Stimulus may have created or saved 640,000 jobs so far, but many of those positions were never intended to last.
Now that we're officially (if barely) out of the Great Recession, it's time for our nation's elected officials to get down to serious business -- that of taking credit, assigning blame, and calling each other liars.
Economic growth and job creation remain the government's top priority, despite a federal deficit that is "too high," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in an interview broadcast Sunday.
The largest stimulus program in the nation's history has created or saved just over 640,000 jobs, the Obama administration said Friday.
The Obama administration said Friday that stimulus has created or saved 640,000 jobs so far.
The Obama administration on Thursday lashed out at a prominent critic of its Cash for Clunkers program, arguing that the popular trade-in initiative helped give the auto industry and the economy a much needed boost in the past few months.
A total of 690,000 new vehicles were sold under the Cash for Clunkers program last summer, but only 125,000 of those were vehicles that would not have been sold anyway, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the automotive Web site Edmunds.com.
What do you know? The suits at troubled finance firm GMAC must like working for less money. How else to explain that GMAC is reportedly trying to get a third helping of government rescue funds? GMAC is one of the seven firms that the Obama administration announced sweeping changes in executive compensation for last week.
Will the third bailout be the charm for GMAC?
One year after risky practices by the nation's biggest banks almost brought down the economy, many of those institutions are even bigger -- and some say even riskier.
Stimulus may have created or saved 640,000 jobs so far, but many of those positions were never intended to last.
Now that we're officially (if barely) out of the Great Recession, it's time for our nation's elected officials to get down to serious business -- that of taking credit, assigning blame, and calling each other liars.
Economic growth and job creation remain the government's top priority, despite a federal deficit that is "too high," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in an interview broadcast Sunday.
The largest stimulus program in the nation's history has created or saved just over 640,000 jobs, the Obama administration said Friday.
The Obama administration said Friday that stimulus has created or saved 640,000 jobs so far.
The Obama administration on Thursday lashed out at a prominent critic of its Cash for Clunkers program, arguing that the popular trade-in initiative helped give the auto industry and the economy a much needed boost in the past few months.
A total of 690,000 new vehicles were sold under the Cash for Clunkers program last summer, but only 125,000 of those were vehicles that would not have been sold anyway, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the automotive Web site Edmunds.com.
What do you know? The suits at troubled finance firm GMAC must like working for less money. How else to explain that GMAC is reportedly trying to get a third helping of government rescue funds? GMAC is one of the seven firms that the Obama administration announced sweeping changes in executive compensation for last week.
Will the third bailout be the charm for GMAC?
One year after risky practices by the nation's biggest banks almost brought down the economy, many of those institutions are even bigger -- and some say even riskier.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Tuesday he expects a wave of banks to return government bailout money to taxpayers soon.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that Congress is set to consider a measure increasing the amount of money the federal government can lend to small businesses.
A key House committee on Thursday approved the most high-profile part of the White House plan to prevent future financial collapse: The creation of a new agency to regulate consumer financial products.
Creating and saving jobs while boosting investment in the future are among the top goals of the Obama administration's $787 billion economic stimulus plan.
The $700 billion bailout will ultimately cost taxpayers billions of dollars, but the government stands to lose much more than the money it's pouring into companies.
Bruce Bartlett was a lieutenant in the Reagan revolution. As an aide to congressman Jack Kemp, he helped write the legislation underpinning Ronald Reagan's 1981 tax cut and then worked in the Reagan and the George H.W. Bush administrations.
Gaffes in federal reports this week about stimulus have called into question the government's ability to accurately track how many jobs are being created by the massive $787 billion Recovery Act.
The White House on Thursday unveiled the first hard data on how many jobs the $787 billion recovery act has created.
There will be no cost-of-living increase for 57 million Social Security beneficiaries next year because consumer prices have fallen, the Social Security Administration announced on Thursday.
Is the largest one-time economic recovery effort in U.S. history creating jobs?
