Lights go out across planet for Earth Hour

Lights were going out across the world on Saturday as millions of homes and businesses in major cities went dark for one hour in a symbolic gesture to highlight concerns over climate change. In Australia, floodlights of the Sydney Opera House were extinguished as the city’s iconic harbor kicked off events for Earth Hour, a day-long energy-saving marathon stretching through 88 countries and 24 time zones.

Share

Geithner Makes His Pitch for More Regulation

Since the first, dramatic interventions into the financial system by the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve during the collapse of Bear Stearns a year ago, Timothy Geithner has based his approach on one underlying theory. The crisis, the former New York Fed president and now Treasury Secretary believes, is the result of the collapse of a shadow banking system that grew over the past 30 years to rival the traditional banking system in size but lacked all four of the safeguards that had been imposed after repeated collapses of the traditional system in the early part of the 20th century. Geithner, his predecessor Hank Paulson, FDIC chief Sheila Bair and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke have so far used ad hoc powers to erect two of those crucial four pillars.

Share

Pentagon report: China’s military expanding its capabilities

China’s military is developing longer-range ballistic and anti-ship missiles that are "shifting the balance of power in the region" and could help Beijing secure resources or settle territorial disputes, a report released by the Pentagon said Wednesday. China also continues to build up short-range missiles and increase its “coercive capabilities” against Taiwan.

Share

Behind the scenes: Ed Henry’s take on exchange with Obama

The most amazing part of the exchange to me is that I didn’t go into the East Room intending to ask President Obama about AIG. WASHINGTON (CNN) — The most amazing part of the exchange to me is that I didn’t go into the East Room intending to ask President Obama about AIG.

Share

Five Lessons from the AIG Bonus Blowup

Last week, outlets reported that “the clock was ticking” for “embattled” Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, with a few members of Congress openly calling for his ousting. His boss, President Barack Obama, was criticized for not engaging in the congressional furor over the $165 million in bonuses paid out to top executives at AIG — the insurance giant that has received more than $180 billion in federal money. This week Obama remains relatively untouched in the polls, and Geithner is basking in his best week of media coverage yet

Share

Four soldiers killed in Colombia firefight

Four Colombian soldiers are dead and six are missing after a firefight with Marxist guerrillas, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said Tuesday. In his second prime time news conference, Obama called on Americans to look to the future with a “renewed confidence that a better day will come.” “We will recover from this recession,” the president said

Share

Geithner to seek unprecedented powers, insiders say

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will push for unprecedented new regulatory powers on Tuesday to seize financial institutions whose failure would pose serious risks to the U.S. financial system, according to two senior administration officials. Geithner is expected to make his case in testimony before the House Financial Services Committee.

Share