NEW YORK - November 26, 2010 - This weekend, as you pull into the shopping mall parking lot for the hottest Black Friday sales, it’s entirely possible that your picture will be snapped by a satellite orbiting high above the Earth.

Its being done by retail-market analysts who want to know how many customers are heading to the stores, and what that means for retail stocks this season.

BERLIN, Germany - November 26, 2010 - The euro zone's sovereign debt crisis escalated Friday as the market homed in on Spain as another potential weak spot, leaving officials scrambling to quell investors' fears.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero moved to dispel the growing anxiety surrounding the country's fiscal position Friday, saying there was "absolutely" no chance the euro zone's fourth-largest economy would seek a bailout from the European Union. But his attempt to calm the markets had little effect, with the euro tumbling and the sell off in Spanish and Portuguese sovereign bonds continuing.

WASHINGTON - November 26, 2010 - The U.S. needs to take urgent action to cut its debt in order to prevent the next financial crisis, which may start in Washington, Sheila Bair, chair of the Federal Deposits Insurance Corp. (FDIC) wrote in an editorial in the Washington Post.

The federal debt has doubled over the past seven years, to almost $14 trillion, and the growth is a result of both the financial crisis and the government's "unwillingness over many years to make the hard choices necessary to rein in our long-term structural deficit," Bair wrote.

NEW YORK - November 25, 2010 - Some analysts are warning that the U.S. dollar is in danger of collapse because of the exploding U.S. government debt, the horrific U.S. trade deficit and the new round of quantitative easing recently announced by the Federal Reserve. Other analysts are warning the the euro is in danger of collapse because of the very serious sovereign debt crisis that is affecting nations such as Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Belgium and Spain.

LISBON, Portugal - November 23, 2010 - Europe's efforts to contain its debt crisis came under increasing strain Tuesday as bond market jitters spilled into Portugal and Spain, seen as the 16-nation eurozone's next weakest links now that Ireland has followed Greece by accepting a massive international rescue.

The Iberian countries' borrowing costs rose, suggesting investors are more worried about default, while Spain limited the size of a bond sale because traders demanded sharply higher premiums.

DUBLIN, Ireland - November 22, 2010 - Ireland begins two nervous weeks of political maneuvering on Tuesday as the government dares the opposition to block an austerity budget on which a multi-billion euro EU/IMF bailout is riding.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen defied mounting pressure to quit on Monday, saying he would stay in office until Parliament passed the budget, and then call an early election.

DUBLIN, Ireland - November 22, 2010 - Ireland's banks will be pruned down, merged or sold as part of a massive EU-IMF bailout taking shape, the government said Monday as a shellshocked nation came to grips with its failure to protect and revive its banks.

Crucially, some experts say the rescue may have come too late to save the next weak link, Portugal, from a similar fate. Ireland's crisis also appears likely to force the early departure of its deeply unpopular government, calling into doubt the credibility of Prime Minister Brian Cowen's four-year austerity plans.