President Obama has been steadfast in his pledge that he won't raise taxes on those making less than $250,000. But that doesn't mean only high-income households will be subject to higher taxes.
President Barack Obama's top economic adviser said Monday the United States is on the path toward economic recovery, conditions in financial markets are steadier and there have been initial signs of stabilization in the housing market.
Amid nervousness about states' economies and a growing unemployment rate, the Obama administration is considering a series of measures aimed at putting many Americans back to work before the 2010 midterm elections, sources close to the process told CNN.
The U.S. economy will grow more than expected in the third quarter, but unemployment also will continue to increase and will pass 10 percent, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Sunday.
A government watchdog says federal officials weren't entirely honest with the public about the health of the first 9 financial firms that got federal bailouts, according to a report released Monday.
The U.S. economy will grow more than expected in the third quarter, but unemployment also will continue to increase and "penetrate" the 10% barrier, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Sunday.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday endorsed most of the Obama administration's plan to overhaul the regulatory system, except for a consumer agency.
President Obama insists that requiring Americans to get health insurance does not amount to a tax increase.
Just a month after taking office, President Obama asked Congress to move fast to reform the "outdated" system of financial oversight and install "tough, new common-sense rules of the road" for Wall Street.
As government regulators switch from crisis-mode to rescue mode, many of the biggest and most successful bailout programs are well on their way to extinction. But there are plenty of others that are gaining momentum as the economy heads toward a recovery.
It's nearly one year after the big crash, and the financial system is still functioning.
When it comes to TARP, it's better late than never for some banks.
The nation's economy started to turn around after the passage of President Obama's $787 billion stimulus package in February, his chief economic adviser said Thursday.
President Obama says reforming health care is central to the task of getting the government's long-term financial problems under control. And he's right.
An increasing number of economists agree with the government's response to the recession, saying they believe the economy is on the road to recovery, according to a survey released Monday.
A $9 trillion federal deficit over 10 years may be too hard to comprehend. But this part is easy: Such unwieldy amounts of debt could have an impact on Americans' bottom line one way or the other -- if not tomorrow, then the day after.
The government promised $27.5 billion in stimulus funds to help fix the nation's crumbling roads and bridges as part of a broader effort to save jobs. The effort is working...sort of.
If you're looking for the most detailed look yet about how banks have used funds from the $700 billion bailout, you're in luck.
From Yellowstone National Park to the Everglades, America's 391 national parks are in need of repair -- and thanks to the economic stimulus signed into law, help is now underway.
For years a cardinal rule of retirement investing has been to put every penny you can into IRAs, 401(k)s, and other tax-deferred accounts. That advice rested on a commonsense assumption: that after you stopped working you'd move into a lower tax bracket. That was important because the money you take out of a tax-deferred account is subject to ordinary income taxes.
Facing mounting bank failures, regulators are putting a new twist on a familiar idea: splitting a bank's good assets from the bad ones.
The economy may show signs of life, but so-called toxic assets are still a major threat to any recovery, a bailout watchdog group warned on Tuesday.
After rescuing the nation's banking system from utter disaster last fall, Washington now faces an arguably much trickier task: putting the bailout genie back in the bottle.
White House economic adviser Christina Romer declared the president's stimulus plan "absolutely" is working to slow the economy's decline, though she still held open the possibility of a second stimulus package a few months down the road.
Friday marks President Obama's 200th day in office, and in most respects, his second hundred days as president have been worse than the first 100.
President Obama's fall agenda has grown larger as some of the biggest decisions -- and fights -- over health care reform have been punted to September ... at the earliest.
When lunch break comes at the construction site between Shanghai and Suzhou in eastern China, Xi Tong-li and his fellow laborers bolt for some nearby trees and the merciful slivers of shade they provide. It's 95 degrees and humid -- a typically oppressive summer day in southeastern China -- but it's not just mad dogs and Englishmen who go out in the midday sun.
The $787.2 billion stimulus plan is a lightning rod for criticism and second guessing, but love it or hate it, the massive program's funds are flowing as planned.
