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By Alex Nussbaum and Meg Tirrell
Bloomberg

Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Insurers, drugmakers and hospitals will likely slash costs and merge companies to maneuver through a U.S. health-care landscape marked by rising medical expenses and the loss of millions of potential paying customers.

By Steven Harmon
Contra Costa Times

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will likely veto it — if it even reaches his desk. Republicans think it's a great political cudgel for them to attack Democrats with in the wake of congressional health care reform setbacks. So, why are legislative Democrats pushing forward with single-payer health care legislation?

It's to lay the foundation for what could be an epic ballot battle two or four years from now, said Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, the author of Senate Bill 810, which was approved last week by the Senate.

REUTERS

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. job market improved in January for the fifth consecutive month, pointing to possible job growth in the first quarter of this year, a research group said on Monday.

The Conference Board, a private research group, said its Employment Trends Index climbed to 93.2 in January from an upwardly revised 92.3 in December, which was originally reported as 91.8.

It was the highest index level reading since January 2009, when it stood at 93.8.

The index is still down 0.7 percent from one year ago, according to the group.

Health and Human Services' Sebelius seeks justification for Anthem health insurance rate hike

AP

The Obama administration is asking Anthem Blue Cross to justify its plans to raise health insurance premiums by as much as 39 percent for customers in California.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sent a letter to the company's president on Monday calling the planned increases extraordinary and difficult to understand. She wrote that the company has an obligation to provided a detailed justification for the rate hikes to the public.

Obama administration to set up new agency to study, monitor climate change

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
AP News

The Obama administration is forming a new agency to study and report on the changing climate.

Also known as global warming, climate change has drawn widespread concern in recent years as temperatures around the world rise, threatening to harm crops, spread disease, increase sea levels, change storm and drought patterns and cause polar melting.

Treasury secretary says US credit rating remains safe despite deficits, growing national debt

Associated Press

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says the U.S. government "will never" lose its sterling credit rating despite big budget deficits and a newly increased debt limit that now tops $14 trillion.

Geithner says in an interview broadcast Sunday that in times of economic crisis, international investors will continue to buy U.S. Treasury bonds because the bonds are a safe investment.

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
NY Times

WASHINGTON -- If the Democratic Party has a stronghold on Wall Street, it is JPMorgan Chase.

Its chief executive, Jamie Dimon, is a friend of President Obama’s from Chicago, a frequent White House guest and a big Democratic donor. Its vice chairman, William M. Daley, a former Clinton administration cabinet official and Obama transition adviser, comes from Chicago’s Democratic dynasty.

ABC News

We interviewed Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner today for an exclusive interview to air on THIS WEEK Sunday.

We talked about the new unemployment numbers; the shortcomings of various administration proposals to help shore up jobs and the housing crisis; the out of control national debt; and whether he assumes any responsibility for the massive distrust in government – what President Obama referred to in his State of the Union address as a “deficit of trust.”

By Jay Heflin
The Hill

House Democrats say leadership has their work cut out in convincing the public to support a tax increase on those making more than $250,000.

Centrists and liberal Democrats told The Hill they support allowing President Bush’s tax cuts on those making more than $250,000 to expire, but said leaders must win public support by portraying the tax increase as reducing the nation’s record budget deficit.

By Jeffrey Young
The Hill

Lobbyists for healthcare interests are eyeing the Senate jobs bill as a vehicle for several key priorities left behind when healthcare reform stalled.

A handful of provisions affecting physicians, hospitals, nursing homes and other Medicare providers expired Jan. 1 and the clock is running down on others. With healthcare reform on the back burner as Congress turns to jobs, the budget and other matters, provider lobbyists are anxious for an alternative — and the jobs bill that will hit the Senate floor next week is an appealing target.

By Jim Snyder
The Hill

Backers of climate-change legislation are making an extra push to link clean energy with job growth as the administration and congressional Democrats look for ways to lower unemployment.

One group released a study on Thursday that found mandating more renewable energy use, a provision included in climate legislation in Congress, would create thousands of jobs.

By Michelle Singletary
Washington Post

My grandmother Big Mama had a key financial rule that I've followed throughout my life.

You can manage without a telephone, she would say. You can take the bus and get by without a car. But you can't live comfortably if you don't have a roof over your head. Big Mama always made sure she paid her mortgage -- and on time.

Thankfully, Big Mama, who raised me, never had to skip payment on another bill to cover her mortgage. If it had come to that, there's no question which bill would have been paid first.

By WILLIAM D. COHAN
NY Times

Now that we have pulled back sufficiently far from the near “destruction of the modern financial system” — as the former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson described the events of 2008 in his new memoir, “On The Brink” — to focus on how to prevent such a calamity from recurring, the time has come to hear from those players in the drama who really know what happened and why.

By Roy C. Smith
Bloomberg

Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- History suggests that U.S. regulators are unlikely to prevent a future crisis by their preemptive actions, no matter what new authorities they get, if large banks are allowed to remain as big and as complex as they are now.

So what is needed, in the public interest, is to reduce the number of banks that are too big to fail, to tighten the ropes on those that remain, and to take the insurance burden off the backs of the taxpayers.

By Shawn Tully
CNN/Fortune

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- The Obama White House likes to say that the theories of John Maynard Keynes form the foundation for its fiscal policies. Most notably, it draws upon the legendary British economist's idea of spending big to pull out of a recession.

The Economist

The outlook for worker pay remains bleak even as the U.S. recovery gathers steam

By Chris Farrell
Business Week

Threat of new crisis hits shaky world economies

By David Olive
The Star

The inevitable "sovereign debt panic" finally struck last week, causing severe one-day drops in stock markets from New York to London to Toronto on Thursday.

Ostensibly, the epicentre of the crisis is Greece, in danger of defaulting on its debt payments to worldwide holders of its government bonds, or sovereign debt.

But the fear about state defaults quickly spread to Spain, Portugal and Ireland, fiscal train wrecks that together with Greece now go by the unfortunate acronym PIGS.