The Journal of Consumer Research recently published a study called "Overestimating Others' Willingness to Pay" which outlines the "overvaluing bias": the tendency to overvalue what another person would pay by nearly 40 percent. While this phenomenon is not new to social psychologists, it clearly influenced the years of easy credit and has more broadly moved Americans away from cash to credit cards.

European leaders have drawn up a new fiscal accord. In the new agreement, the European nations agreed on tighter budget regulations as part of an effort to reassure investors that the euro is a stable currency. "The most important question from our citizens, from our financial markets, our investors, are we 17 in the euro zone or are we one?" said Jerzy Buzek, the president of the European Parliament, on Friday. "Now is the answer. We are one."

Remember the $5 monthly fee Bank of America planned to roll out for all its debit card customers? In a complete reversal, the bank now — one month later — says it's dropping plans to introduce that fee. It’s a big victory for the 200,000 customers who signed a petition on Change.org calling for Bank of America to drop this fee.

The markets responded positively to the news last week of a euro zone deal to try and turn around their two-year financial crisis. Marcus Mabry, editor-at-large of the International Herald Tribune, which is the international edition of The New York Times, tells us how he expects the markets to continue to go this week and to be on the lookout at Italy, which could be the next euro zone country to be in financial trouble. Charlie Herman, business and economics editor for WNYC and The Takeaway, looks at the upcoming G20 Summit in France this week, and if they can come up with a framework to deal with Europe's economic troubles.

European leaders reached a deal crucial to resolving the euro zone debt crisis after all-night meetings on Thursday. Under the accord, banks have agreed to take a 50 percent loss on Greek debt. European markets were up after news of the deal broke. Leaders also agreed to grow euro zone's bailout fund to $1.4 trillion dollars. European banks will also need to raise more capital to protect against future government defaults.

Banks were in dire trouble back in 2008, when the financial crisis hit. Stalwarts like Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers kicked the bucket and other banks like Citigroup still haven't fully recovered. It appears though that banks may have a new problem: too much money. Many people, with no safe alternatives, are depositing their money into banks, but the banks have no where to invest it, so they are trying to deter consumers from giving them their money.

A great deal of anger has been directed at the profits of the banking industry since the onset of the recession. One of the focal points of Occupy Wall Street, and of the like-minded protests that have emerged throughout the country, is precisely this discontent with the earnings of banks, particularly during a period of such economic duress for the rest of the country. But the quarterly reports from the banks have been showing that they've taken considerable losses over the past three months.

Economist Jeffrey Sachs has a new book, "The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity," and the heart of it is a single argument: all of the nation’s current economic, political and productive woes share a similar root cause: that America’s financial and political leaders are failing to take the moral steps necessary to restrain a society of markets, and policies run amok, and that we need to become a "mindful society."

In testimony before a Congressional committee on Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned lawmakers that the economic recovery U.S. "is close to faltering." Bernanke said the central bank was prepared to do more to bolster the economy, but that Congress needed to do more to encourage growth. In June, Bernanke had said, "growth seems likely to pick up in the second half of the year." Bernanke's grim assessment comes after the economy barely grew in the first half of the year, and there were no new jobs in August. Consumer confidence fell this summer to the lowest point since the recession.

The Occupy Wall Street protests continue in lower Manhattan today. Demonstrators are protesting perceived excessive greed by the super-wealthy and economic inequality as epitomized by Wall Street. The protests have grown in popularity over the last three weeks, and similar events are happening all over the country, including cities like Boston and Miami. On Monday, The Takeaway spoke with J.A. Myerson, from the media team for the Occupy Wall Street movement, about why he's protesting and what future he sees for the movement.

In advance of tomorrow night's Republican presidential debate — the second for GOP candidates hoping to run in the 2012 election, and first for Texas Gov. Rick Perry — former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney unveiled a plan to boost economic growth, in a speech yesterday in Las Vegas, Nevada. It hasn't seemed to boost his standing yet — a new poll shows Perry in the lead over Romney and other GOP candidates.

As the financial crisis in the euro zone has continued to spiral in recent months, Europe may be moving closer centralizing coordination of debt and spending policies. Some global financial officials are endorsing a central European financial authority, with powers to tax, issue bonds, and approve budgets, as a way to combat inefficiencies in dealing with economic strife. Such a change could make Europe's 17-nation economic union into a sort of United States of Europe.

Our partner, The New York Times, reported yesterday that Nevada's attorney general is asking a federal judge to throw out a settlement made between the state and Bank of America, claiming the bank violated the broad loan modification agreement it made with Nevada in 2008. If the judge throws the settlement out, Nevada would likely sue Bank of America.

Global markets are in turmoil as European stocks took a hit for the second straight day. The main indexes for Germany, France took a significant hit Friday as investors worry about debt. We speak with Brian Tora from JM Finn stockbrokers in London. He tells us about the concerns among investors and if last week's proposal on short selling in Europe has had any impact on the markets there.

Stocks plummeted yesterday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling more than 400 points and Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index closing down 53.24 points, at 1,140.65. The day was just the latest in a series of wild swings in financial markets in recent weeks. What's causing the severe fluctuations? We're taking a look at how "robot traders" — computers that are programmed to automatically buy or sell stocks based on a set of criteria — affect the markets. Could market woes be tied not to human worry, but to machine worry?

As we learned last week the decisions of one rating agency can cause a lot of economic volatility. But according to an exclusive piece from our partner The New York Times this morning, the Justice Department is opening an investigation into Standard & Poor's to see if the agency improperly rated dozens of mortgage securities leading up to the financial crisis. The ratings being investigated came long before the downgrade of the U.S., but the probe does raise new questions about the credibility of the nation's largest credit agency and their secretive rating process. 

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.

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?

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.

Hundreds of thousands of homeowners who took out loans with Countrywide, and were overcharged for their loans when they fell behind on their payments can expect some money back soon. It's taken over a year for the Federal Trade Commission to figure out who will get parts of a $108 million settlement reached last summer with Countrywide. Countrywide will begin mailing checks today. Wells Fargo, the largest U.S. home lender, has also agreed to a steep fine of $85 million, for roping borrowers into costlier-than-necessary loans.