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It was a big week for the U.S. economy.

The stock market whipsawed. The jobless rate rose. Once-solid banks went under and Congress put up $700 billion to help them. And we’ll elect a new president in a month.

It’s hard to know what all this means, where it goes from here. But Thursday, here in St. Louis, there were two very different events, three hours and less than three miles apart, that gave a window into what’s going on.

One was a debate at the Missouri History Museum between Austan Goolsbee and Douglas Holtz-Eakin.

They’re top economic advisers to Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain, respectively, and, in a few months, one of them may have a hand at the wheel of the entire U.S. economy.

The other was a job fair in Wellston, put on by a group called the Partnership for a New Workforce, to help people from the poorest parts of St. Louis find work in the toughest job market this town has seen in 18 years.

We visited both, to see the view from the top and the bottom of this economy. And we found two things in common: Hope. And a little fear.

PIN STRIPES, RECRUITERS

The debate drew a standing-room-only crowd, perhaps 250 people, to a basement auditorium. C-SPAN was there. Before it started, Washington University students in sweatshirts and economist types in dark suits mingled in a sunny atrium, munching bagels and sipping coffee. The room buzzed with talk of politics and economics. The rival debaters, wearing pin stripes, chatted a bit before they were brought on stage.

In Wellston, dozens of job seekers walked the circuit of 22 recruiters, collecting business cards and applications. There were hotels and security firms, Toys R Us and Ameren. By the end, 232 job seekers showed up. A good turnout on both sides, organizers said.

Aaron Harris sat off to the side, taking it all in. He’s been looking for five months, he said, trying to find "anything I can get."

"It’s going cool right now," Harris said. "The economy? It blows. Not too many people hiring."

MAIN STREET,

Wall Street

When the debate began, Goolsbee and Holtz-Eakin stood under spotlights at either end of the stage. They opened with jokes to warm up the crowd, then got to business.

"This is a very serious moment in our economy," Goolsbee said. "People risk losing their life savings, millions of people stand at risk of losing their jobs. These are the issues we should be talking about."

There is a "direct, straight line" between the challenges facing ordinary Americans and the crisis on Wall Street, Goolsbee said. The squeezing and stretching so many middle-class families face have weakened the fundamentals of our economy and warped our financial system.

Holtz-Eakin didn’t disagree. The answer, he said, is to clean up Wall Street, to help small businesses grow, to boost research into new technology, and to find the leadership to solve tough problems such as energy and health care. Doing that, he said, will generate jobs in an economy with a strong future.

"We look forward to an America that is vibrant and prosperous and that gives opportunity to all," he said.

A PRESIDENT, A PLAN

Two young women sat chatting, taking a break from the job fair. Both said they were a little frustrated: Most of these companies just told them to apply online, and most of the jobs aren’t near where they live.

"I don’t really think there’s that much here right now," said Miranda Bishop, of south St. Louis. "Especially not in this part of the area."

Bishop’s in school for nursing but wants a part-time job. Laneisha Donnell, from north St. Louis County, is in school, too, getting a business degree at Columbia College. In her economics class, they’ve been talking about the Wall Street meltdown.

"It’s really scary," she said. "I don’t know what you do."

A new president, and a new approach, would help, Donnell said. She hasn’t yet decided for whom she’s voting, but she’ll be listening to what they say.

"I’m waiting to hear a plan," she said (payday loan online). "A real set plan on how we’re going to get out of this."

HOT-BUTTON ISSUES

The debate moved on, away from the crisis of the moment. Goolsbee and Holtz-Eakin volleyed on all the hot-button issues that govern how we spend our money, and how much we have to spend: Health care. Taxes. Foreign trade. The price of gas.

They had their plans for each, and their talking points, and they stuck to them, shifting billions of dollars around the federal budget with a phrase.

McCain’s man talked about changing the health care system to prevent illness instead of just treating symptoms and about restoring faith in government. Obama’s urged help for people in "the real economy" and for "re-establishing the rules of the road" on Wall Street.

Both said it’s time for leadership, and to make tough choices. The stakes are too high for anything else.

