[Begin Video Clip, "the Tonight Show With Jay Leno) Jay Leno, Host, "the Tonight Show With Jay Leno":] Feeling like Halloween already?
[Audience:] Yes.
[Leno:] Got your costume picked out?
[Audience:] Yes.
[Leno:] I got mine. I'm going to wear my pants with the pockets out and just go as a bank. You know, hey. Actually, you know, what most people are going to be this Halloween? Broke! That's what they're going to be!
[Chetry:] Oh, goodness. Well, the financial situation certainly had been fodder for the late-night comedians. Christine Romans join us now, "Minding Your Business." It's not all that bad, is it?
[Christine Romans, Cnn Business Correspondent:] We'll talk about the banks because the banks had a great day yesterday. That's because it took $250 billion of our money to get things fire lit under the bank stocks. But of the nine banks that will be the initial recipients of that federal infusion of taxpayer money, eight of them had a huge rally yesterday. Almost 10 percent moves for some of them. JPMorgan Chase, though, the rare loser, down about three percent. That company is going to report earnings just in the next couple of hours and we could see that company losing money in the quarter for the first time in a very, very long time. The focus today shifting now that we've talked about the recapitalization of the banks, and we've seen more details about the federal bailout. The focus around the world now is shifting to just how bad the economy is going to be worldwide. Last night, Janet Yellen, who is the president of the San Francisco Fed, in a speech said that it appears that the United States is in a recession. The U.S. appears to be in a recession, that pretty much every part of the economy has been hit by the credit crisis. We won't know if there's a recession until the National Bureau of Economic Research decides, that's the official arbiter decides that a recession has happened. But almost everyone we're talking to is saying that times are going to be tough here at the end of this year and probably heading into 2009. The depth and the magnitude of that of that economic weakness remains to be seen. So, we're watching the bank stocks recover. But, remember, we don't know how long it's going to take before this federal bailout, this rescue, this ever-evolving rescue. We don't know how long it's going to take before the credit markets completely thaw and things get back to normal and then, of course, we don't know the damage that's already been done. So, this is still, you guys, a work in progress, trying to figure out where we go from here and whether it will stick. Remember, the government doesn't have board seats. They can't sit there on those banks and say you have to start lending more money. The hope is that with these capital infusions that lending will resume.
[Roberts:] But this is part of what people were worried about. You know, another band-aid in the problem stops the bleeding for a little while and then it continues.
[Romans:] We've had so many of it. We're covered with band-aids at this point, too.
[Chetry:] Very cute.
[Roberts:] Thanks, Christine.
[Chetry:] But gas prices down nearly a dollar.
[Romans:] You know, you're right.
[Chetry:] From the high back in July.
[Romans:] And that is the silver lining when you're talking about worries about a weak economy. That means demand for things like oil go down and then you will feel some you will feel some relief at the pumps.
[Roberts:] If only you could afford it even at $3.12, right?
[Romans:] Right.
[Roberts:] Thanks, Christine.
[Chetry:] Thanks, Christine. The fight in the battleground states.
[Gov. Sarah Palin , Vice Presidential Candidate:] Pennsylvania, are you ready to help us carry this state to victory?
[Chetry:] Twenty-one electoral votes are up for grabs in Pennsylvania. And as key states turn into true toss-ups, we examine the impacts on the electoral map. You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."