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The Federal Reserve on Wednesday surprised few with its half-point interest rate cut, sending the benchmark federal funds rate to a measly 1 percent, its lowest in five years. The business press is still divided this morning on how to interpret the aggressive cut—and on what's next.

There's a certain vicious irony in the Wall Street Journal's lead story that outlines how the Treasury's $700 billion bailout bill—designed to save banks and head off massive economic collapse and knock-on unemployment—is being stymied by a pay dispute with the private sector asset managers needed to implement the plan and a "lack of manpower at Treasury." As the WSJ explains, the fees the government intends to pay financial firms t

"I made a mistake": words we never thought we'd hear from a central bank chief, past or present. In a dramatic grilling on Capitol Hill on Thursday, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan admitted that, oops, he may have placed too much trust in the self-correcting mechanisms of global markets.

With characteristic aplomb, Steve Jobs on Tuesday told us everything will be "fine". For the first time in eight years, BusinessWeek points out, the Apple CEO joined an analyst conference call to reassure the doomsday mongers. "We may get buffeted by the waves a bit, but we'll be fine," he was quoted as saying.

Not that you needed the White House to tell you, but it's official: Parts of the United States have already slipped into recession. Yes, Edward P. Lazear, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, used the R-word on CNN's "Late Edition" on Sunday.

Monday's booming rally already seems like ancient history. On Wednesday, global markets fell and fell hard, with the Dow recording its worst drop since October 1987 and second-worst drop all-time, the Wall Street Journal reports, adding "the index is down 21% this month and almost 40% from its record close a year ago." The culprit?

Asia markets continued America's euphoric reaction to yesterday's historic global bank "nationalizations" with the Nikkei soaring a record 14 percent, the BBC reports this morning.

Thursday's calamitous chain reaction on Wall Street continues this morning in Asia and Europe. In Japan, the Nikkei slumped another 9.6 percent Friday, the New York Times reports, on a perfect storm of events. Asian "investor sentiment was battered by the overnight rout on Wall Street, confirmation that Singapore has slid into recession and news of a financial-sector bankruptcy in Japan," the NYT writes.

Down 13 percent in the last five trading days. That's the Wall Street Journal's calculation for the dismal Dow this past week. The New York Times goes a bit further back, saying the benchmark index has lost one-third of its value this year after ending Tuesday down a further 5.1 percent.

European governments were reeling this morning from the shocking news that Germany had orchestrated a $68 billion emergency intervention to save Hypo Real Estate, one of the country's biggest banks, reports the BBC.

"New life." That's how the Wall Street Journal this morning describes the significance of last night's Senate approval of the controversial $700 billion Paulson Plan to buy up questionable loans and home mortgages on the taxpayers' dime.