President Bush offered the American auto industry $13.4 billion dollars in short-term financing that will be drawn from the $700 billion dollar Wall Street rescue program. Another $4 billion dollars will be added later. The President said that the only way to avoid a collapse of the U.S. auto industry was for the executive branch to step in. However, there are some serious stipulations attached to the loan. Joining The Takeaway is Micheline Maynard, Senior Business Correspondent for The New York Times, based in Michigan, and Todd Zwillich with Capitol News Connection.

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Leonard Cohen’s "Hallelujah" has been covered by over 50 artists, and is now poised to take the top two spots on the UK music charts. Who would have thought that these brooding lyrics about a bad relationship would become a planetary breakup anthem?

Lyrics to Hallelujah here, on Leonard Cohen's website.

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China now owns more U.S. public debt than any other nation — about one out of every 10 debt dollars — a reflection of its growing global economic influence. Blame wars, bailouts and stimulus plans — all big-ticket and unbudgeted expenses. With China buying our debt, it is, in effect, boosting the U.S. dollar relative to the yuan, making imports cheaper (and more attractive). The United States has imported five times as much as it has exported to China this year.

Top owners of U.S. public debt (as of Sept. 2008):
China $585 billion
Japan $573 billion
United Kingdom $338.4 billion
Caribbean Banking Centers* $185.3 billion
Oil-Exporting Nations** $182.2 billion
Brazil $141.9 billion

* Includes Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Netherlands Antilles, Panama, British Virgin Islands
** Includes Ecuador, Venezuela, Indonesia, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Gabon, Libya, Nigeria

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"I don't think we're close to a bottom now."
-- Dr. Richard K. Green on the housing market

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"Americans are at the bottom of the developed world in how much we save."
--Ronald Wilcox on American debt

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Vote on names for the crisis

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It's fewer than four weeks until the hotly contested presidential election, when every vote will count. But New York Times reporter Ian Urbina writes today that six swing states have removed tens of thousands of eligible voters, apparently violating federal law. That includes, for example, over thirty thousand Colorado voters removed from the rolls in just three weeks. The Takeaway talks with Ian Urbina to find out what happened, who's affected and what's next.

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A federal judge in Washington, D.C., will hear the case of 17 Chinese Uighurs who have been held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for seven years. Though the government cleared them for release in 2004, they can't be returned to China for fear that they will be tortured. No other country will take them.

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The winner of November's presidential election will face profound science-based challenges and questions. Can we protect our citizens from emerging pandemics? How should we address issues of stem cell research, DNA testing, genetically modified crops, and food from cloned animals? The Takeaway talks to genetics and law expert Lori Andrews to find out what the next president needs to know about science.

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