Good idea?
WSJ-Huge Breaks for Firms, Individuals Are Aimed at Winning GOP Support for Stimulus
President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are crafting a plan to offer about $300 billion of tax cuts to individuals and businesses, a move aimed at attracting Republican support for an economic-stimulus package and prodding companies to create jobs.
The size of the […]

Why not?
AJC-A 50 percent increase in gasoline and diesel fuel taxes is being urged by a federal commission to finance highway construction and repair until the government devises another way for motorists to pay for using public roads.
The National Commission on Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing, a 15-member panel created by Congress, is the second group […]

Does anyone buy this?
AP-A top adviser to President-elect Barack Obama said Sunday that the country’s slowing economy won’t keep the new administration from fulfilling its plans for a middle-class tax cut.
“We feel it’s important that middle-class people get some relief now,” Obama adviser David Axelrod said.
Middle-class tax cuts will be part of the new administration’s […]

Will 2009 be worse than 2008?
NPR-There were some remarkable and largely unforeseen financial and economic events in 2008. These events have plunged the world into what appears to be the worst recession since World War II.
Listen

Bad news!
WP-Homeowners whose property values have plummeted as much as 40 percent are unlikely to see a corresponding drop in their real estate taxes next year, and some might face a tax increase as the counties surrounding the District struggle with huge budget shortfalls.
Nearly every county in the region is deep in red […]

Agree or disagree?
NPR-The Federal Reserve gave an early Christmas present to General Motors’ finance arm, allowing the ailing provider of auto loans to qualify for the government’s $700 billion rescue fund.
The Fed announced late Wednesday that it had approved GMAC Financial Services’ request to become a bank holding company. That designation makes GMAC eligible to […]

Will China be the financial power house? What will the world look like with a socialist country as the center of money?
WSJ-The new edition of Foreign Affairs magazine has a pair of articles about the global financial mess that carry these disturbing headlines: “A Weakening of the West,” reads one, and “The Rise of […]

Could this be a problem for all of us?
HP-While panicked investors caught up Bernard Madoff’s $50 billion Ponzi scheme scramble to recover their money from the disgraced executive, one woman is going a different route: going after the SEC:
A New York woman who lost nearly $2 million investing with Bernard Madoff has filed a claim […]

HUH?

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Who will bail them out?
AP-California’s chief financial officer warned Monday that the state would run out of money in about two months as hopes of a Christmas budget compromise melted into political finger-pointing by the end of the day.
Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger began the day on a cheerful note, suggesting that negotiations with Democratic leaders […]

UPDATE: Treasury proposal mirrors new-home purchase recommendation below. READ MORE
To the surprise of very few who have been paying attention, the Wall Street bailout has had little positive effect on making credit available to businesses or individuals. The $350 trillion in TARP funds already made available, plus the almost $1 trillion in loans directly from […]

Agree or disagree?
HP-Paul Krugman writes Monday that, no matter what President-elect Obama does, we’re in for up to a year of “economic hell” — and that things will never go back to how they were.
Whatever the new administration does, we’re in for months, perhaps even a year, of economic hell. After that, things should get […]

HUH???
Politico-With the economic picture blackening, President-elect Barack Obama set a new goal this week of creating or saving 3 million jobs over the next two years, up from 2.5 million just a month ago, Democratic officials said Saturday.
The new plan adds to the ambition and the complexity of Obama’s opening agenda for Congress, […]

How does this look?
THEHILL-A crumbling economy, more than 2 million constituents who have lost their jobs this year, and congressional demands of CEOs to work for free did not convince lawmakers to freeze their own pay.
Instead, they will get a $4,700 pay increase, amounting to an additional $2.5 million that taxpayers will spend on congressional […]

Do we not have a pattern here with Bush and company?
WP-The nation’s chief securities regulator said yesterday it was “deeply troubling” that his agency had failed to catch perhaps the largest Ponzi scheme in history despite “credible and specific allegations . . . repeatedly brought to the attention of SEC staff” regarding the activities of […]