DETROIT, Michigan - June 2, 2010 - Edsel Ford conceived the Mercury brand in the 1930s as a way to fill the gap between basic Fords and luxury Lincolns. Now, that gap will again go unfilled.

Ford Motor announced Wednesday that it would discontinue selling Mercury models this fall, ending a 71-year-old brand that once stood for innovation and speed but that became a “me, too” division.

Mark Fields, the president of Ford’s Americas region, said Ford directors approved the step on Wednesday. He said the company would focus its resources on its core Ford division as well as Lincoln.

NEW YORK - June 1, 2010 - After being blasted for months by critics for exacerbating the financial crisis by putting overly rosy views on bundles of mortgage securities, credit-rating agencies now have an unlikely defender: Warren Buffett.

The famed billionaire investor said on Wednesday that ratings agencies such as Moody’s Investors Services and McGraw Hill Cos.’ Standard & Poor’s shouldn’t be faulted for putting “Triple A” ratings on mortgage-related securities that quickly cratered because most investors – himself included – had no idea the housing bubble was about to burst.

“I would say they made a mistake that virtually everybody in the country made,” Buffett told a panel of U.S. lawmakers looking into the causes of the financial crisis at a hearing in Manhattan. “The entire Amerikan public eventually was caught up in a belief that housing prices could not fall dramatically...Very, very few people could appreciate the bubble.”

MADRID, Spain - June 1, 2010 - Spain's second-biggest savings bank, Caja Madrid, has asked for up to 3 billion euros ($3.7 billion) from a government rescue fund set up to promote mergers among the country's network of unlisted savings banks, a source close to the company said on Tuesday.

The government has set a June 30 deadline to tap money from the Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB).

It wants the bigger savings banks to absorb the smaller, weaker ones after the sector's credit quality declined sharply due to heavy exposure to the country's property boom and bust.

NEW YORK - June 1, 2010 - A member of New York Governor David Paterson's regime said the governor is putting together a plan that would lay off thousands of government workers at the beginning of next year to help balance the state budget.

The regime official confirmed a report Tuesday in The New York Times that Paterson will direct state agencies to begin picking positions that could be eliminated starting January 1, 2011.

NEW YORK - June 1, 2010 - Advanced economies face years of anemic growth and the risk of a double-dip Depression as their citizens cope with sluggish employment and highly indebted governments, economist Nouriel Roubini said on Monday.

A sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone has rattled financial markets in recent weeks as investors worry that fiscal austerity measures dictated by a $1 trillion European Union-International Monetary Fund rescue plan could stifle already hobbled global growth.

LONDON, England - June 1, 2010 - The FTSE 100 joined a fresh global market sell-off and the euro hit new four-year lows on jitters for the world economy after a fall in Chinese factory production and worries over the ability of European banks to weather an escalating eurozone crisis.

TORONTO, Ontario, Canada - May 31, 2010 - Pressured by an aging population and the need to rein in budget deficits, Canada's provinces are taking tough measures to curb healthcare costs, a trend that could erode the principles of the popular state-funded system.

Ontario, Canada's most populous province, kicked off a fierce battle with drug companies and pharmacies when it said earlier this year it would halve generic drug prices and eliminate "incentive fees" to generic drug manufacturers.

British Columbia is replacing block grants to hospitals with fee-for-procedure payments and Quebec has a new flat health tax and a proposal for payments on each medical visit - an idea that critics say is an illegal user fee.