Bailouts | featured news

The federal government's $700 billion bailout program continues to lack adequate oversight to ensure that banks receiving the taxpayer funds are using them properly, congressional investigators said.

At least 50 banks have rejected funds from the Treasury over concerns that tougher restrictions may be imposed.

President Barack Obama issued a withering critique Thursday of Wall Street corporate behavior, calling it "the height of irresponsibility" for employees to be paid more than $18 billion in bonuses last year while their crumbling financial sector received a bailout from taxpayers.

At banks that are receiving federal bailout money nearly nine out of every 10 of the most senior executives from 2006 are still on the job, according to an Associated Press analysis of  documents.

Japan plans to use public money to help the companies hardest hit by the financial crisis, while newly confirmed U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner vowed to act swiftly to rescue the U.S. economy.

President Barack Obama's top economic adviser would not rule out on Sunday that more money may be needed to stabilize the financial system as a deep recession increases banks' losses.

In a symbolic gesture of dissatisfaction with the government's attempts to stabilize the financial system, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 270-155 on Thursday against releasing a second allotment of $350 billion to the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

HONG KONG — Asian stocks rebounded today from the previous day's rout, with Tokyo's index gaining nearly 3 percent, as the U.S. bailed out Bank of America again and a weaker yen lifted exporters like Toyota Motor Corp.

Escalating credit losses drove Bank of America Corp. to report a fourth-quarter loss and slash its quarterly dividend to a penny on Friday, hours after receiving a multibillion-dollar lifeline from the federal government.

A divided Senate has approved President-elect Barack Obama's request for $350 billion in unspent financial bailout funds.