Like an early clue in a mystery novel, you could see that the line used by George H.W. Bush in his convention speech ("Read my lips. No new taxes.") was going to cause the first-term president some major problems when he ran for re-election.
The middle class may have to pay more in taxes. That was the media's takeaway from comments made Sunday by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
The White House shot down concerns Monday that middle-class families may face a tax increase in order to combat rising deficits and a struggling economy.
The U.S. economy is no longer on the edge of collapse, but Americans face tough choices in reducing the national deficit, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Sunday.
The nation's economy is starting to rebound, but the Obama administration's massive stimulus package had little to do with it.
Lawmakers are quickly learning that "too big to fail" may be too complex to legislate away.
The independent overseer of the $700 billion bailout has caused a ruckus over an important question: How much do taxpayers have on the line?
The oversight czar tracking the $700 billion bailout told lawmakers Tuesday that he's concerned officials are not doing enough to prevent tax dollars from being wasted or pilfered.
The first big government bailout of the financial crisis -- the takeover of mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- is poised to be the most expensive and complicated to complete.
The independent overseer of the $700 billion bailout has caused a ruckus over an important question: How much do taxpayers have on the line?
The top cop tracking the $700 billion bailout program said Monday that he's concerned federal officials are ignoring his proposals for preventing tax dollars from being wasted or pilfered.
A full economic recovery may be slow to materialize, but the administration's stimulus plan is working and the economy has stabilized over the past few months, a key White House adviser asserted Friday.
Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, testifying before Congress for the first time since leaving office, defended his role Thursday in salvaging a controversial deal struck during the height of the banking panic last fall.
Did government officials overstep their authority and force Bank of America to take over troubled Merrill Lynch at great taxpayer expense?
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. announced record earnings Tuesday of $3.44 billion for the second quarter of 2009.
There may be reasons to tax the rich more, as a lot of people in Washington are talking about doing.
Vice President Joseph Biden has acknowledged that the $787 billion economic stimulus program has not yet had the impact that the White House was looking for.
In his first trip to Ohio since the election, Vice President Joe Biden jumped back into campaign mode, setting his sights on Republican critics of the $787 billion stimulus plan.
The government on Wednesday tapped nine financial firms to manage a scaled-down program aimed at helping the nation's banks and said it would invest up to $30 billion to get it started.
Fiscally-stressed states are using their stimulus dollars to satisfy immediate needs rather than undertake longer-term reforms, according to a government report released Wednesday.
Congressional Republicans tore into the Obama administration over the economic stimulus plan Wednesday, arguing that the White House is mishandling the distribution of the money while overstating the ability of the package to create jobs.
Nearly five months after President Obama signed the $787 billion stimulus bill, a still-worsening economy has many wondering if stimulus is a bunch of baloney.
The promise of health reform is to make care more accessible for everybody -- and to reduce the federal deficit by slowing the growth rate in costs.
So just how many stimulus jobs have been created or saved so far?
Dear Annie: As I understand it, President Obama's economic stimulus package contains incentives for hospitals and medical offices to get all their old paper medical records computerized, which is supposed to produce huge cost savings in the health-care system (and I think it's pretty obvious that it would do so). This caught my attention a few weeks ago when the stimulus package was first unveiled, since I have some experience in the health-care field and several IT certifications, but I haven't heard any mention of it lately. Do you think that, assuming it gets through Congress, this plan to wire the medical world could create many IT jobs? -Tacoma Techie for Hire
The watchdog charged with investigating fraud in the government bailout programs is feuding with the Treasury Department about who he answers to.
Washington's most dramatic foray into the nation's financial sector since the Great Depression began on Oct. 13 with a misnamed acronym, an unwitting tribe of CEOs, and a confused staff of Treasury officials. It was a foreshadowing of the misadventure to come. "I don't even know who the 9 companies are. Do you?" Michele Davis, assistant secretary for public affairs, wrote in an e-mail sent at 7:15 a.m. on that history-making Monday. "No clue," Treasury chief of staff Jim Wilkinson responded. "Let me get the list."
