The major indexes have jumped more than 5 percent, with the Dow Jones industrials surging nearly 500 points.

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner acknowledges the federal budget deficit is too high, but that the priorities now are economic growth and job creation.

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama is likely to name Timothy Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve, as Treasury Secretary in a time of intense economic turmoil as he rounds out the upper echelon of his Cabinet, a senior Democratic official familiar with the deliberations said Friday.

WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is "ultimately responsible" for regulators' failure to rein in massive bonus payments at American International Group because he led the agencies that provided AIG's lifelines, according to a bailout watchdog.

WASHINGTON — Pointing with dismay to the AIG debacle, the nation's top economic officials argued Tuesday for unprecedented powers to regulate and even take over financial goliaths whose collapse could imperil the entire economy. President Barack Obama agreed and said he hoped "it doesn't take too long to convince Congress."

Right now the President of the United States is making numerous changes in his staff of phony leaders.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama plunges into a difficult test of his leadership this week, struggling to get a divided Congress to agree on his economic recovery package while pitching a new plan to ease loans to consumers and businesses.

WASHINGTON — Tough as they seem, will the Obama administration's strict new Wall Street rules really work?

President Barack Obama says his $75 billion plan to tackle "a crisis unlike any we've ever known" in home foreclosures is necessary to help save the economy.

WASHINGTON - Talking tougher by the hour, livid Democrats confronted beleaguered insurance giant AIG with an ultimatum Tuesday: Give back $165 million in post-bailout bonuses or watch Congress tax it away with emergency legislation.

So far Barack Obama's apparent Cabinet choices give little evidence that his pledge to change the face of Washington is anything more than that - just a promise. With a few exceptions those reportedly chosen all have been here before, from the White House to Congress.

NEW YORK - Wall Street faces another pivotal week, with investors enmeshed in a stock market knocked to 11-year lows amid growing fears about the fate of the nation’s ailing automobile industry and banking system.

Guest commentary by Tom Patterson

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama issued a withering critique Thursday of Wall Street corporate behavior, calling it "the height of irresponsibility" for employees to be paid more than $18 billion in bonuses last year while their crumbling financial sector received a bailout from taxpayers.

The Goldwater Institute filed a federal lawsuit Thursday to block national healthcare reform, arguing it violates the rights of a Tempe business owner, Arizona lawmakers and even members of Congress.

WASHINGTON - Fighting to salvage his Cabinet nomination, Tom Daschle apologized from morning to night on Monday for failing to pay more than $120,000 in federal taxes. President Barack Obama said he was "absolutely" sticking with his choice for health secretary, and a key senator added an important endorsement.

As the Bush tax cuts quickly approach their expiration, the White House is still lecturing Americans about who should benefit from tax cuts. They maintain that the rich still make too much money and should not be entitled to any tax relief. As a matter of fact, it is their position that the wealthiest of Americans should pay even more into the tax pool, despite the fact that it is the same economic group that creates long-term and meaningful jobs.

WASHINGTON — The federal deficit hit a record for October as the new budget year began where the old one ended: with the government awash in red ink.