Lawrence McDonald

Courtesy of DC Tripwire Major Actions This Week: White House On Thursday, President Obama hosted Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti at the White House to discuss market confidence in Europe and NATO issues. Also on Thursday, a $25bn settlement was announced between state attorneys general, the federal government, and the five largest loan servicers relating [...]

Courtesy of DC Tripwire Major Actions This Week: White House ·         On Wednesday, President Obama is expected to give remarks on the economy during a speech in northern Virginia. Senate ·         On Wednesday, Senate and House conferees will meet to consider the payroll tax/unemployment insurance/”doc fix” extension (HR 3630). House ·         Next week, the House [...]

Article by Ann Saphir and Jonathan Spicer, Reuters The Federal Reserve has moved closer to embarking on a new round of its controversial money-pumping after the central bank and its chairman Ben Bernanke highlighted a grim outlook for the U.S. economy. Bernanke on Wednesday opened the door a bit wider for the Fed to return [...]

Article by Jody Shenn, Lorraine Woellert and Prashant Gopal, Bloomberg President Barack Obama answered Ben S. Bernanke’s appeal for more action to fix the U.S. housing market that’s restraining the economic recovery by proposing a plan to help borrowers reduce their monthly mortgage payments. Obama is sending Congress legislation that would allow homeowners to tap record-low borrowing costs, potentially boosting [...]

Courtesy of DC Tripwire Major Actions This Week: White House On Wednesday, the Obama Administration announced that they would not approve the Keystone XL pipeline. Yesterday, President Obama traveled to Orlando, FL, to announce his initiative to promote tourism in the U.S. as a part of his “We Can’t Wait” campaign of executive actions. Senate [...]

Article by Simon Kennedy, Bloomberg The International Monetary Fund is proposing to raise its lending capacity by $500 billion to insulate the global economy against any worsening of Europe’s debt crisis, according to a person familiar with the talks. The Washington-based lender currently has about $385 billion available to lend and wants to lift that to $885 [...]

Article by JoAnne Ellen, Reuters A record 84 percent of Americans say they disapprove of the way the Congress is doing its job compared with just 13 percent who approve of how things are going, according to a Washington Post/ABC News public opinion poll published on Monday. The disapproval rating for Congress inched up two [...]

Major Actions This Week: White House On Monday, President Obama hosted European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, and High Representative Catherine Ashton at the White House to discuss economic and national security issues. On Tuesday, the President hosted Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands at the White House to discuss trade, investment, [...]

Major Actions This Week: White House From Monday through Wednesday, President Obama travelled through North Carolina and Virginia on a bus tour to promote the American Jobs Act. On Thursday afternoon, the President met with Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg of Norway. On Friday morning, the President signed free trade agreements with South Korea, Panama, and Columbia, as well as [...]

Clean Energy Standard: A Deal in the Works? President Obama’s call last week for 80% of the nation’s electricity to come from clean energy sources (including wind, solar, natural gas, nuclear and clean coal) by 2035 might seem like a long shot given the current political dynamics in Congress, but is a deal in the [...]