As President Obama packs for China, I thought I’d show him a picture of how China is manipulating its currency. Source: Federal Reserve: Yuan , Broad dollar index . Graphic idea compliments of AAM.

WASHINGTON — The economy shrank less than expected in the second quarter as businesses and consumers trimmed their spending at a slower pace, buttressing beliefs that the economy is now growing. The 0.7 percent dip in gross domestic product for the April-June quarter follows the 6.4 percent annualized drop in the first three months of this year, the worst slide in nearly three decades.

NEW YORK — The dollar dropped Friday after the government said the trade deficit widened in September, while the 16-nation eurozone officially emerged from recession, luring investors away from the safe-haven dollar. The buck has declined steadily since spring despite statements of support from government officials.

The federal commission created to investigate the roots of the financial crisis has begun its review of documents and will announce next week a series of senior staff appointments, its chief said Friday. Phil Angelides, head of the bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, emphasized the importance of establishing accountability, noting that “in 1929 on Wall Street, people were throwing themselves out of windows. This year, they’re lining up for bonuses.” The commission, created earlier this year, is styled after the 9/11 Commission and the Pecora Commission, which exposed in riveting detail the role played by the titans of Wall Street in the 1929 stock market crash

What is Mortgage Insurance and Do I Need it? (Associated Content) — Mortgage insurance is a special insurance policy that pays your lender in the event that you stop making your mortgage payments.

Friday’s New York Times op-ed page contains a necessary, albeit anachronistic, criticism of the tax credit for first-time homebuyers , a “proposal” supported by Senator Chris Dodd. John Carney of ClusterStock and The BusinessInsider argues against extending and expanding the credit. Evidently, he didn’t realize that Congress has already done just that: President Obama signed a bill into law last week that delays the program’s termination and makes the credit available to all homebuyers

Ten years ago yesterday, our country made a fateful decision — to repeal the New Deal-era regulations that protected our banking system from excessive risk. As Dan Froomkin wrote on Huffington Post yesterday, I predicted at the time that letting traditional banks merge with investment banks could lead to massive taxpayer bailouts within ten years. Unfortunately only seven other Senators stood with me to oppose the repeal of these regulations that had protected us since the Great Depression