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testified before lawmakers Thursday, defending a sweeping set of proposals put forth just a day earlier by President Obama aimed at overhauling the nation's financial system.
Normally Paul Krugman, the liberal pundit and Nobel laureate in economics, and Paul Ryan, a conservative Republican congressman from Wisconsin, share little in common except their first names and a scorching passion for views they champion from opposite political poles. So when the two combatants agree on a fundamental threat to the U.S. economy, Americans should heed this alarm as the real thing. What's worrying both Krugman and Ryan is the rapid increase in the federal debt - not so much the stimulus-driven rise to mountainous levels in the next few years, but the huge structural deficits that, under all projections, keep building the burden far into the future to unsustainable, ruinous heights. "The long-term outlook remains worrying," warned Krugman in his New York Times column. Krugman strongly supports President Obama's spending plans but bemoans the shortfall in taxes to pay for them.
Virginia's Department of Transportation is putting $694.5 million in stimulus funds to work repairing the state's roads and bridges. But that money won't save the jobs of nearly 1,500 of the agency's workers.
Ten leading banks won approval to repay money from the government's controversial TARP program, regulators said Tuesday, which could represent approximately $68 billion in bailout funds returned to taxpayers.
Good riddance, TARP. It was nice knowing you.
Don't expect TARP-free banks to unleash a torrent of loans to cash-strapped consumers.
Banks that were stress tested by the government earlier this year should undergo another round of examinations, a government watchdog group said Tuesday, amid signs that the U.S. economy may be deteriorating faster than first expected.
As the nation's unemployment rate inches toward double-digit territory, the White House insists that job creation is on the way.
Regulators shelved a controversial plan that aimed to cleanse banks' balance sheets of toxic assets.
Jamie Dimon isn't one to pull his punches. In fact, the JPMorgan chief's willingness to criticize, for example, the shortcomings of retroactively changing government bailout programs can be refreshing -- and often spot-on.
With another $30 billion in taxpayer bailout money set to go to General Motors -- for a total of $50 billion -- the bankrupt automaker will become the second-largest bailout recipient after AIG.
First-time homebuyers will now have access to quick cash to help them with their down payments.
The government's list of troubled banks swelled in the first quarter, climbing to its highest level in nearly 15 years, regulators said Wednesday.
Some lawmakers are questioning whether the Treasury Department has the power to recycle returned bailout dollars to fund new or expanded rescues for auto companies, life insurers and small banks.
Facing mounting budget deficits and seeing few areas left to cut spending, states increasingly are turning to the only option they have left: raising taxes.
Banks that underwent stress tests earlier this month have set out raise $56 billion to plug holes in their books caused by big losses, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told a Senate panel on Wednesday.
Six life insurance companies have qualified to receive billions of dollars in bailout money under the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
The Obama administration, issuing its first progress report on the $787 billion stimulus program, said Wednesday that $88 billion has been made available and that it's ahead of schedule in implementing most initiatives.
With the stress tests behind them, banking regulators now face the potentially thornier issue of deciding which banks, if any, should be allowed to repay government funds.
Banks lining up to repay bailout funds are easing away from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s debt insurance plan, a program that helped banks through last fall's financial storm -- and has made money for the FDIC to boot.
Citigroup said Tuesday it authorized $8.2 billion in lending to U.S. consumers and businesses so far this year backed by taxpayer funding.
Ten of the nation's 19 largest banks will need to raise a total of $74.6 billion in capital, federal officials announced Thursday, bringing an end to relentless speculation about how much more money the nation's leading banks would need to withstand the recession.
Don't like your stress test results? The government may have just the tonic: the public-private investment partnerships that aim to relieve lenders of troubled assets.
President Obama says his proposals to crack down on corporate tax loopholes will do a lot of things, including create more U.S. jobs.
The federal government has made available more than $74 billion in stimulus funds, but the majority of that money has yet to hit the streets.
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