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A year ago, many economists and traders believed the US financial crisis would stay within the boarders of the world's largest economy and other countries would be immune to the economic consequences. However, today's side-by-side Bank of England and European Central Bank rate decisions have certainly banished any lingering skepticism that Europe was feeling the pinch of a broad recession and ongoing difficulty in the financial and credit markets.

Average interest rates on savings accounts are now under 1% but there are still several deals paying just under 4%. Rebecca Atkinson reviews the best accounts out there.

Interest rates currently stand at just 1%, after the Bank of England shaved a total of 4% off the base rate for five months in a row.

The FDIC has a list of 90 financial institutions that it expects may fail in the coming year, and it expects to expand that list to 150 institutions very soon.What happens if your bank fails? Is your money really safe?The FDIC was founded after the Great Depression to insure deposits in retail banks and in doing so to (hopefully) prevent bank runs.

The Forbes.com Investor Team discusses Obama's proposed plan to buy up bad investments. And it proposes its own solutions.

The "Bad Bank" idea is gaining currency as a possible solution to the financial crisis.

On Wednesday, the U.K. pound took center stage in currency markets, plunging to a six-year low against the dollar following a sobering economic assessment from the Bank of England.

BOE Gov. Mervyn King said the U.K. economy is probably already in a recession and suggested more interest rate cuts are coming, even after the central bank's 150-basis-point cut last week that brought the key rate to 3.0%.