Business Highlights

Obama spells out major financial rules overhaul

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama proposed sweeping new "rules of the road" for the nation's financial system Wednesday, casting the changes as a critically important response to the economic crisis and the greatest regulatory transformation since the Great Depression.

The Obama plan would give new powers to the Federal Reserve to oversee the entire financial system and would also create a new consumer protection agency to guard against credit and other abuses that played a big role in the current crisis.

The proposal would also create a new consumer protection agency to guard against the kind of mortgage and other credit abuses that played a major role in the current crisis.

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Consumer prices edge up in May; inflation in check

WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumer prices rose less than expected in May and posted the steepest annual drop in 59 years, according to government data released Wednesday, fresh evidence that the recession is keeping inflation in check.