"This is an important election," Holtz-Eakin said. "We face dramatic decisions."

When they were done, the room applauded.

SKILLS ARE NEEDED

Working the room at the job fair was an outgoing man in a three-piece suit. His name is James Clark, and he works for Better Family Life, a nonprofit agency in north St. Louis, recruiting people from the city’s most violent neighborhoods into job training programs.

"If we can get people jobs," he said, "We can fight crime."

But getting a job, a good one anyway, is hard right now. Clark tells everyone who’ll listen that the bare minimum is a high school diploma or GED; they’ll really need "at least one more graduation," from some sort of training program. They need a skill.

"If you think you’re going to navigate this economy without that, you’re setting yourself up for a life of poverty," he said.

But find a skill, said the man in the suit, and you can build a good life.

‘IT’S OUR LIVES’

After the debate, outside in the sun, three WU students earnestly discussed tax policy before they headed back to campus. They’re juniors, and college kids, and they don’t pay much in taxes. But between the election and all the Wall Street turmoil, they’re starting to think about that stuff more, said Katherine Brown. And they’re a little worried about the job market when they get out of school.

"All this has really got me thinking about what kind of things I want for myself in the future," Brown said.

They know that debates such as the one they just watched are imperfect indicators, that there’s a long road between that stage at the Missouri History Museum and the real world. But Stephanie Chalfour, who wore an Obama button and a "Yes We Can" sticker, said she’d been following the election closely. And when she’s asked if she hopes it’ll make a difference, she looks a little surprised by the question.

"Yeah," she said. "It’s our lives."

A CAREER, NOT

just a job

Lingering over the tables at the job fair was a 24-year-old named Rita Wright. She was on lunch break from a advanced machinery training program downstairs, safety goggles still on her forehead. She works, too, on an assembly line making electric equipment. But Wright’s looking for something better, she said. Not just a job, but a career.

Right now she’s working a lot, but she’s moving backward. Between rent and food and the car note and day care for her 2-year-old son, Wright said, her expenses total $1,800 a month. Her income? About $1,700.

"I need a change," Wright said.

It’d be nice to be able to put a little money away, to not have to rely on "Band-Aids or Nyquil" when she gets sick. To maybe buy a soda with lunch once in a while.

"That’s what a career means to me," Wright said. And while she’s worried about all the economic tumult of recent weeks, she’s still confident she’ll get there.

tlogan@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8291

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TOKYO–Nintendo's hit DS portable machine will come with a digital camera that will allow players to mix images, scribble on photos and create new faces, the Japanese game maker said Thursday.

The Nintendo DSi will go on sale in Japan on Nov. 1 for 18,900 yen ($180), and will be available overseas next year. Dates and other details for overseas plans will be announced later by the company's regional units later, President Satoru Iwata said.

Iwata said the revamped DS is meant to be the first toy camera for children and a tool for network-building and party fun for older people in the company's ongoing quest to make gaming popular with everyone – not just a niche crowd.

One in six Japanese already owns a DS, according to Kyoto-based Nintendo, which also makes Pokemon and Super Mario games. But the goal is to make the DS a must-have for every Japanese, Iwata said.

"We want to change the DS from something that's in every household to something that's for every person," he told reporters at a Tokyo gymnasium.

The improved DSi is thinner than the current DS model, and will have a bigger screen, he said.

The machine also comes with an audio player, to play sound stored in a memory card. Users will be able to change the speed of the sound. In a demonstration, Iwata showed that players will be able to listen to a foreign language lesson at a slower speed, or distort music or voices to a shrill pitch for fun.

Nintendo also demonstrated new game software for its hit Wii home console, including "Wii Music.''

Players just need to jiggle their remote controller to feel as though they are playing any of 60 musical instruments, including a drum set, sitar, saxophone and piano, although there are only 50 preprogrammed melodies.

Users will be able to make those tunes play electronically from their Wii machines at their own speed and whim – guaranteed to not sound a single incorrect note.

They will also be able to add personal touches, such as choosing accompanying instrumentation and genres such as jazz, reggae and rock.

