Bush Tax Cuts

Wall Street may stretch the slide that started at the final hour of trading yesterday, as worries grew that Greece will soon leave the shared currency and the Congressional Budget Office warned the economy would tip back into recession if needed budget measures aren`t taken before year-end. As of 16:12 a.m. in New York time, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures expiring June 12 lost 0.65 percent to 12,395, Standard & Poor`s 500 Index futures fell 0.72 percent, and NASDAQ 100 futures decreased 0.77 percent to 2,515.50. The CBO yesterday warned the U.S. economy would be pulled back into recession next year if Congress fails to address a so-called "fiscal cliff" - a series of policies set to take effect in January that would take more than $500 billion out of the economy in 2013 alone. ...

(Reuters) - Wanted for the Treasury Department: a new boss who can fix trillion-dollar-plus budget deficits, overhaul the tax system and spur a reluctant Europe into fixing its debt crisis. It's a tall order, especially when the new Treasury chief also must deal with a fractious Congress - and all for a salary lower than that paid to many junior Wall Street bankers. Economists, investors and veterans of past administrations are appraising potential successors to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, either in a new Obama administration, if President Barack Obama is re-elected, or under Mitt Romney. Geithner has made it clear that he is leaving the post he has held since January 2009 even if Obama, a Democrat, beats Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, in the November ...

(Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reminded lawmakers at a closed-door meeting on Thursday that failing to address automatic spending cuts and tax increases at the end of the year could damage an already fragile economic recovery, congressional aides said. The Fed chairman has repeatedly sounded a warning that congressional inaction on what has come to be known as "the fiscal cliff" could dent growth if left untended. "It is very important to say that if no action were to be taken by the fiscal authorities, the size of the fiscal cliff is such that there is, I think, absolutely no chance that the Federal Reserve could or would have any ability whatsoever to offset that effect on the economy," he said at a news conference last month. Bernanke spoke to Senate Democrats at a ...

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama's nominee to be the top tax official at the U.S. Treasury Department said on Tuesday that the administration is not actively working on a plan to revamp the tax code, frustrating some of Obama's fellow Democrats. "We'd be negligent if we weren't doing foundational work ... But at this point there is no plan that has been developed," Mark Mazur, Obama's nominee for Treasury's top tax job, said at a Senate panel hearing on his confirmation. "We'll see how this plays out." Both Republicans and Democrats, including Obama, call revamping the complicated tax code a top priority, but acknowledge this will not happen until after the November 6 elections. Mazur, currently deputy assistant secretary for tax analysis, will lead Treasury tax policy if he is ...

(Reuters) - The government will face a major test on whether it has the capacity to govern when it faces big tax and budget decisions at the end of the year, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday. Before 2013, the country will be forced to deal with the expiration of tax cuts that affect nearly all taxpayers, automatic budget cuts, as well as another debate over raising the country's debt limit. "It will be a big test in Washington, a big test of the country to govern itself in how Washington deals with those challenges," Geithner said ahead of a meeting on Friday of finance ministers from the Group of 20, representing the world's leading industrialized and emerging market economies. A protracted fight over how to rein in the country's trillion dollar plus deficits ...

(Reuters) - The economy has begun to get some traction, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday, though it still faces an array of homegrown and international risks, including a possible worsening of Europe's debt crisis. In its World Economic Outlook published in advance of semiannual meetings, the IMF said it foresees growth at 2.1percent this year and rising to 2.4 percent in 2013. That is modestly higher than the growth rates of 1.8 percent and 2.2 percent respectively that the IMF had forecast in January for the world's largest economy. "The economy has gained some traction, with growth improving through 2011 and signs of expansion in the job market," the IMF said. "Risks are more balanced but still tend to the downside given fiscal uncertainty, weakness in the housing ...

(Reuters) - Deficits for the next two fiscal years would be slightly higher than the White House envisions if President Barack Obama's budget plan were adopted, the Congressional Budget Office said on Friday. The CBO's latest analysis shows the plan would pile up $6.39 trillion in cumulative deficits over a 10-year period, but that figure is about $294 billion less than the White House estimated in February for the same 2013-2022 period. The long-term view provided a measure of positive news to Obama, who is seeking to counter Republicans' election-year attacks painting him as a tax-and-spend liberal who will rack up four straight years of trillion-dollar deficits in his first term. It also gives Republicans new ammunition, including a nearly $1 trillion deficit next year and big debt ...

(Reuters) - The estimated net costs of expanding healthcare coverage under President Barack Obama's landmark restructuring have been reduced by $48 billion through 2021, though fewer people would be covered under private insurance plans, a new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office showed on Tuesday. The CBO also revised its overall federal budget deficit estimates to show a $92 billion increase in the projected fiscal gap for 2012, confirming a fourth straight year of $1 trillion-plus deficits. The CBO revisions gave ammunition to both Democrats, who largely support Obama's controversial 2010 healthcare law, and to Republicans, who staunchly oppose it. The law will take center stage later this month when the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments in a challenge of ...

(Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Thursday that he saw no risk to the dollar from China's efforts to encourage other emerging market economies to use the yuan more in international trade. "What you're seeing China do is gradually dismantle what were a comprehensive set of very, very tight controls on the ability of countries to use their (the Chinese) currency," Geithner told an event at the Dallas Regional Chamber. "Over time that will mean - and this is a good thing for the United States - more use of that currency and it will mean the currency will have to reflect market forces ... So, I see no risk to the dollar in those reforms," he said. China is planning to extend renminbi-denominated loans to its fellow BRICS countries - a grouping that includes China, ...