White House // Current

Rudy for governor?

If you think you've seen the last of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the political arena, think again. The former... more

Brockie
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Obama hiring lobbyists in key positions

From Hot Air, a conservative blog: Barack Obama campaigned on a pledge to change Washington, vowing to upend the K Street... more

jason_knight
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YouTube - Howl to the Chief: The Obama Puppy Song

A puppy plea to president elect, Barack Obama! This perky puppy is begging Obama to "Pick Me" as first-pooch and make... more

dankitti
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A President Obama with no blackberry? No email?

Ok - The article explains itself but since there are lots of Freedom of Info Acts and no way to track the blackberry apparently -... more

nwintroub
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World leaders move toward tougher financial rules

WASHINGTON — leaders prepared Friday to adopt an early warning system for financial calamities, a commitment to tougher accounting rules and other modest steps to try to prevent future crises like the one now threatening the livelihoods of billions of people around the globe.

Nearly two dozen leaders assembled in Washington on Friday in the largest gathering of its kind here in nearly a decade. They dined in extravagance at the White House in a prelude to a day of closed-door negotiations Saturday over how best to wrestle both large and developing economies back from the brink of economic disaster.

The leaders were on track to approve measures to make the world financial system more accountable to investors and more transparent to regulators, diplomatic sources said. To do so, the leaders were expected to endorse more effective accounting rules governing how companies value their assets, a weakness seen as partly responsible for the current financial crisis.

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity because leaders had yet to give formal approval to the draft communique, said the emerging agreement also calls for steps to sharpen the world's eyes watching for the kind of dangerous investing that led to the present chaos.

A new early warning system would look for signs of burgeoning problems like those in the U.S. housing market and related overuse of mortgage-backed securities. On Friday, the heads of the International Monetary Fund, the world's financial firefighter, and the Financial Stability Forum, a group that includes central banks and major financial regulators, said they would cooperate on "early warning exercises" to detect vulnerabilities.

Also, a new "college of supervisors" would gather global regulators tasked with scrutinizing the world's largest financial institutions together to compare notes as they seek to spot excessive risk-taking.

Altogether, the U.S. preference for boosting oversight of shaky financial markets seemed to be holding sway over Europe's desire for tougher internationally enforced regulation.

"Billions of hardworking people are counting on us," Bush said on a night when urgent motorcades swept presidents and prime ministers through a dark Washington mist to the White House.WASHINGTON — leaders prepared Friday to adopt an early warning system for financial calamities, a commitment to tougher... more