With so many Americans out of work, it's hardly surprising that universities are reporting a surge in applications. What's odd is that the nation's elite business schools continue to be as popular as ever among Wall Street wannabes.

After all, it's these schools that produced the likes of John Thain, Dick Fuld, Kathleen Corbet and other former corporate chiefs that many now finger for causing the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Together, they ran the financial market into the ground and sparked a global epidemic of dashed fortunes and crushing unemployment the likes of which hasn't been seen for generations - possibly ever. Their Alma Maters most be proud.

At wowOwow, we wanted to know which schools cranked out the meltdown's most widely acknowledged perps. By our count, Harvard Business School takes top honors, followed by New York University's Stern School of Business and Cornell.

Here's our dishonor roll of schools that failed the economy by unleashing their best and brightest on the rest of us:

As the former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman and a key member of President Obama's economic advisory team, what Paul Volker says about Wall Street matters.

So how did so many financial giants lose so much money, so fast? And why are so many Americans now losing their jobs, their homes and their life savings? Forget shifty deals and crooked brokers: Volker says the real villain is faulty math.

In a speech in Toronto earlier this month, Volker put the blame for the crisis squarely on mathematical models used by economists and other market watchers to gauge the state of the nation's financial system. Get these models right, he says, and the economy is in good hands. That's also the gist of a recent article by Wired.

For Janet Tavakoli, a leading financial market consultant, that's just plain wrong. In her latest column on wowowow.com, Tavakoli takes Volker to task for relying on mathematical laws to determine the vagaries of financial markets driven by living, breathing human beings. Rather than seeking formulas to better capture "outliers" -- unexpected market events, or so-called black swans, that trip up conventional analysis -- regulators should be after the "outright liars" that cheated investors out of billions, Tavakoli says:

Maybe there just isn't a mattress big enough to stuff that kind of cash. But that's where thousands of UBS's millionaire clients are likely wishing they'd kept their savings, rather than in the illegal offshore accounts now under investigation by the SEC for tax fraud.

Last week, the Swiss banking giant agreed to pay $780 million in fines and turn over the names of 250 U.S. clients. Investigators are now seeking the names of 50,000 more.

So how did UBS convince so many wealthy Americans to risk tax evasion charges? Turns out greed alone wasn't enough. Court documents made public last week show dozens of UBS "advisers" made over 3,500 trips a year to the U.S. from 2002 on to promote the scheme. Mixing business and pleasure, the trips lasted several weeks at a time and included the usual wining and dining with prospects at swank restaurants, hotels and clubs.

Potential clients were also wooed with special access to UBS-sponsored parties and events across the country, from high-end art shows, classical music concerts, professional tennis and golf tournaments and yacht races, federal investigators say. And while corporate logos these days are splashed across anything from lemon stands to commercial spacecraft, Swiss-based UBS prides itself on being a main partner in a number of premiere sports and cultural in the States.

So whether you're into music, art or sports, chances are you've bumped into a few of these million-dollar tax cheats at these and other UBS-sponsored events over the years:

At a time when most retailers are struggling, business is booming at Palm Beach consignment stores - thanks to Bernie Madoff.

That's where many of the disgraced financier's victims are now hocking designer clothing, furniture and other luxury goods at an unprecedented rate, local shop owners say.

"We're actually expanding the store," Shelby Bye, a manager at Chris Ellis Consignment Collection on South Dixie Highway, recently told wowOwow. Bye said the store, which sells high-end accent tables, armoires, chandeliers and other pricey household goods, is having trouble handling it all. "There's not enough space for everything that's coming in," she said.

This surge in so-called "Madoff inventory" comes on top of a seasonal purging of has-been designs and labels at this time of year, along with the downturn in the economy. That's leading to unheard of deals on everything from Hermès purses and Armani jackets to a $7,500 art deco expandable table.

At nearby Attitudes Consignment, a $1,900 Lora Piana Mini Globe handbag is going for $975. "I've never seen anything like this," owner Olive Grey told wowOwow.

For more fabulous finds, check out this photo gallery.

Worried that the $787 billion stimulus plan won't do enough to fix the ailing economy, investors sent stocks plummeting to a three-month low on Tuesday, the first day of trading after the holiday weekend.

Less than two hours into the morning session, the Dow Jones Industrial average sank 230 points, or about 3%, while the S&P 500 dropped to its lowest point since Nov. 20. By noon, all 10 industry groups in the S&P were had declined.

