From Monday through Thursday, the price of crude oil fell 11%. Some analysts say the price drop is temporary, but others say it's an overdue adjustment, and a necessary one.

Banks make a tidy profit off ATM fees, ranging from $1 to $7, but a proposed amendment to the financial reform bill would cap fees at 50 cents per transaction. Instead of helping consumers, it may end up hurting them if banks end up closing less-profitable ATMs, limiting access to cash.

The government-backed mortgage-finance giant doesn't expect a housing recovery any time soon. In fact, it thinks home prices will fall further before they start climbing back up. Worse, Freddie says it now needs an additional injection of $10.6 billion of government funding.

The economic downturn has had at least one peculiar side effect: More young men are donating their sperm. U.S. sperm banks say they've seen an increase in donations in the last couple of years, even as banks in the U.K. and Australia have suffered a shortage.

Recession? What recession? Plenty of cash is flowing into the art market, even as the economy struggles to get back on its feet. Now, with Picasso's "Nude, Green Leaves and Bust" garnering a record price, has the market recovered?

As energy giant BP struggles with one of the worst ecological, financial and PR disasters in recent history, its shares have been royally pummeled. Years of trouble lie ahead, yet there are plenty of reasons why BP may be a good buy.

The Senate is expected to begin voting on amendments to the hotly contested financial reform bill Tuesday afternoon. The bill would create a new consumer protection watchdog within the Federal Reserve; increase federal bank supervision; and end "too big to fail" bailouts.

Halliburton has garnered plenty of unwanted attention from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico after the company provided cementing for the rig. But analysts and investors don't seem too concerned.

Before the disaster, some analysts projected that any gasoline price hikes this summer would be "modest" and that there was little concern about a supply squeeze. That may still be so, but prices are moving steadily higher across the U.S.

If history has taught oil companies anything, it's that cleaning up a major spill doesn't really have to cost much. When it comes to BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, investors seem confident the cost will be nominal. Lawyers, on the other hand, disagree.