Nintendo's star game designer Shigeru Miyamoto said he loves to practice guitar at home alone but he is intimidated about playing in front of an audience.

"This removes all those obstacles to a jam session," he said.

Nintendo has sold 77.5 million Nintendo DS handheld devices worldwide, nearly 23 million in Japan, far outselling Sony Corp.'s rival offering, the PlayStation Portable, at 41 million globally – 10 million in Japan.

Iwata acknowledged that the pace of DS sales have been dwindling recently, and Nintendo was determined to reverse that with new offerings like the Nintendo DSi.

Data show that the PSP has been challenging the DS lately – at least in Japan. For five months straight starting in March, PSP sales outpaced the DS in Japan, according to Tokyo-based Enterbrain, which publishes game magazines and tracks video game sales.

In home consoles, the Wii competes against the PlayStation 3 from Sony and the Xbox 360 from Microsoft.

Nintendo has sold 29.6 million Wii consoles worldwide so far. PlayStation 3 sales have lagged at fewer than half that at 14.4 million.

Microsoft Corp. doesn't disclose how many of the cumulative 20 million Xbox 360 machines sold worldwide were Japan sales. But it has been targeting reaching a million sold in Japan sometime soon.

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The dollar continued its three-day run against the 15-nation euro Wednesday as banks continued to operate in defensive mode, and the Senate prepared to vote on its own version of the $700 billion financial sector rescue package that failed to pass the House of Representatives on Monday.

The dollar rose against the euro, which fell to about $1.4011 from $1.4094 late Tuesday.

Weakening euro: The euro had been weakened by a slew of government takeovers and bailouts earlier this week in Europe. Governments rushed in to provide funding for a slew of financial institutions from Glitnir bank in Iceland to Fortis bank in Belgium.

"In other words, the crisis has gone global and that has weighed on sentiment toward the euro," said Stephen Malyon, currency strategist with Scotia Capital in Toronto.

The euro regained some ground against the dollar Wednesday after a report showed that U.S. manufacturing had slowed more than expected in August, and a second report showed an increase in retail sales in Germany, the euro-zone’s largest economy.

But global attention turned to a planned Senate vote on the government’s bailout of the U.S. financial system and euro gains receded.

Lending tight: The dollar has been steadily rising in price as banks continue to keep a tight hold on their cash reserves, making interbank lending more difficult.

"There’s an absence of supply because banks are hoarding what dollars they have," said Malyon (no fax payday loan).

The "TED spread," an indicator of how willing banks were to lend to one another, showed interbank loan prices on the rise.

The TED spread measures the difference between three-month London interbank offered rate, or "Libor," a measurement of the rate banks charge each other to borrow for three months, and what the Treasury pays for three months. The higher the spread, the bigger the aversion to risk.

The spread fell to 3.31% on Wednesday after hitting its highest level in more than 25 years, according to Bloomberg.com. On Sept. 5, the TED spread was only 1.04%.

Bailout redux: On Monday the House rejected a bill designed to boost bank confidence and get the cash flowing again by buying up many of the severely underpriced assets that have been weighing on financial institutions.

The decision sent the Dow Jones industrial average down a record 778 points, but the dollar saw gains as commodities such as oil, which are traded in dollars, followed stocks.

Stocks ended the day down slightly as the Senate prepared to vote on its own version of the bill Wednesday evening.

U.S. currency also gained against the British pound Wednesday, which fell to $1.7705 from $1.7794 a day before, and the dollar dropped to ¥106.05 from ¥106.21. 

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A revamped financial rescue plan aimed at restoring market confidence faces a vote by the Senate late on Wednesday, reviving hopes that the lawmakers can turn the tide in the global banking crisis.

The crisis has toppled Wall St firms, frozen lending among global banks, and now dominates campaigning as Americans prepare to vote for their next president on November 4.

The revised package which the Senate unanimously agreed to vote on would now increase to $250,000 from $100,000 the amount of individual deposits insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC), seeking to shore up consumer and business confidence in banks and prevent a run on deposits.

