Yep. We’ll never see that money again. And certainly not 5 years ahead of schedule. Just like we’ll never see the TARP money again. From the AP: GM got a total of $52 billion from the U.S. government and $9.5 billion from the Canadian and Ontario governments as it went through bankruptcy protection last year. [...]

Looks like some Republicans are beginning to line up behind the Dodd legislation. So, lo and behold, compromises can be reached! From Wash Post: Key Senate Republicans on Tuesday began to back away from their sharp criticism of proposed new financial regulations and expressed optimism that a bipartisan deal on a bill that would drastically [...]

Between this and their “high frequency trading”…are we seeing karma coming back around on GS? From NY Times: Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street powerhouse, was accused of securities fraud in a civil lawsuit filed Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which claims the bank created and sold a mortgage investment that was secretly intended [...]

When I hear about “class warfare” and how it’s unfair to have a progressive taxation system that relies more on the wealthiest citizens, well, it’s hard to take those opinions seriously. The rich are indeed getting richer. Much, much richer. And the middle class and lower income folks continue to see their percentage of the [...]

More encouraging news about the TARP program… From Washington Post: Among the banks that rule Wall Street, Citigroup got a bailout that was bigger than the rest. Now the company is about to pay a king’s ransom for its federal rescue. The Obama administration is making final preparations to sell its stake in the New [...]

As Americans, we’re accustomed to a certain standard of living. Nothing lavish, mind you. Most of us don’t have big, fancy houses or expensive cars. Most of us don’t have investment portfolios bursting at the seams. But we do have families and we do have responsibilities, and given that we pay our fair share into [...]

Jobs may not be coming back, but the GDP is. From Reuters: The first estimate put fourth-quarter gross domestic product growth at its fastest pace since the third quarter of 2003. The economy expanded at a 2.2 percent annual rate in the third quarter. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast GDP, which measures total goods [...]

First, the relevant facts about the budget that’s set to be released on Feb 1… About $447 billion will be devoted to funding the government — the parts that aren’t mandated by law (the entitlements) or aren’t related to defense, intelligence, veterans or national security issues. Obama will promise to veto any budget that exceeds [...]

More news about the boom/bust cyclemakers that doesn’t bode well for the individual investor. From NY Times: On Tuesday, a Goldman executive made an unusual admission that, in some cases, the rumors were true. In an e-mail message to select clients, Thomas C. Mazarakis, the head of Goldman’s fundamental strategies group, acknowledged that his unit [...]

The green energy revolution is in full swing and it’s supported by the White House. From NY Times: President Obama announced on Friday the award of $2.3 billion in tax credits for clean energy manufacturing — part of a broader push by his administration to stimulate job growth during the highest period of sustained unemployment [...]

I’m not kidding. It’s the perfect combination. A slew of ill informed protesters who heart Glenn Beck, think they know “true” conservative values and are convinced our country is turning into a dictatorship and Sarah Palin…an ill informed politician who hearts Glenn Beck, claims she knows “true” conservative values and loves to convince folks our [...]

I wrote yesterday about the scant number of jobs created in the last 10 years, but when compared to the past six decades the news becomes that much bleaker. Wash Post illustrates… I’m not saying we should have guarantees our overall net worth should go up or that our economy has to add jobs, but [...]

While Krugman is brimming with good tidings and bubbling over with holiday cheer, from the other side of the political spectrum Peter Schiff is offering a dour double dose of “Bah Humbug.”

Nobody’s signing “Happy Days Are Here Again,” but any significant downward movement in the unemployment rate is reason for some early holiday cheer. And there’s more good news beyond this. I’ll share a chart that shows this after the numbers. From WSJ: U.S. job losses in November posted the smallest drop since the start of [...]

In Feb 2009, the company reported this… Bank of America Corp. expects to pay back U.S. Treasury relief funds within the next three years, and “categorically” does not need further government funding, Chief Executive Ken Lewis told CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo in a televised interview Friday. Bank of America has received up to $45 billion in [...]

We all know we’re on an unsustainable course with all of this spending. And this is why I voted for this guy: he’s a realist. We needed a short term shot in the arm when he first got in here, but now we have to worry about the long term consequences. Politico has more: On [...]

We’ve crossed the psychological barrier and this spells bad news for Dems unless they can turn it around in the next couple months. Because this is the highest rate since 1983 and you’ll be hearing that time and time again in the next month. Here’s more about those numbers: Among the major worker groups, the [...]

The Wash Post’s Ezra Klein interviewed the CEO of Kaiser Permanente and found massive differences when looking at health care costs in the US and other countries. Yes, it’s not even close. Gee, I wonder why we’re going bankrupt… And those are just 3 graphs! Want to see the other 19? Click here to download [...]

Who’s this guy? Meet Kenneth R. Feinberg, the new pay “czar” for the White House. He’s tasked with reigning in the out of control compensation at companies the government helped recently. I think it should be noted right off the bat that this is tied to executive compensation and bonuses…two pots of money that are [...]

True, it might go right back down tomorrow, but I have to say that this is a nice little psychological boost. But it’s not just psychological. Look at the 52 week spread in that picture…at this time last year we were down to 6,469. That’s a pretty significant jump in just one year’s time. Not [...]