Bahrain’s capital city Manama is under military control as the nation tries to clamp down on the popular demonstrations that have swept across Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and elsewhere. The country's protestors may or may not be successful in building a democratic government, but one thing is for sure: civil unrest is not good for business. Just two weeks before Formula One teams are scheduled to arrive for winter testing on the Bahrain International Circuit, the 2011 Gulf Air Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix is in doubt. Sports are in many ways the least of the region's worries, but will bad business play a role in the unrest? 

The latest unemployment numbers are out, and as expected they rose. The unemployment rate is now at 10.2 percent, and 190,000 jobs were lost in October. The numbers are surprising and reveal that the recovery on Wall Street is not reaching most of America. But buried in those data are startling numbers of older workers who are being hit hard by the rise in unemployment. Louise Story, business reporter for the The New York Times, brings us the story. The Takeaway's correspondent Femi Oke went to the New York State Labor Office yesterday to talk to older workers among the job hunters there.

When the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) meets later today, it will have to address a key question raised by the tide of bank failures: Will the the government agency run out of money? And what can they do about it? We speak with Louise Story, finance reporter for The New York Times.

As President Obama spoke on Wall Street about the urgent need for tighter financial regulation, a federal judge issued a scathing ruling about how poorly regulators have been doing their job. The judge rejected a $33 million settlement between the SEC and Bank of America, saying the SEC's accusations of inadequate disclosure by the bank over bonuses paid at Merrill Lynch must now go to trial. We talk to Louise Story, Wall Street and finance reporter for our partner, the New York Times.

This morning the unemployment numbers come out and there is a strong chance that they could reach the double digits. The economy is hitting men particularly hard. From the corporate suites to the construction sites, since November, more than 80 percent of job losses in the U.S. have fallen on men. For a look at what this means for both men and women in the workforce, we are joined by Kelly Evans, she is the economics reporter for the Wall Street Journal. We are also joined by Riehan Salam, a fellow at The New America Foundation; he’s written a new piece on this for Foreign Policy magazine titled The Death of Macho. And for an up close look on how the recession is affecting men we turn to Michael Doyle. Doyle is the Vice President and General Manager of the Southeast Division of Manpower, which is an employment service provider.

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Today we’re kicking off our series “Pomp in these Circumstances.” Over the course of this week we’ll be looking at the challenges that high school and college graduates are facing in these difficult economic times. This year 3.2 million students are expected to graduate from high school and of those, roughly 70% will go on to get a college education. But with two-thirds of college graduates carrying debt—and the average student loan debt topping $20,000 dollars— is a college degree worth it? What does it get you in today’s global economy? Joining us to talk about the value of a college education is career counselor and higher-education policy writer, Marty Nemko.

Jobless numbers are the highest levels in decades and there's been little good news for people who find themselves without work. But, believe it or not, there is still such a thing as a growth industry. It's just a matter of knowing which doors you need to get a foot into. Share your tips for finding work in a down economy. Leave a comment below, call 1-877-8-MY-TAKE or email us at mytake@thetakeaway.org.

Related:
• Despite a tough economy, some industries are still hiring
• Getting to "You're hired!" by any means necessary
• Recession depression and other woes of the employed
• Personal stories of unemployment

When we spoke with Janie Larson a year ago, the soaring cost of oil, the rising cost of food and the months of unemployment that she had just emerged from had her going to a food bank for the first time. One year later, we check in with Janie to see how she's been weathering this economic climate.

This week we’re marking our one-year anniversary by checking in with the people who have been, in many ways, the backbone of the show. From the plummeting economy to the Presidential election, we’re returning to those who gave these big national headlines a very real and personal voice. Mrs. Kunkel and her fifth graders were recurring guests throughout the election. When we last heard from them it was October and Mrs. Kunkel’s 10- and 11-year olds were pretty much fixated on who would be our next president. As the Obama administration nears its 100-day milestone we are checking back in with Janet Kunkel. She joins us from Boiling Springs, PA where she teaches at Iron Forge.

This week we’re marking our one-year anniversary by checking in the people who have helped us understand the lives behind the numbers on the news. Real people with real stories about every issue from the Presidential campaign to the impact of the housing crisis to the state of the economy. Laura Richards is one of the voices we heard earlier this year. She owns two California Tortilla restaurant franchises in Maryland. We met her in October when small businesses were the canaries in the economic coalmine. At the time Ms. Richards was hoping to expand her franchise, just as credit was freezing. She joins us from Annapolis with an update.

The Takeaway is looking at the economy through the eyes, webcams and cell phones of Americans. Watch the stories and add your own.

This week we’re marking The Takeaway's one-year anniversary by checking in the people who have been, in many ways, the backbone of the show. We’re not talking about the newsmakers, we’re talking about the folks who have been living the news. From the plummeting economy to the Presidential election, we’re returning to those who gave these big national headlines a very real and personal voice. We’re kicking off the conversation with entrepreneur Jim Svetz. We first met him last September. He was the CEO of Muddy Cup, a small coffee house franchise in upstate New York. He was dealing with hostile bankers, an uneasy partner, and customers who had financial jitters. And back then economists weren’t even confident that we were in a recession. Jim joins us from Beacon, New York with an update.

We also are checking back with Jesse Acosta, a student in the Class of 2009 at the Yale School of Management. As a veteran of both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars he is used to surviving in tough times. And all his hard work has paid off, because he has a job lined up for next year. He joins us with his take on the mood on campus.

The Takeaway is looking at the economy through the eyes, webcams and cell phones of Americans. Watch the stories and add your own.

New unemployment numbers out today reveal that the U.S. economy lost 663,000 jobs in March and jobless rate jumps to 8.5 percent, the highest since late 1983. The U.S. continued to shed jobs at an unrelenting clip in March, pushing total losses since the recession started 16 months ago past five million. The figures are a sober reality check on the economy after some mildly encouraging news on housing, automobiles and manufacturing. But on hearing the news, the markets jumped. So what do the numbers really mean? We turn to Kelly Evans, an economics reporter for the Wall Street Journal.

In Post-World War II America, when the American Dream was in full bloom, African-Americans were systematically written out of the narrative. Key programs of FDR’s New Deal consciously excluded African-Americans and reinforced patterns of racial segregation. Today as we see the dream dwindling, a new Pew study reports that African-Americans are the most optimistic group about their economic future. An upbeat vision that persists even though unemployment among African-Americans is at 13.4 percent; a rate that surpasses the nationwide average.

Joining The Takeaway to sort through the trajectory of the African-American experience in pursuit of the American dream is Ta- Nehisi Coates. Coates is a contributing editor and blogger for The Atlantic, he’s also the author of “The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood”.

Legendary trader, Bernie Madoff is expected to plead guilty to 11 felony charges for allegedly pulling off what could be the largest Ponzi scheme in history. The billions of dollars that he supposedly swindled is estimated to be within $50 to $65 billion. Whether or not his victims will ever see that money remains unknown. But supposing that they would be compensated, how would that money be distributed?

Joining The Takeaway to explain what it would take to financially compensate those caught up in Madoff’s investment web is Ken Feinberg, a Washington attorney who served as special master of the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund, which awarded over $7 billion to some 5,300 victims and their families.

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Today American consumers have nearly $1 trillion of outstanding credit card debt. A quarter of all homeowners are paying more on their mortgage than their home is worth. And unemployment nationwide has reached 8.1 percent. Does this economic crisis put the American dream at risk? Many may wonder that, as a nation, have we so corrupted the fundamental ideals of the American dream of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that we instead find ourselves living through the American nightmare? Joining The Takeaway to help answer this is David Kamp. He’s a contributing editor for Vanity Fair and has written the article Rethinking The American Dream. Kamp joins us for the first in a series of conversations about what the American dream means in this day and age.

As the joblessness rate goes up it’s becoming almost commonplace for American workers to consider a plan of action in case they get laid off. But is there a way to be proactive and stave off a layoff? Cali Yost, blogger for Fast Company magazine joins The Takeaway to talk about ways to save your job such as talking to your employer about saving the company money. Yost writes and consults on work and life issues.

More than half a million Americans lost their jobs last month alone leaving a lot of those unemployed to wonder where they'll end up next. The Takeaway talks to two people about how they've bounced back after being laid off. Gail Ambrosius is a former cartographer for the state of Wisconsin who owns her own chocolatier shop in Madison. And Mike Gill is a former creative director turned Starbucks worker and book author.

Mike Gill discusses his transition from advertising executive to barista.

The global markets took a trip down memory lane yesterday, unfortunately not in a good way. The S&P dropped to its lowest level since November of 1996. The Dow fell below 7,000 for the first time since 1997. The FTSE 100 to a it lowest level in 14 years in dollar terms. Japan's Nikkei slid near its lowest point in 26 years. Michael Hunter, markets reporter for the Financial Times joins us with his take on the gloom-and-doom economy.

Congress has finally passed the stimulus, but it’s hardly smooth sailing from here. Now federal bureaucracies must adapt to get the money out the door and fast. Neil King Jr., Washington reporter for the Wall Street Journal, joins The Takeaway with a look at the challenges the stimulus presents to the Energy Department and other federal agencies.

For more, read Neil King Jr.'s article, Next Challenge on Stimulus: Spending All That Money in the Wall Street Journal.

There are many consequences to the financial crisis, but so far we’ve mostly focused on what will happen to the United States domestically as banks fail and jobs are lost. Now to kick us while we're down, National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair stated that the economic crisis is making us unpopular globally, too, and the sinking economy now ranks among the top security threats to the U.S. For what this means for our reputation and our safety, we are joined by David Sanger, chief Washington correspondent for the New York Times and author of The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power.

For more of the New York Times' coverage of this issue, read Mark Mazzetti's article, Global Economy Top Threat to U.S., Spy Chief Says, in today's paper.