The main aim of the plan remains, allowing the U.S. Treasury to buy toxic mortgage-related assets from banks in a move seen as the key to unlocking credit markets and heading off a deeper economic downturn in the United States and abroad.

It follows a $700 billion plan assembled by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and thrown out by the House of Representatives on Monday.

Lawmakers in Europe are also moving to protect borrowers, with Ireland unveiling a plan covering an estimated 400 billion euros in its banks’ liabilities on Tuesday and France pledging measures by the end of the week.

Wall Street giants Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch have already been swallowed by rivals, and gone is the investment banking model which dominated for decades after Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley sought commercial bank status.

Both U.S. presidential candidates, Republican Sen. John McCain from Arizona and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, had offered qualified support for the first version of the plan and are urging lawmakers to get the new one passed. 

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European governments had to step in with a flurry of major bank bailouts from Iceland to Germany as fear and turmoil from the U.S. credit crisis spread through the financial system.

Even as U.S. lawmakers were preparing to vote on a massive $700 billion (€490 billion) rescue of their own banks, the governments of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg took partial control late Sunday of struggling bank Fortis NV (FORSY), while Britain seized control of mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley (BDBYF) early Monday.

Germany organized a credit lifeline for blue-chip commercial real estate lender Hypo Real Estate Holding AG, while Iceland’s government took over Glitnir bank, the country’s third largest.

The rapid-fire European bailouts were quickly followed by news that U.S. financial giant Citigroup Inc (C, Fortune 500). was acquiring the banking operations of troubled Wachovia Corp., (WB, Fortune 500) the latest U.S. financial institution to fail or be sold. Citigroup will absorb losses of up to $42 billion in a government-facilitated takeover.

European shares fell heavily and money markets remained frozen, with banks refusing to lend to each other for all but the shortest periods.

"All banks are having difficulty with long-term loans and short-term financing. It’s difficult to say which could be affected," said UniCredit economist Alexander Koch in Munich.

"Despite the rescue packages in the U.S. (and Europe), that doesn’t fully correct the problem. I see the problem flowing until late next year," he added.

Shares in Fortis, Belgium’s largest retail bank, continued to fall Monday after Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg agreed to an €11.2 billion ($16.4 billion) bailout package late Sunday to avert a run on the bank. The three governments took a 49% stake in exchange and demanded Fortis sell the stake it had bought in ABN Amro a year ago for €24 billion - a move that many analysts believe started its troubles.

The bailout was meant to restore confidence in the bank before the reopening of markets on Monday after a tumultuous week of imploding share values at Fortis.

There was little likelihood of that, however, amid news of other European rescue packages and investor skepticism about the effectiveness of a tentative deal in Washington on a plan to buy banks’ bad assets and stabilize the financial system.

In Britain, the government nationalized its second bank this year, taking over Bradford & Bingley’s £50 billion ($91 billion) mortgage and loan books and paid out £18 billion ($33 billion) to facilitate the sale of its savings business, including its entire retail branch network, to Spain’s Banco Santander.

"We will do whatever it takes to ensure the stability of the British financial system," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told reporters.

"We will continue to do whatever is necessary over the next few days in very difficult times, in turbulent times throughout the world, to ensure that British financial stability is maintained."

Santander, the second largest bank in Europe, said it will pay £612 million ($1.1 billion) for Bradford & Bingley’s 197 branches and £20 billion of deposits.

Britain earlier this year nationalized Northern Rock, but not until after the mortgage lender suffered a damaging run on its deposits by spooked customers. The government is keen to move quicker to avert any repeat of that situation.

The biggest U.S. bailout in history, which goes to the House for a vote Monday and to the Senate later in the week, would give the administration broad power to use taxpayers’ money to purchase billions of home mortgage-related assets held by cash-starved financial firms. A decision to break up the total amount into smaller stages may have limited its effectiveness in reassuring markets, one analyst said.

"The fact the funds won’t be released in one lot, but instead a series of tranches, is certainly detracting from its appeal and this, combined with the very visible scars of the credit squeeze, will again weigh on sentiment," said Matt Buckland, a dealer at CMC Markets.

In Iceland, the government took control of Glitnir bank, the country’s third largest, buying a 75% stake for €600 million ($878 million) in a move it said was to ensure broader market stability.

Central Bank of Iceland chairman David Oddsson said that Glitnir, which has operations in 10 countries, would have collapsed if the authorities had not intervened.

In Germany, Hypo Real Estate Holding AG became the first German blue-chip company to seek a bailout in the global financial crisis, securing a line of credit of up to €35 billion ($51.2 billion) aimed at shielding Germany’s No. 2 commercial property lender as the meltdown expanded in Europe.

The government’s Finance Ministry said it provided the hefty credit in a consortium with several other banks, though it did not identify them. It said that none of the banks were foreign. 

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European shares fell heavily on Monday as fallout from the credit crisis hit the region’s banking sector, forcing partial nationalization of two banks and leaving investors to ponder the impact of a U.S. bailout plan.

The euro and sterling fell in the wake of share prices sliding, while safe-haven government bond prices rose.

Money markets remained frozen with banks refusing to lend to one another for all but the shortest periods, prompting the European Central Bank to offer additional funds.

The hard-fought U.S. proposal to establish a $700 billion fund to buy illiquid securities will be sent for a Congressional vote later on Monday after days of tense negotiations and compromises.

But European worries threatened to overshadow the proposal after the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments were forced to rescue financial firm Fortis over the weekend to prevent a domino-like spread of failure.

In addition, the UK government said that lender Bradford & Bingley’s branch network will be sold to Spanish bank Santander and the remainder of the group would be nationalized.

“The nationalizations have an incredibly negative read across for the sector,” said Mark Sartori, head of European sales trading at Fox-Pitt, Kelton.

“The contagion is spreading to mainland Europe and everyone’s asking: who’s next?” he added. 

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A long-running legal battle over Peabody Energy Corp.’s proposed coal-fired power plant in western Kentucky has taken a new twist after the state’s Court of Appeals upheld an air permit originally issued in 2002.

The ruling, issued Friday, overturns a circuit court decision in August 2007 that sent the permit back to state environmental regulators.

St. Louis-based Peabody, the world’s largest private-sector coal company, initially proposed the 1,600-megawatt Thoroughbred plant near Central City, Ky., in early 2001. The state issued an air permit the following year, but the project has progressed little, and it’s uncertain that it will get built.

The legal fight is emblematic of court battles going on nationwide over new coal-fired power plants. On one hand, electricity demand and power bills for consumers are rising. But there’s also growing concern about global warming, and plants that burn coal are considered a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions.

The Thoroughbred plant is identical to the Prairie State Energy Campus under construction near Lively Grove, Ill. Today, Peabody owns just 5 percent of the Prairie State project; it has sold the rest to rural electric cooperatives and municipal utilities.

Construction of the Thoroughbred plant was supposed to begin before Prairie State.

In a statement Monday, Peabody said it will "continue to evaluate the scope of the project in light of the lengthy approval process."

An attorney for the Sierra Club and other environmental groups challenging the air permit couldn’t be reached Monday.

jtomich@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8320

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Wall Street braced for a week of political wrangling over a proposed $700 billion bailout for troubled banks, while Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley sought shelter with the Federal Reserve to survive a financial storm that destroyed their rivals.

Morgan Stanley went a step further and struck a deal with Japan’s largest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, which agreed on Monday to buy up to a 20 percent stake in the prestigious 73-year-old investment bank, sending Morgan Stanley shares up 10 percent in morning trading.

As the crisis reverberated across the globe, the Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank governors said they were maintaining “heightened close cooperation” to safeguard the international financial system.

The Fed’s agreement to convert the once high-flying Wall Street investment banks into more conventional depositary institutions was Washington’s latest effort to restore calm to chaotic markets. It followed frantic talks between the Bush administration and Congress to prevent the crisis from pushing the economy into severe recession.

The agreement announced late on Sunday effectively scraps the investment bank model synonymous with Wall Street, ensuring Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley avoid the fate of rivals that either collapsed or were taken over in the worst U.S. financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Both will face a thicket of new regulations, including the capital requirements that have insulated conventional banks from the year-old credit crisis. The changes will bolster their resources but also curb the spectacular profit growth that have made investment bankers among the highest paid in the nation.

