Despite promises from the Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board that they will protect Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, shares in the mortgage lenders remained unstable. The Treasury is asking Congress to approve a multibillion-dollar rescue plan, while Ben Bernanke is set to testify on monetary policy this week.

In the latest aftershock from the housing crash, lenders are scaling back home-equity credit lines. It's a move that affects all homeowners — those with good and bad credit alike. Paul Owers, a real estate reporter at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, explains.

We can’t imagine you need help thinking about what to spend your stimulus check on… and well we can’t recommend very many of the ideas that people posted on the site http://www.howispentmystimulus.com/ either. Everything from vacations, to tattoos, to pet surgeries, to hand guns. We’ve awoken the creator of the Web site, Rudy Adler, in Phoenix, Ariz to ask him where he’s spent his stimulus check.

The unemployment rate reached 5.5% last month, the highest jump from month to month in two decades. Coupled with the rising prices of gas and food, is it time to admit we're in an economic spiral? Charlie Fleming is the president of the North Georgia Labor Council, he speaks with us about job loss in Atlanta. Then economist Sophia Koropeckyj joins us to widen the bigger picture.

In Chicago, some pumps are charging nearly $4.50 a gallon, while in Texas, residents are getting a relative bargain, paying a wee $3.53 at some stations. The Takeaway asks what are the forces behind these regional variations. Economist Robert Pindyck thinks he has the answer.

Chicago residents are now paying the highest gas prices in the country - an average of $4.07 per gallon. You might think that gas stations are thriving with high gas prices, but gas station owners are actually losing money.