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.

Open a newspaper, go on the internet, or turn on the TV, and you're likely to hear a diagnosis of what will cure the ailing economy. Revising the tax code, reducing the deficit, super committees — all distractions, according to New York Times op-ed columnist Joe Nocera. He calls the political back-and-forth in Washington "meaningless noise." The real problem, Nocera says, is a lack of available credit.

Standard & Poor's announced Monday that they have downgraded the United States' credit outlook from “stable” to “negative” for the first time since they began issuing those ratings in 1989. The new rating has been interpreted by many as a direct warning to the U.S. government to come up with an agreement on the debt ceiling and the federal budget — as quickly as possible. David Wyss, Chief economist at Standard & Poor’s, New York, and Louise Story, Wall Street and finance reporter for our partner The New York Times, explain what the rating really means, and what the U.S. can do about it.

A.I.G.'s board has rejected a plan to sell its Asian life insurance arm to Prudential, which would have provided the U.S. government with its first major bailout repayment. The New York Times finance reporter, Louise Story, explains why A.I.G.'s shareholders are holding out and what this means for the taxpayer.

Each week in our "Do-It-Yourself Bailout" series, we talk about how we can all get into better financial shape and bail ourselves out of debt. This week: credit scores.

• MONEY TAKEOUT: Lawmakers are taking to action to try and ban employers from running credit checks on potential employees. Louise Story, finance reporter for The New York Times tells us more.
• SPORTS TAKEOUT: The NFL's Scouting Combine ended Tuesday. Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, Takeaway sports contributor, talks about who he thinks shined in the annual event.

At last week's White House Jobs Summit, small business owners from across the country pressed President Obama on dozens of issues related to the economic downturn. Credit, though, was a central issue: The credit crunch has prevented thousands of businesses from obtaining loans to expand, shift gears, or even just fund day-to-day operations. Today, Maryland governor Martin O'Malley will unveil a strategy intended to help small business owners get credit. One such business owner, Dawn P. Jackson, is the owner of NuDawn Marketing Group in Maryland and president of Women Business Owners of Prince George's Country. Dawn hoped to expand her small marketing business, but she has been discouraged from applying for credit after several banks told her that she was unlikely to get any. Maryland's Secretary of Commerce, Christian Johannson, joins us with a preview of what the governor's plan entails.

• Congress Takeout: Todd Zwillich talks about how House Democrats are hoping to vote on their version of a health care reform bill later this week, while Republicans launch a media campaign opposing it.
• Money Takeout: Credit reporting agencies are required by law to provide you a free report every year … but that hasn't stopped them from writing insanely catchy jingles to draw customers towards paid options. Louise Story, finance reporter for our partners The New York Times, joins us to discuss when "free" actually means "expensive," and what the FTC is trying to do about it.
• Sports Takeout: Ibrahim Abdul-Matin recaps Monday Night Football, as the Atlanta Falcons faced the resurgent New Orleans Saints.

U.S. banks stand to collect $38.5 billion from increasingly strict overdraft fees this year, and credit card users are seeing their cards' interest rates rocket higher for no apparent reason. As financial institutions try to increase their revenues using fine print and fees, financial guru Gary Belsky talks us through what you can and can't do in response.

The last two weeks have seen a steady rally for the stock market, which closed above 9,000 on Friday. This week it'll be tested by the biggest batch of second quarter corporate profit reports yet, including those from Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and Visa. The Takeaway talks to Peter Morici, an economist and Business Professor at the University of Maryland, to figure out how the market fares in the face of those earnings reports.

Elizabeth Warren, Chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel on TARP and professor at Harvard Law School, continues her conversation with The Takeaway. Before she was monitoring government expenditure, she wrote several books on personal finance including, All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan. So before she left we wanted to get her take on personal finance and how the nation's families are affected by tight credit markets.

Click here to hear Elizabeth Warren's discussion of TARP and her role overseeing the multi-trillion dollar fund.

To read an excerpt from Elizabeth Warren's book, All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan, click here.

Desperate to not be deadbeats, hundreds of thousands of consumers are turning to debt settlement agencies to escape crushing piles of bills. Everyone has seen the ads: you call, they help, and eventually you are a debt free. But a report in today's New York Times says many consumers have begun to complain that those companies collect large fees and don't do much to help. Unfortunately, it seems the typical experience according to consumers is that a settlement company collects a large fee, often 15 percent of the total debt, and accomplishes little or nothing on the consumer’s behalf. Needless to say, state attorneys general are being flooded with complaints about settlement companies. The Takeaway talks with New York Times business reporter David Streitfeld for more on the story.

For more, read David Streitfeld's article, Debt Settlers Offer Promises but Little Help

Ads like this one from In Charge Debt Solutions offer consumers hope that they can help resolve disputes with debt colletors: