NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street stormed back after its worst week ever and staged the biggest single-day stock rally since the Great Depression on Monday, catapulting the Dow Jones industrials to a 936-point gain and finally offering relief from eight consecutive days of stock market carnage.

While no one was saying the worst was over for the staggering financial system or troubled economy, buyers returned to the stock market with gusto, with some saying stocks had been driven down to fire-sale prices.

You know what really grinds my gears? People. People who say, “Do you hear me, local representative?! I will not re-elect you. Be afraid. Be very afraid.”

First off, saying, “local representative” instead of, “Kucinich” or whomever is generally a good indication that you don’t know who your local representative is. Second off, who votes for local representatives? Did you vote for your local representative last year? Do you know whether or not he voted for the bailout bill? Were there actually local elections last year? Did he hear your voice? If you did not have a representative, would you even know the difference? All valid questions.

NEW YORK (AP) — As the debate over a $700 billion bank bailout rages on in Washington, one of the nation's largest banks — Washington Mutual Inc. — has collapsed under the weight of its enormous bad bets on the mortgage market.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized WaMu on Thursday, and then sold the thrift's banking assets to JPMorgan Chase & Co. for $1.9 billion.

Seattle-based WaMu, which was founded in 1889, is the largest bank to fail by far in the country's history. Its $307 billion in assets eclipse those of Continental Illinois National Bank, which failed in 1984 with $40 billion in assets; adjusted for 2008 dollars, its assets totaled $67.7 billion. IndyMac, seized in July, had $32 billion in assets.

Students listen as a panel of Johnson School of Management faculty members discuss the current credit crisis at Sage Hall yesterday. The panel attracted 250 attendees.

“Expediency is not a good guide for policy, and that is where we are right now,” said Prof. Maureen O’Hara, the Robert W. Purcell Professor of Management in the Johnson School of Management.

As Congress continues to debate Bush’s proposed $700 billion economic recovery plan, last night a panel of professors from the Johnson School analyzed the causes of the financial crisis and offered solutions for the future. Over 250 people attended the discussion.

Moderated by Prof. Doug Stayman, marketing, and the associate dean for curriculum at the Johnson School, the Market Crisis Panel addressed the tumultuous events in the finance world that have happened over the past days.

Correction Appended

Last week, Wall Street experienced its most severe credit crisis since the Great Depression. Several long-standing monetary institutions, including investment banks Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, and American International Group, crashed, and the Dow Jones Industrial average fell over 800 points by mid-week before rebounding significantly on Thursday and Friday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Struggling to stave off financial catastrophe, the Bush administration on Friday laid out a radical bailout plan with a jawdropping price tag — a takeover of a half-trillion dollars or more in worthless mortgages and other bad debt held by tottering institutions.

Relieved investors sent stocks soaring on Wall Street and around the globe. The Dow-Jones industrials average rose 368 points after surging 410 points the day before on rumors the federal action was afoot.

A grim-faced President Bush acknowledged risks to taxpayers in what would be the most sweeping government intervention to rescue failing financial institutions since the Great Depression. But he declared, "The risk of not acting would be far higher."

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street rallied in a stunning late-session turnaround Thursday, shooting higher and hurtling the Dow Jones industrials up 400 points following a report that the federal government may create an entity that will take over banks' bad debt.

A report that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is considering the formation of an entity like the Resolution Trust Corp. that was set up during the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s left investors ebullient. Investors hoped a huge federal intervention could help financial institutions jettison bad mortgage debt and stop the drain on capital that has already taken down companies including Bear Stearns Cos. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Reserve, working with central banks in Europe, Canada and Asia, pumped as much as $180 billion into money markets on Thursday to combat a seizing up of lending between banks that is intensifying global financial crisis.

The move was aimed at boosting waning confidence and getting banks around the world to open their ever-tightening purse strings. Asian markets closed lower, but the Fed action helped send European stocks higher after three days of losses.

Wall Street appeared headed for a higher opening, after dropping 450 points Wednesday when a Fed bailout of American International Group Inc., one of the world's largest insurers, failed to settle the markets' frayed nerves.