Editor’s note: This is the first of three articles by the Investigative Fund on the credit rating companies. For two decades, the nation’s top credit rating agencies have managed to fend off a crackdown from Washington by relying on a surprising ally – the First Amendment. Despite their key role in the most recent economic calamity, the three big bond raters–Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch–seem poised to do it again.

What Have We Really Learned From the Recession? Nothing! I really thought this time in our history, a national disaster would create impact. In fact, I was writing about how the recession will be an opportune time to rethink the way we do things, connect with passion, create sustainable change and innovate.

Who knows this one? Here’s my story, it’s sad but true. It’s about the banks that we all knew.

With Thanksgiving Day (November 26) less than a month away, let’s talk turkey. No, not the turkey we can’t wait to eat, but what some Wall Street professionals regard as the “economic turkeys.” They’re the ones operating on the delusional premise that the recession is history and that by mid-2010 the economic downturn, the real estate mess, rising unemployment, falling incomes and bashed banks will begin to become fleeting memories. Regarded as the more conspicuous economic turkeys,those who have openly signaled the death of the recession, are President Obama, Ben Bernanke and Warren Buffett.

Google announced with great fanfare that they were incorporating results from social media sites like Twitter into their search pages last week. So did their search rival, Bing. The difference in how each company is doing this says a lot about the struggle going on within Google to define what the company will be in the future

NEW YORK — Not only have credit card companies continued to use practices that will be outlawed under a strict law due to take effect in February, in many cases their policies have gotten harsher since the law passed. A review of nearly 400 cards offered by the largest 12 card issuers in the U.S.

POLITICO : It will be a day of détente between the White House and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Thursday as President Barack Obama invites small business owners – including about 35 Chamber members – to the White House for an event on health care and business lending. The White House and the Chamber have been sparring in recent weeks, in the wake of sharp disputes with the group on health care, climate change and financial regulatory reform.