In some cases, the difference between a winner and loser is often in the eye of the beholder--who can be a victim or a beneficiary--or simply a political ideologue. That’s why we want readers to weigh in and vote on a variety of people and concepts. We’ll report back with results and rankings on December 1.

China has told the United States it is launching a trade investigation that could lead to new import duties on autos and sports utility vehicles made by Chrysler, Ford and General Motors.

Stocks relinquished earlier gains Friday as investors began to lock in some profits after an earnings-fueled rally this week.

Stocks relinquished earlier gains Friday as investors began to lock in some profits after an earnings-fueled rally this week.

Tech stocks shot out of the gate Friday after Microsoft and Amazon blew past earnings expectations. The Dow was up a few points at the start but the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 1 percent as Microsoft gained 10 percent and Amazon soared 20 percent.

Chrysler Financial, once the exclusive lending arm of the storied automaker, will liquidate and go out of business by Dec. 31, 2011, according to a letter from the U.S. Treasury Department.

A late Thursday rally puts Wall Street on pace to chalk up its third consecutive week of gains, but as always, the positive momentum is subject to the whims of earnings and economic numbers once again this morning. 

A government watchdog said the $700 billion bailout for the financial industry played a major role in rescuing the economy over the last year but also engendered anger and distrust among Americans because of secrecy and confusion about the way the program was handled.

In the past two years, powerful figures in both Washington and Wall Street became household names as the crisis deepened, markets and corporations struggled to survive and the federal government took drastic steps to save the economy. Whether they had a crucial hand in the crisis or were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time may not be clear for years.  Now, one year after the roughest stretch for the U.S. economy since the Great Depression, these financial titans have either stepped out of the spotlight or come to the end of their careers, voluntarily or not.  So where they now? Click ahead to find out!

It was not exactly a planned strategy, but the recession, particularly in the United States, has been very good for Hyundai, the South Korean automaker.

Taxpayers may not recover all of the bailout money awarded to the auto sector, said Elizabeth Warren, chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel in charge of the Troubled Assets Relief Program [TARP].

Hard times are causing more homeowners to fall behind on their property taxes. But in thousands of cases, they are not responsible to their local governments, but to private companies that charge double-digit interest and thousands of dollars in service fees.

For Steve Feinberg, the onetime owner of Chrysler, the past year has been a crawl toward defeat. He lost billions of dollars. He lost prestige. He lost his privacy. And he ended up a ward and supplicant of the federal government, The New York Times reports.

General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are not the only ones working through wrenching restructurings. Toyota is, as well, though with a much lower profile.

Legislation to inject more money into the "cash-for-clunkers" program will pass the Senate before the start of a month-long recess at the end of this week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday.