Aside from having to deal with dismal CD rates, economic developments gave consumers little to rejoice about over the past week.

Economic data for the past week showed an economy that's not quite back on track yet.

We've gotten so used to seeing the same banks with the same rates in our weekly list of best CD rates that when a bank comes and offers some of the top CD rates around, we can't help but wonder why we don't see more of these rate levels any more.

The past week ended quietly for the FDIC last Friday – at least as far as bank failures are concerned. This is the first time in three months that no bank was closed over the weekend, even as the number of closures for this year nears the 100th mark.

This week is crucial for banks, business groups, investors, and depositors alike as the Fed holds a two-day meeting to decide on whether it is still feasible to keep interest rates at the historically low levels they are in now – close to zero.

While we would always want to view the glass as half-full rather than half-empty, when it comes to CD rates, it would be difficult to maintain all that optimism

While CD rates in general made modest gains over the past week, these gains did not quite reflect on the highest CD rates to open this week. Top CD yields and the banks offering them remain the same for the most part, with a few changes here and there.

H&R Block Bank has a nice CD rate promotion which they have been promoting since the beginning of September.  

With CD rates falling to an all-time low last week, we thought nothing could possibly get worse. But it turns out there was more to come.

CD rates took quite a beating this week as averages for 6-month and 12-month CDs plunged to lower depths, from 1.14% to 1.10% APY and 1.41% to 1.38%  APY respectively. Rate averages for long term CDs also fell, albeit only by a modest 0.01%.