While healthy young adults may appear to be the least at risk for health problems, make no mistake — many young adults are uninsured. The current system of health insurance in the United States has placed college students in an incredible bind. Over 13.7 million young adults in the U.S. today do not have health insurance specifically, those between the ages of 19 and 29, according to the Commonwealth Fund, a healthcare think tank. With young adults comprise one of the largest segments of America’s uninsured, we can be certain this is a serious domestic issue.

The most shocking moment of Friday’s presidential debate wasn’t when Barack Obama mocked John McCain for refusing diplomatic contact with Spain or even when the candidates compared bracelets they had received on the campaign trail. For the most part, the candidates reiterated their well-known positions on Iraq, Afghanistan and taxes without much error. Instead, the most shocking part of Friday’s debate was how little the candidates talked about the massive economic bailout plan that fell apart on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — John McCain and Barack Obama say presidential politics should have no role in the government's efforts to save the crippled financial system. Yet, each is playing his own politics toward the same goals — showing leadership during crisis, getting credit for any solutions, and, ultimately, winning the presidency.

The latest example: a debate over whether the candidates should debate Friday.

McCain called for his Democratic rival to agree to a postponement until Congress agrees on a $700 billion government plan to rescue banks from enormous debt, saying, "We are running out of time."

Obama rebuffed his GOP rival, saying the next president needs to "deal with more than one thing at once."

WASHINGTON (AP) — The economy could suffer a massive hangover from the government's efforts to rescue the financial system in the form of a soaring debt burden. But the alternatives look infinitely worse.

The $700 billion the administration is seeking from Congress as the upper bounds of what it will need to take a mountain of bad loans off the books of financial firms is certainly an eye-popping figure.

To get the funds to buy up the bad mortgage loans that have threatened to bring the financial system to its knees, the government will have to borrow. And that borrowing will come at a time when the federal budget deficit is already soaring.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government has agreed to provide an $85 billion emergency loan to rescue the huge insurer AIG, the The Federal Reserve said Tuesday.

The Fed said the U.S. Treasury Department was in full support of the decision.

The Fed determined that a "disorderly failure" of AIG could undermine already fragile financial markets.

The government will receive an 79.9 percent equity stake in AIG, the Fed said

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Tuesday the fragile economy is facing "numerous difficulties" despite the Fed's aggressive interest rate reductions and other fortifying steps.

At the same time, Bernanke, testifying before the Senate Banking Committee, sounded another warning that rising prices for energy and food are elevating inflation risks. This problem looms even as officials try to cope with persistent strains in financial markets, rising joblessness and housing problems.

DENVER (AP) -- Barack Obama and John McCain agree on this much: The economy is staggering under the Bush administration, and Americans are hurting. But who's to blame and how best to fix it?

Well, they part ways on that, as they made clear in dueling economic speeches Monday on the issue that has taken center stage in their presidential contest.

Obama said that McCain offers "exactly what George Bush has done for the last eight years."

"The progress we made during the 1990s was quickly reversed by an administration with a single philosophy that is as old as it is misguided: reward not work, not success, but pure wealth," Obama said. Grounded by plane trouble in St. Louis, he phoned his remarks to a gathering in Charlotte, N.C.

ROME (AP) — World food production must rise by 50 percent by 2030 to meet increasing demand, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon told world leaders Tuesday at a summit grappling with hunger and civil unrest caused by food price hikes.

The secretary-general told the Rome summit that nations must minimize export restrictions and import tariffs during the food price crisis and quickly resolve world trade talks.

"The world needs to produce more food," Ban said.

The Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization is hosting the three-day summit to try to solve the short-term emergency of increased hunger caused by soaring prices and to help poor countries grow enough food to feed their own.

NEW YORK (AP) — Soaring gas prices and weakening job prospects left shoppers gloomier about the economy in May, sending a key barometer of consumer sentiment to its lowest level in almost 16 years.

The New York-based Conference Board said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index dropped to 57.2, down from a revised 62.8 in April. Economists surveyed by Thomson Financial/IFR had expected a reading of 60.

The May reading marks the fifth straight month of decline and is the lowest since the index registered 54.6 in October 1992 when the economy was coming out of a recession.

Economists closely watch sentiment readings since consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of the nation's economic activity.