WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

It's hard to feel like there's much any of us can do to help fix our economy these days.

Corn is a mighty hot commodity these days.Grain prices soared after weather damage across the Corn Belt led the U.S.

As the economy continues to sputter, many policymakers are looking to entrepreneurs to create new jobs.

President Obama's bus tour across the Midwest this week could probably be summed up this way: jobs vs. deficits.

Monday marks 15 years since President Clinton signed an overhaul of the nation's welfare system into law. The president said the measure wasn't perfect, but provided a historic opportunity to fix a system that didn't work."

The stock market is at it again. After bouncing back last week, there was a huge sell-off Thursday.The Dow Jones industrial average lost 419 points — more than 3.5 percent on the day — and once again, Europe's debt crisis was a big factor.

The crisis in Europe is one of the underlying causes of recent wild swings in U.S. stock markets. U.S. bank stocks in particular suffer badly with any sign that Europe's debt crisis might be worsening.But the U.S. financial sector's vulnerabilities in Europe are hard to quantify."