hours of closed-door meetings with high-level members of Congress, rumors floated around Capitol Hill yesterday that President Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner were close to reaching a debt deal that would call for as much as $3 trillion in savings.