After every great crisis, a simple question arises: Who knew?

Several Hollywood icons, including Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty and Meryl Streep, met last month in a Los Angeles restaurant to discuss a Screen Actors Guild strike with Guild President Alan Rosenberg, reports WaxWord. They were in favor.

Here’s a switch. XTO Energy, the Fort Worth oil and gas company, promoted two executives last week and cut their pay potential for next year. It also eliminated the chairman’s bonus.

The curious timing of Mack Whittle’s retirement as CEO of The South Financial Group continues to test the boundary of what constitutes a golden parachute at a bank receiving emergency aid from the federal Troubled Assets Relief Program.

A sense of fairness is treasured in the news business. But connections are, too. Tom Brokaw, currently the interim host of “Meet the Press,” would seem to have both.

What’s in a name? Ask the folks at Cerberus Capital Management, named for the three-headed dog that guards the gates of hell.

Brought down by subprime mortgages, credit default swaps and other high-stakes games, the financial world is giving Las Vegas a bad name.

Rick Wagoner, a lifelong car guy who has headed General Motors for the past eight years, needs a little respect and a lot of money.

As a church pastor, Barry Minkow believes in forgiveness and redemption. As a crusader against fraud and resume padding, however, the born again former corporate con man likes to make his targets squirm.

Crisis management was the name of the game this week, as The Wall Street Journal announced its annual list of “The Top 50 Women to Watch.”

It’s a sign of the times that even the super rich can’t get credit.

Lewis Ranieri, who pioneered mortgage backed securities when he worked at Salomon Brothers in the late 1970s and more recently warned against their misuse, is the latest victim of the nation’s housing crisis.

The federal government today announced a new, bigger bailout for American International Group.

With his choice of Rahm Emanuel, President-elect Barack Obama is getting not just a politically savvy player, but a man with deep ties to the business community, especially to Wall Street.

Harvard University is dropping out of Google’s massive book-scanning project involving copyrighted books, citing concerns about reader access.