Delicious irony, perhaps: the tea party has been reinvigorated and reinvented following revelations that its groups' nonprofit status had been singled out and investigated by the IRS. Though a critical news media has tried to purge the conservative, liberty-minded grass-roots movement from the public radar, the tea partyers still push back in huge numbers, and on their own terms. Rush Limbaugh now deems the tea party "fearless."
President Obama will give back 5 percent of his salary to the U.S. Treasury in a show of solidarity with federal workers facing furloughs due to "sequester" budget cuts, the White House said Wednesday.
After breaking bread with Republicans lately in search of compromise, President Obama will return to his role as Democratic fundraiser-in-chief Wednesday with a trip to the homes of liberal billionaire supporters in San Francisco.
Recently confirmed U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew met with newly minted Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Tuesday, the first high-level talks between the two nations since the U.S. election last year and China's recent completion of its once-in-a-decade leadership transition.
People reading the business news recently may have glossed over a report that a Washington claims-court ruled that a particular plaintiff could pursue its case against the U.S. government. Much more is riding on this determination, however, than is apparent at first blush. To paraphrase Arthur Miller, a terrible thing might be happening, so we must pay attention.
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul is returning $600,000 to the U.S. Treasury that he saved by scrimping in the past year at his Senate office. "It's the only budget I control. ... It's not enough, but it's a start," the senator told reporters at a conference in downtown Louisville.
Alexander Hamilton, America's first secretary of the Treasury, issued the first U.S. Treasury bonds on Sept. 18, 1789. The Continental Congress had borrowed money from overseas to help finance the Revolutionary War and could not pay back its loans.
The White House had better snap up one of these quick: American Mint has just issued the "$1 Trillion Coin," a gleaming, platinum-plated collector's coin that shows what the legendary, imaginary trillion-dollar coin could look like. There's an image of the U.S. Capitol's "Freedom" statue on the front, and "one trillion dollars" and "no legal tender" on back. And to the inevitable delight of both President Obama and the Republican Congress, this version is only $9.95.
Tim Geithner is jumping from U.S. Treasury Secretary to the Council on Foreign Relations, as distinguished fellow based in New York, starting later this month.
