Editor's Note: This article continues our series excerpted from AC360°'s contributor David Gewirtz's upcoming book, How To Save Jobs, which will be available in December. Over the next few months, we'll be excerpting the first section of the book, which answers the question, "How did we get here?" Last time, we looked at outsourcing the American dream. This time, we look at something rarely discussed: the national security risks offshoring creates. To learn more about the book, follow David on Twitter @DavidGewirtz.

David Gewirtz | BIO
AC360° Contributor
Editor-in-Chief, ZATZ Publishing

What's particularly disturbing in a post-9/11 America supposedly more aware of national security issues is just how much confidential American data is finding its way into the hands of foreign nationals.

According to the same U.S. Trade Commission report described last week, "Some of the earliest U.S. services outsourced to India included medical transcription services, payroll accounting, credit card call collections, mortgage and insurance claim processing, and data processing."

That means individuals and companies in foreign countries have access to our credit card records and much of our personal identity information, our confidential medical records, and even detailed information about our homes. According to a study by McKinsey Global, nearly 45 percent of the Indian business process outsourcing market consists of financial work, administration work, and payment processing activities.

In a world where identity theft is a huge problem, giving foreign nationals access to our most confidential private information is a dangerous security risk. Consider this: the countries most likely to engage in cyber-espionage with the United States are also the countries with lower-wage employees - places where we're actively sending our most confidential data.

We're also outsourcing our intellectual property and our most valuable trade secret data

Our top technology companies - IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle - are also among the most active in both bringing in foreign technology workers and in outsourcing technology work to foreign nations.

Consider that a typical American computer programmer can demand a salary from $60,000 to $90,000 (and often a lot more). In India, an equivalent job pays from $6,000 to $10,000 per year. Forrester estimates 472,632 software development jobs will be outsourced to India by 2015.

The impact of this is not just lost jobs. You're looking at nearly half a million people outside the United States who will have access to the source code that runs our computers, our systems, and our lives. Instead of Americans having access to the confidential crown jewels of modern technology, it'll be technology experts with loyalty to another nation.

There's also a huge cadre of foreigners in the United States with access to top-secret and sensitive information. Our technology universities often hire professors and graduate students who are foreign nationals. Those same universities often do research projects for both the American military and America's leading industrial firms. Who, exactly, do you think is doing the work? It's not just Americans.

In fact, there are thousands of foreign nationals working on sensitive projects in the United States. But where does their loyalty lie? To the U.S., or to their home country, where their families are often waiting for them to return?

Beyond security concerns, this drain of tech work to foreigners directly impacts American competitiveness. We have long relied on our ability to out-engineer other nations. But if the design and innovation jobs are outsourced, there will be far less reason for students in America to learn these skills and far less Americans providing the creative juice that has long fueled American economic growth.

Make no mistake: each and every one of us is competing with people across the world for our jobs and our income. You may not be a programmer trying to explain why you should be paid $120,000 (or even $60,000) when an equally competent Indian is willing to work for $6,000, but nearly everyone in America will feel the impact as spending power moves offshore.

After all, if a U.S. programmer is out of work, he's not going to buy all the stuff middle-class Americans buy. And, given that his Indian counterpart makes 10 percent of what the American would make, the overseas software developer is also not going to be able to make all the discretionary purchases that the American would have made. Each U.S. job shifted overseas has a ripple effect on America's overall economy.

And there's a lot of people available to do those jobs. Billions, in fact...

Follow David on Twitter at http://www.Twitter.com/DavidGewirtz.

Editor’s note: David Gewirtz is Editor-in-Chief, ZATZ Magazines, including OutlookPower Magazine. He is a leading Presidential scholar specializing in White House email. He is a member of FBI InfraGard, the Cyberterrorism Advisor for the International Association for Counterterrorism & Security Professionals, a columnist for The Journal of Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, and has been a guest commentator for the Nieman Watchdog of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. He is a faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley extension, a recipient of the Sigma Xi Research Award in Engineering and was a candidate for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Letters.

Time Magazine named Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke the 2009 'Person of the Year' Wednesday.

Jennifer Rizzo
Assignment Editor, CNN New York

The votes are in. One day before a Senate Banking Committee votes on a whether Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will be given another term, Time Magazine named the chief the 2009 “Person of the Year” Wednesday. The magazine dubbed the economist “the most powerful nerd on the planet” and gave him credit for not making a weak economy much worse. CNNMoney.com’s “Bailout Tracker” calculates that the Federal Reserve’s rescue efforts total $6.4 trillion – and that doesn’t include the $700 billion TARP program.

The news of Bernanke’s person of the year status came ahead of the Fed’s interest rate announcement expected at 2pm today. The current near zero interest rate has been in place for a year and experts don’t anticipate it changing for the foreseeable future despite signs that the economy is slowly on the mend.

The rate of construction on new homes soared almost 9% in November. The annual rate of 574,000 new homes however is still down a sharp 12.4% from last year.

