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The Federal Reserve is expected to approve its largest interest rate hike in more than two decades this week. Additional rate increases are likely, as the Fed tries to regain control over inflation.

The bipartisan Senate bill aimed at easing the nation's housing crisis includes billions of dollars in grants and loans for homebuyers. It also has tax breaks for builders and other businesses. Critics say the bill doesn't go far enough to help struggling homeowners.

The latest inflation data offers a snapshot of Americans' new pandemic spending habits. Prices are down for most goods and services but up sharply for groceries.

Announcements in three more states on Sunday brought the number of Americans who are currently under — or soon to be under — orders to stay home to more than 101 million.

Melissa Block talks with Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wachovia Corporation. They discuss the nuts and bolts of mortgage rate change, specifically how and why mortgages rates react to changes in federal interest rates.

When McKinsey Comes to Town authors Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe say the consulting firm helped companies boost tobacco and opioid sales — while at the same time working for the FDA.

ProPublica reporter Jesse Eisinger says that the government undermines the notion of equity and fails to deter crime when it allows large corporations to settle lawsuits by paying fines.

Olympic mascot Bing Dwen Dwen has become so popular people have been camping overnight to buy fluffy versions of the lovable-looking animal.

Commentator Andrei Codrescu laments the hard time non-blockbusters have catching browsers' attention on bookstore shelves. He details the thought-process that a potential reader goes through in making a bold determination if he or she should actual buy a lesser-known work. It is this detail that gives us insight into the difficulties of authors. Codrescu's latest book is It was Today: New Poems, available from Coffee House Press.

Jean Kilbourne, author of Can't Buy My Love -- How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel, says the media have created an ideal of beauty for young girls that is dangerously unachievable. Kilbourne speaks with NPR's Susan Stamberg in the second in a series of conversations on the nature of beauty.