President Barack Obama looked to steer the nation's economic attention back to the big picture Tuesday night, away from recent days' micro-focus on outrage over bonuses paid to executives of the federally rescued insurance giant AIG.
The Obama administration aimed squarely at the crisis clogging the nation's credit system Monday with a plan to take over up to $1 trillion in sour mortgage securities with the help of private investors.
The Obama administration launched a new effort Monday to end a paralysis in lending, saying it will team with investors to initially sop up to half-trillion dollars of bad assets from banks that have been reluctant to make loans to consumers and companies.
Sales of previously occupied homes jumped unexpectedly in February by the largest amount in nearly six years as first-time buyers took advantage of deep discounts on foreclosures and other distressed properties.
After an unsuccessful first attempt, the Treasury Department is poised to announce Monday details of its plan to help get so-called toxic assets off of the balance sheets of the nation's largest and often most troubled financial institutions.
Investors have reignited Wall Street's rally after hearing the government's plan to help banks remove as much as $1 trillion in bad assets from their books.
Wall Street closed out its first two-week gain in almost a year Friday barely. After a mixed start, stocks veered lower in the afternoon as financial stocks fell and investors collected profits from the advance that saw the Dow rise 14 percent over seven trading days.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday called for banking supervisors to pay "close attention" to compensation practices as they examine the soundness of financial institutions.