Markets remained skeptical. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 1.8 percent on uncertainty over the proposed $700 billion financial sector bailout, the nation’s largest-ever bank rescue.

Two key questions remained unanswered even after U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson appeared on four television talk shows on Sunday to press his case for emergency action: What price will the government pay for these bad debts, and when will it start buying them? 

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The Bush administration sent a $700 billion financial markets rescue plan to Congress on Saturday where Democrats are looking to add aid for distressed homeowners and other measures to help average citizens in addition to Wall Street.

The plan to buy mortgage-related debt off the balance sheets of U.S. banks and other financial institutions is part of an all-out attack on the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

The U.S. Treasury Department would be authorized to purchase as much as $700 billion in mortgage-related assets from U.S. based institutions, according to a copy of the department’s draft legislation obtained by Reuters.

In a related move, the proposal would raise the U.S. government’s debt limit to $11.315 trillion from $10.615 trillion.

Congressional leaders have promised swift action on the bailout package but many details are still to be worked out.

As lawmakers’ aides huddled on Capitol Hill, President George W. Bush acknowledged the plan would put large amounts of taxpayer money on the line to buttress shaky financial markets.

“But I’m convinced that this bold approach will cost American families far less than the alternative,” he said in his weekly radio address.

“Further stress on our financial markets would cause massive job losses, devastate retirement accounts, further erode housing values, and dry up new loans for homes, cars and college tuitions.” 

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NEW YORK – Oil prices were volatile today amid growing concerns about U.S. financial turmoil, first rising back above US$100 and falling back below that symbolic level as a Federal Reserve cash injection into the credit markets calmed investors.

Light, sweet crude for October delivery added 26 cents to US$97.42 a barrel in midday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, the contract reached as high as $102.24 a barrel as worries intensified about the stability of the U.S. financial system.

"There was a surge in panic buying earlier. Oil is the ugly stepsister in the flight to quality in commodities," said Phil Flynn, an energy analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago. "But the new liquidity in the system seems to be calming the markets somewhat."

The Federal Reserve along with other foreign central banks today pumped as much as $180 billion into global money markets in an effort to stem a worsening global credit crisis.

The emergency measure follows a week of chaos on Wall Street that saw the demise of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the forced takeover of Merrill Lynch and Co., and the unprecedented government bailout of American International Group Inc.

Oil had jumped Wednesday as investors fled equities to crude, gold and other commodities as a short-term safe haven amid global market unrest. Last Friday, oil had fallen below $100 for the first time since April, extending a two-month decline in response to weakening demand for energy.

Stepped-up attacks by Nigerian militants against the country’s oil infrastructure helped support oil prices earlier today. In a fifth day of violence, Nigeria’s main militant group said Wednesday that it had destroyed an oil-pumping station and a pipeline crossing southern Nigeria in a rare daylight attack.

A spokesman for Nigeria’s state oil company said Wednesday that militant attacks are now cutting the country’s daily oil production by about one million barrels a day, 40 per cent of what the country produced before the militant campaign began three years ago.

"In the last few days, militant attacks in Nigeria have been stirring up again, but that’s on the back burner right now," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with consultancy Gertz & Purvin in Singapore. "I see downward pressure on oil in the near-term, with the key support level at US$90."

Meanwhile, the U.S. government reported Wednesday a bigger-than-expected drop in crude supplies, reflecting the shutdown of virtually all Gulf Coast oil production because of hurricane Ike and hurricane Gustav.

The Energy Information Administration said U.S. crude stocks fell by 6.3 million barrels for the week ending Sept. 12, much bigger than the 3.7 million barrel drop expected by analysts surveyed by the energy research firm Platts.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures fell by nearly 1.44 cents to $2.7839 a gallon, while gasoline prices lost 2.42 cents to $2.42 a gallon. Natural gas for October delivery slipped 3.57 cents to $7.628 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, November Brent crude gained 55 cents to $95.39 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

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