Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass) and a conservative Harvard law student debated over how Frank should have handled his role as the House Chairman of the Financial Services Committee. Frank was at Harvard University for a speech at the Kennedy School of Government.

The Treasury Department has just launched FinancialStability.gov, a website dedicated to bringing transparency and clarity to the immensely complex problems in the financial system and the President’s plans to address them.

AIG has cut or delayed payments to some AIG real-estate ventures, potentially leaving shopping centers and apartment complexes across the US short on cash to pay lenders and fund repairs and renovations. Developers who have partnered with AIG are crying foul.

How did billion become the new million? Well, that's the trillion-dollar question. And as the year comes to a close, everyone is looking backwards to figure it out. But in the deluge of financial news this year, many stories are bound to get overlooked. So here are three of this year's forgotten scandals from the subprime mortgage crisis and the subsequent market collapse:

A leading Russian political analyst has said the economic turmoil in the United States has confirmed his long-held view that the country is heading for collapse, and will divide into separate parts. Riots already in Iceland due to financial crisis.

How far will the Fed go? It looks like the Fed is going to take whatever it takes to rescue the U.S. Financial System. Today's report shows that the Fed is prepared to lend $7.4 trillion on behalf of U.S. taxpayers to rescue the troubled financial system that started last year.

The shares of Citigroup dropped after the stock market opening this morning and the stock (C) lost $9bn on Wall Street plunge.

Apparently, some banking execs do have a sense of shame. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and six other top executives have renounced their 2008 bonuses, saying they do not deserve them due to the company’s poor performance.

A very disturbing unemployment news is coming from the 4th largest U.S. Bank as Citigroup announces massive layoffs. The news is that Citigroup will have to carry 50,000 job cuts. This is another sign that perhaps we are still at a considerable distance from the economic and financial recovery.