for more analysis, we turn to our in-house technology guy, scott gurvey. scott, wow, that was some quarter. >> it was a blowout quarter for apple, and reason has to be all of the gadget products which every fan has to have. apple sold 8.4 million iphones. it sold 3.3 million of the new ipads, and it also moved respectable numbers of macintosh computers and ipod music players. steve jobs promised more new products in the second half, and apple's stock soared in after-hours trading. now the question is will the apple shine rub off on the rest of the tech sector, most specifically on microsoft. jim yen of staple standard and poor's says he expects a good report from the company. >> the main driver for this quarter's results is increase of p.c. sales, mostly by consumers. and i.b.c., and other industries analysts thinking that p.c. grew in excess of 20% the first half, and the increase of window 7. >> susie, while microsoft is certainly happy with the uptic in computer sales, and the uptake of window 7, it has caught the eye of lots of consumers in the world. >

scott gurvey reports. >> reporter: any mechanic knows it pays to have the right tools in your toolbox. the federal reserve knows this, too. and fed watchers say the central bank is working on additional tools to employee in its efforts to revive the economy. it has been at zero for a year and a half. which means there is no shortage of cash. but the economy is sluggish because there is little demand. >> corporations have tons of cash. there is very little reason for a lot of them to go to banks to basically borrow money. on the small business side, there are questions about the health of the economy, so banks are more leery throu. so it is a combination of the bigger borrowers don't necessarily need the money, and the smaller businesses, the banks are concerned about. >> reporter: the fed may lower the interest it pays banks on money they leave idle as reserves. the fed may also modify its policy statement to suggest the fed fund's rate will stay low for a very long time. or according to economist mikely foreli, they could buy more assets. >> if they buy more asserts, i think they wou

scott gurvey, "nightly business report," new york. nationwide, but some places are seeing growth stall or slow down. this is according to the federal reserve's latest beige book survey of regional economies. the pace of economic recovery held pace or held steady in 12 districts, but growth slowed in atlanta and chicago. >> a new study finds the u.s. response to the financial crisis probably prevented a second grace depression. the report estimates g.d.p. today would be much lower today. the economy would have lost an additional 8.5 million jobs, and we would have deflation instead of low inflation. joining us now are the two leading economists, alan blinder and moody's mark zan. >> thank you. >> to the fed's purchase of mortgage-backed securities. which was the most important for the economy. >> it also included the fiscal stimulus. somewhat to our surprise, we didn't know going into the work, at least according to this model, the panoplyia of financial policies, including the things you mentioned and other things were more important

scott gurvey, "nightly business report," new york. >> susie: from european banks to american ones. a new report shows 17 banks paid their execs more than a billion and a half dollars during the height of the financial crisis. the obama administration's special master on pay, kenneth feinberg, has decided those payments were "ill-advised," but not illegal. stephanie dhue talked with feinberg this morning and asked him about that decision. >> they were too big, some individuals were getting in excess of $10 million in bonus payments over a five-year period, there were severance payments where individuals, companies, after they received tarp, we're paying people walking out the door, no longer working at the company, there were gross-ups, where in order to cover tax payments, there would be additional money, allocated to these individuals, we concluded after months of review, these companies should not have done what they did. >> reporter: six banks that made what feinberg calls "ill- advised" payments still owe taxpayers. they are citibank, c.i.t. group, which has since gone through

as scott gurvey reports, today came an answer, straight from the top. >> you know, we're not perfect. we know that, you know that. and phones aren't perfect either. but we want to make it, make all our users happy. and if you don't know that about apple, you don't know apple. >> reporter: it was an unprecedented admission in the memory of most apple watchers. c.e.o. steve jobs saying he knows some of the three million buyers of the new apple iphone-4 are not happy. but he also said he thought the complaints of reception problems were overdone, calling it antenna-gate. jobs said customers who buy the rubber-like bumpers which seem to eliminate the problem can get refunds through the end of september. but apple can't make enough bumpers fast enough so it will also offer buyers a free case. those still not satisfied can get a full refund on their iphone. "consumer reports" helped turn antenna-gate into a full-blown crisis for apple, when it declined to recommend the new phone to its readers. senior editor mike gikas doesn't think today's announced remedies go far enough. >> we have confi