National and international top 10

1. Housing contagion: Credit problems from the housing market to bad corporate debt and even defaults on student loans create a major drain on U.S. and European economies.

2. Record oil prices: Numerous factors, including Mideast unrest, the weakening U.S. dollar, and demand from India and China, send oil prices to nearly $100 a barrel.

3. Toy recalls: Millions of Chinese-made toys are pulled from U.S. retailers’ shelves because of the discovery of lead in the products’ paint.

4. Fed moves: The target short-term interest rate moves down 1 percentage point for the year, to 4.25 percent. The cuts are aimed at curbing the nation’s credit woes.

5. Dow 14,000: The 30 large stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial average soar past 14,000 in July, but the nation’s credit crunch and high energy prices create instability that push it below that threshold later in the year.

6. Dollar falls: Concerns about the U.S. economy push the dollar lower against foreign currencies, driving up food and energy prices in the U.S.

7. China and India roar: Years of double-digit growth rev up the economies – and inflation – of China and India.

8. Ethanol boom: Search for alternative fuels pushes ethanol production from 5 billion gallons in 2006 to 7 billion in 2007.

9. Bank CEOs exits: CEOs of Merrill Lynch & Co. and Citigroup Inc. retire suddenly, within days of each other, as declining mortgage holdings shrink their banks’ assets by billions of dollars.

10: UAW health deal: $46.7 billion worth of retiree health care costs move from the company to the union. Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC deals follow.