The U.S. had its own debt struggles. In August, Standard & Poor's lowered the country's long-term sovereign debt rating to AA+ from AAA, as Congress reached an 11th-hour accord to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. The change came, the ratings company said, because the debt deal wouldn't "stabilize the government's medium-term debt dynamics." The Obama administration called the move "political."

Fed Documents

So far, the downgrade seems to have hurt little but America's pride. Dollar-denominated financial assets have been appreciating since the Aug. 5 decision, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Government bonds have returned 3.8 percent, the dollar has gained 7.2 percent relative to a basket of currencies and the S&P 500 Index of stocks has rallied 3.7 percent. Borrowing costs have fallen to record lows, with the average monthly yield in November on 10-year notes below 2 percent for the first time since 1950. The U.S. was seen as the best performing market in the world among international investors in a Bloomberg poll this month.

U.S. economic policy was in the news in March when the Supreme Court upheld a lower-court decision and ordered the Federal Reserve to release the details of emergency loans it made to banks in 2008. The records had been sought by Bloomberg News's parent company, Bloomberg LP, in a lawsuit after the Fed refused a federal Freedom of Information Act request.

Hacking Scandal

The data showed, among other things, that banks took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were healthy. On their neediest day, Dec. 5, 2008, the banks were in trouble so deep they required a combined $1.2 trillion, Bloomberg reported.

Across the Atlantic, another media company became a story. News Corp., controlled by Rupert Murdoch, closed its News of the World tabloid in July after revelations that staffers had been involved in hacking the mobile phone of a slain crime victim.

The scandal has led to at least 16 arrests, among them Andy Coulson, a former News of the World editor and one-time communications chief for Prime Minister David Cameron, and the resignation of several senior Murdoch lieutenants. On Dec. 20, the company's British publishing unit said it resolved seven civil lawsuits over the interception of celebrities' voice-mail messages to get scoops for the tabloid.

Throughout the year, the world was riveted by violent crimes, and sensational allegations.

Mass Shootings

In January, Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, was shot in the head in Tucson while she met with constituents at a supermarket. The alleged gunman, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, killed six people, including a federal judge, and wounded 12 others besides Gifford. Loughner potentially faces the death penalty.

In May, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French national heading the International Monetary Fund, quit after sexual assault allegations by a New York hotel worker landed him in jail under $5 million bond. Charges were dropped in August after prosecutors decided the accuser had repeatedly lied. The ex-IMF chief still faces a civil lawsuit over the matter.