NYT - “The Senate approved and sent to President Obama on Wednesday what Congressional Democrats hope will be the first in a series of bills spurring employment by providing tax breaks and other hiring incentives to businesses.
The measure, approved on a bipartisan vote of 68 to 29, would give employers an exemption from payroll taxes through the end of 2010 on workers they hire who have been unemployed for at least 60 days. It also extends the federal highway construction program and takes other steps to boost public building projects.”
WP - “The legislation allows the Fed to maintain its role in overseeing the country’s largest banks while awarding it even more power to protect consumers and monitor the financial system for emerging risks. The central bank would also continue its most prominent job of managing the nation’s monetary policy.
The Fed, however, would be stripped of its role in regulating all but the few dozen largest financial firms. The oversight of almost 6,000 small and midsize banks, one of the major tasks carried out at the 12 regional Fed banks, would be taken over by other federal agencies.”
WP – “Delaying the needed spending controls ‘would test the patience of the market. . . . Although AAA governments benefit from an unusual degree of balance sheet flexibility, that flexibility is not infinite,’ Moody’s wrote.’We believe that the ratings of all large AAA governments remain well positioned — although their ‘distance-to-downgrade’ has in all cases substantially diminished.’”
WSJ – “The Federal Reserve Tuesday said it will end one of its main support programs for the U.S. economy — purchases of $1.25 trillion of mortgage backed securities — pushing a nascent recovery to stand with less government support.”
Today, Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, unveils the much anticipated financial regulatory reform bill. The bill will create a new consumer protection authority housed at the Federal Reserve, proposes a new mechanism for unwinding large failing financial institutions, more stringently regulates over-the-counter derivatives, streamlines federal bank supervision, creates a financial stability oversight council, and propose changes to executive compensation and corporate governance rules.
NYTimes - “President Obama on Thursday announced a broad effort to promote American goods overseas, hoping to bolster competitiveness abroad and create jobs in the United States…Mr. Obama framed his plan as a means of jump-starting the sluggish economy. He called for increasing credit for small- and medium-sized businesses by $2 billion, easing restrictions on selling certain goods abroad, and the establishment of a cabinet-level panel on exports.”
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