President Obama signed the multi-billion stimulus plan into law on Tuesday.

The declines come as jittery investors continue to assess Washington's response to the growing economic crisis. Last week, bank stocks plunged after Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner released a federal bank bailout plan that investors said provided few reassuring details.

Choked for funding in recent years, stem cell researchers had some encouraging news over the weekend. On "Fox News Sunday," Top Obama aide David Axelrod confirmed that the president is expected to act soon on a campaign pledge to lift a federal spending ban on embryonic stem cell research.

The move is widely expected to give a timely boost to the biotech industry with a funding windfall, fueling innovation and job growth at facilities across the country.

The ban, imposed eight years ago by President Bush, severely limited funding for stem cell R&D, which scientists believe could eventually lead to cures for Parkinson's disease, diabetes, spinal cord injuries and other illnesses.

"The president is considering that right now," Axelrod said over the weekend.

Stem cell research is contentious because it involves the destruction of embryos, which anti-abortion groups consider human life. In August 2001, Bush signed an executive order barring the use of federal funds for embryonic stem cell research. The ban extended to the use of any lab equipment paid for by federal funds, forcing many researchers to buy costly duplicates.

Companies downsize. Employers cut staff. CEOs lower wages. But what do moms do when the economy tanks? They roll up their sleeves and work even harder, that's what.

Recently, Office Depot asked more than 500 working mothers how they were coping with the downturn. While many said they were struggling with hectic schedules and more demands on their time, the overwhelming majority continued to pile on more responsibilities -- both on the job and at home. In fact, two out three working moms said they're now having trouble keeping track of it all.

The survey, conducted in January among employed women with at least one child under 18 at home, found as many as 87% said the added pressure was forcing them to get better organized for the year ahead. Though many were cutting back on household spending, 65% believed they could save money by running a tighter ship.

Your senior prom beau? The bad boy your parents hated? The sexy nerd who stole your heart in college? We've all loved 'em and left 'em. So where are they now? Turns out most +45 women want to know -- and many are going online to find out.

In a new wowOwow poll of our audience of women aged 45 and older, as many as 60% said they had used the Internet to find -- and reconnect with -- long lost loves.

That's partly explained by the fact that baby boomers are now online like never before, thanks to the growing popularity of Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and other social networking sites. But while many older users are more likely than youngsters to be logging on for research, e-mail and shopping, according to a recent study by PEW Research, just what -- or who- - they're researching might come as a surprise.

Henrietta Hughes, the homeless Florida woman who asked President Obama for help at a town hall meeting on the economic stimulus plan, is moving out of her pickup truck and into the home of a state representative.

Earlier this week, Chene Thompson, the wife of Florida state Rep. Nick Thompson, offered to let Hughes and her adult son live in a house she owns in LaBelle, Fla. Hughes, who is on disability for cancer, was facing a two-year waiting list at her local housing department.

During a Q&A after Obama's speech in Ft. Myers on Monday, Hughes told the president she needed "something more than the vehicle and the parks to go to. We need our own kitchen and our own bathroom. Please help."

As if the down economy wasn't bad enough, the unwravelling of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme has many women's groups struggling for new funding.

Many are facing deep cuts from foundations that were invested with Madoff, who federal authorities have accused of operating a fraudulent $50 billion investment fund that paid out fake profits.

These include the $1 billion Picower Foundation, a major supporter of reproductive rights issues, and the JEHT Foundation, which funds the Stop Prisoner Rape Project and the Women's Prison Association's Institute on Women in Criminal Justice, among other criminal and juvenile justice reform initiatives.

Both have shut down in the wake of Madoff's arrest.

Planned Parenthood groups are reportedly losing $734,000 from Picower, as well as the Shapiro Foundation and Steven Spielberg's Wunderkinder Foundation.

Across the nation, other victims include the Rape Foundation in Santa Monica, Calif., Women's Care Cottage in North Hollywood, Calif., the Center for Traumatic Grief and Victim Service in Moorestown, N.J., Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala., Casa Myrna Vasquez in Boston, Mass., and NARAL Pro-Choice America in Washington, D.C. In New York alone, Family Justice Inc., the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and Girls Inc., among other groups, all lost funding in the scheme. The Center for Reproductive Rights, a global advocacy organization for women's reproductive rights based in New York, lost $600,000 in funding from Picower in 2009.