This year we saw the first person of color—and a Chicagoan—elected President of the United States. On the other side of the coin, the global economy has withered into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and the experts say we’ve yet to hit bottom. Eight Forty-Eight has broken down the top stories of 2008 for today’s Year in Review.

The panel of journalists include Jim Warren, a columnist for The Huffington Post and an analyst for MSNBC; Cheryl Corley, a reporter in the Chicago bureau of NPR; and Joe Weber, chief of correspondent for BusinessWeek, based in Chicago.