TIMOTHY GEITHNER

President Barack Obama voiced outrage on Monday over large bonus payments awarded to top employees of insurer AIG and ordered his treasury secretary to legally block them if possible.

President Barack Obama moved to boost U.S. job creation on Monday by making it easier for small business owners to borrow money and by spending up to $15 billion to ensure credit is available for small business loans.

President Barack Obama expressed outrage on Monday over hefty bonus payments awarded to employees of insurer AIG and said he directed his treasury secretary to take all legal measures to block them.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc and a parade of European banks were the major beneficiaries of $93 billion in payments from AIG -- more than half of the U.S. taxpayer money spent to rescue the massive insurer.

The U.S. Treasury Department said on Monday it will require the top 21 banks receiving government assistance to report their lending to small businesses monthly.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will soon propose an overhaul of the financial regulatory system that is expected to give the Federal Reserve powers to monitor broad economic risks, a Treasury spokesman confirmed on Monday.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will soon propose an overhaul of the financial regulatory system that is expected to give the Federal Reserve powers to monitor broad economic risks, a Treasury spokesman confirmed on Monday.

U.S. President Barack Obama will announce steps on Monday to make it easier for small business owners to borrow money, using $730 million in stimulus funds to cut lending fees, boost loan guarantees and expand other programs, officials said.

President Barack Obama's top advisers and Democratic and Republican congressional leaders voiced outrage on Sunday that insurer American International Group, recipient of a $173 billion taxpayer bailout, is paying $165 million in employee bonuses.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the U.S. “will soon outline” its plan to partner with private companies to rid banks of products which they can’t sell amid the current credit crisis in financial markets.

Giant insurer AIG is still paying $165 million on Sunday to retain certain employees due to contract obligations, despite initial opposition earlier this week from the Obama Administration.

U.S. Representative Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said on Sunday the government needs to determine if millions in employee bonuses at American International Group Inc can be recovered.

G20 finance ministers promised rescue money for troubled emerging market economies on Saturday and said they would use their full fiscal and monetary firepower to combat the worst downturn since the 1930s.

The Treasury will offer more details in the coming week about how proposed public-private partnerships to take bad assets off banks' books will work, a senior department official said on Saturday.

Top White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers on Friday called for the United States to lead a global effort to improve regulatory standards and warned against allowing regulators to compete against one another.

General Motors Corp has told U.S. officials that it can survive without $2 billion in additional aid that it had requested to get through March, the automaker said on Thursday.

General Motors Corp has told U.S. officials that it can survive through March without the additional $2 billion in emergency aid that it first requested, the automaker said on Thursday.

The United States sought on Wednesday to play down a confrontation between Chinese and U.S. naval vessels as the two sides held high-level talks on reviving growth and reining in North Korea's nuclear program.

President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner received failing grades for their efforts to revive the world's largest economy, according to participants in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey.

The global economy may shrink 1-2 percent this year, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said, as revised Japanese data confirmed the world's No. 2 economy suffered its deepest slump since the oil shock of 1974.

A U.S. government plan for a public-private investment fund to buy distressed assets to help clean up banks' balance sheets is likely to generate a healthy profit for taxpayers and investors, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said on Wednesday.