Terry Gross

Perplexed by the U.S. economy? You're not alone. Law professor Michael Greenberger joins Fresh Air to explain the sub-prime mortgage crisis, credit defaults, the shaky future of other types of loans and what we can expect from the U.S. financial markets.

Jules Dassin, an American filmmaker who worked in Europe for nearly 30 years, died this week in Athens, Greece. He left the U.S. in the early 1950s, blacklisted for his youthful membership in the Communist Party.

In 2005, The New York Times revealed that the National Security Agency had performed wiretaps and other surveillance without court orders. It was a story the Bush administration hoped to keep under wraps, says reporter Eric Lichtblau. Lichtblau's new book is Bush's Law.