wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

New York City has run up some very high bills for information technology services. The Bloomberg administration now says the answer to cost overruns is to rely more on city workers.

The nearly ten-year-old class action lawsuit filed against Wal-Mart is heading to the nation's highest court.

U.S. economic growth slowed in the second quarter of this year as the government revised downwards the gross domestic product (GDP) to 1.6 percent from a previous estimate of 2.4 percent. The news caps a week of bad news about the nation’s economy, in particular, reports that housing sales fell to record lows in July.

Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke speaks today at an annual Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. What will Bernanke say about where our economy stands, in light of some recent grim numbers we've received this summer? And do we face a real threat of a "double-dip recession?"

• CONGRESS TAKEOUT: Takeaway Washington Correspondent Todd Zwillich joins us from Capitol Hill with more reaction to President Obama's State of the Union address.
• AUTO TAKEOUT: Because of faulty accelerators, Toyota decided this week to stop building and selling eight of it's most popular models, including the Camry and Corolla. Paul Eisenstein, publisher of The Detroit Bureau, joins tells us about the recall.
• BUSINESS TAKEOUT: The Federal Reserve decided this week to keep short-term interest rates near zero. New York Times finance reporter Louise Story joins us to discuss the Fed's move, and how it may help support economic recovery.

• Fed Takeout: Louise Story, financial reporter for our partner, The New York Times, talks about Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's speech in Atlanta yesterday, where he said faulty regulation, not the Fed's interest rates policy, is to blame for the housing bubble.
• Washington Takeout:  Our Washington correspondent, Todd Zwillich, explains how, in the wake of an attempted airline bombing on Christmas day, the routine appointment of a Director to the TSA will now be conducted under intense scrutiny.
• Sports Takeout: Kim Constantinesco is a blogger for predominantlyorange.com, a Denver Broncos fan site, and she joins us to discuss the Broncos' last game of the season and their playoff fate.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is in Jackson Hole, Wyoming today at the annual meeting of economists and central bankers. Bernanke will address the group with a speech entitled “Reflections on a Year of Crisis.” We speak with Jesse Eisinger, a senior reporter at ProPublica, asking him to provide his own reflections on Bernanke's actions during this economic "year of crisis."

Last night, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke was at a town hall meeting in Kansas City, Missouri, where he faced tough questions from the public about his monetary policy and his approach to regulation. Bernanke said he expects the unemployment rate to remain high in the coming months, even as the economy recovers. The Takeaway talks to Edmund Andrews, economics reporter for The New York Times who's reporting from Kansas City.