Consumer prices were up 1.8% in November from the previous year, the first increase over a 12 month period since February, and up less than half a percent from October. The report was in line with economist expectations. Without food and energy, prices were unchanged from October.

Holiday shoppers are waiting till the last minute to buy their gifts this season, according to a report released by the National Retail Federation. Shoppers were less than halfway through their gift lists 2 weeks before Christmas, the lowest level in the last 5 years, and only 8% completed their shopping.

The economy is on the agenda in Washington today. According to the White House, Vice President Biden will host a Middle Class Task Force meeting on the Administration’s commitment to the future of manufacturing in the country. Participants in the discussion include Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, and Director of the National Economic Council Lawrence Summers.

Also in the Capitol, The House plans to vote today on $167 billion in job measures, including a 2 month extension on the deadline to file for unemployment and COBRA health coverage. If the current deadline of Dec. 31st is not extended 1 million unemployed Americans will lose their benefits in January. Separately, House lawmakers plan to vote on a $154 billion job creation package that will pump money into infrastructure spending like highway and mass transit projects and send money to states to prevent layoffs of teachers, police officers, and firefighters, according to sources within the House Democratic leadership.

And speaking of job creation the grand opening of the Las Vegas CityCenter is today. The massive $8.5 billion development is being touted as a “city within a city” and many hope the development, which will employ 12,000 people, will give Vegas the economic jolt it needs.

On CNNMoney:

Extreme modifications: 2% mortgages

FTC sues Intel over Chip dominance

Kenneth Lewis is the CEO and chairman of Bank of America, the nation's largest bank.

Roland S. Martin
CNN Political Contributor

If you told me that I could take billions of dollars in bailout money from the government and shower myself and my fellow comrades on Wall Street with $140 billion in bonuses – and all I have to take is a tongue lashing from the president and nothing more, tell me where to sign up.

President Barack Obama and his administration have undertaken their latest round of berating Wall Street for its bad ways.

On CBS’ “60 Minutes” Sunday, the president bristled at questions about helping the banks, saying "I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street.”

You didn’t, but you have. In your defense, this economy stinks, and the mess of the Troubled Assets Relief Program was left behind by President George W. Bush’s Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, and you and your administration have been trying to figure it out, to no avail.

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CNN

President Obama met with the CEO's of major banks today. Go here to view a run-down of six of the banks invited to discuss financial reform and lending with President Obama.

President Obama urged Wall Street bankers to make more loans and modify mortgages

Jennifer Liberto
CNNMoney.com senior writer

President Obama pressed Wall Street bankers at the White House on Monday, urging them to make more loans and modify mortgages to help taxpayers who propped their banks up with federal bailouts.

"My main message in today's meeting was very simple: America's banks received extraordinary assistance from American taxpayers to rebuild their industry," Obama said. "Now that they're back on their feet, we expect an extraordinary commitment from them to help rebuild our economy."

The president was expected to pressure the nation's top dozen bank chief executives to open up the lending spigots to help the economic recovery. He was also said to be urging execs to curb compensation, and to stop gouging customers with high credit card rates and hidden overdraft fees.

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Does President Obama have enough leverage to push more lending?

Colin Barr
Senior writer

President Obama is about to give the banks an earful about lending. But he may be a day late - and $116 billion short.

Obama will meet Monday with top executives of some of the nation's biggest lenders.

CEOs of 12 banks are expected, including the heads of American Express (AXP, Fortune 500), Bank of America, Capital One (COF, Fortune 500), Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo.

The president is expected to say he wants to see more loans for the sake of economic recovery. He'll also urge execs to curb compensation, to stop gouging customers with high credit card rates and hidden overdraft fees, and to support financial reform efforts.

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Delegates are gathering in Copenhagen, Denmark, to reach a consensus on a global warming treaty.

Thomas J. Donohue
Special to CNN

There's been a lot of gloom surrounding the climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, and let's face it, some of it is well-founded. Trying to get 192 countries to agree on a new treaty would be tough even in the best of economic times, and these aren't the best of economic times.

Nevertheless, I remain optimistic that a workable climate change agreement is possible over time if the governments and business communities agree on some fundamental principles. Let me suggest what some of those principles should be.

First, whatever we do should not harm our economies or destroy jobs. Our policies must embrace the aspirations of people everywhere for a better life. We should never stand in the way of progress that reduces poverty, measurably improves health and living conditions, and restores human dignity. The fact is, we can't have healthy environments without first having healthy economies.

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Top executives at Goldman Sachs will receive no cash bonuses this year.

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

Foreclosure filings fell by 8% in November, making it the fourth consecutive month of improvement in the housing market.

There were 306,627 filings last month, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed properties. That decline follows a 3% drop in October, 4% in September and 1% in August.

However, while there are signs of improvement, the industry has yet to turn around: Foreclosure filings were still a lofty 18% above November 2008's levels.

Household net worth in the United States rose for the second quarter in a row, growing 5% to an estimated $53.4 trillion in the third quarter, according to the Federal Reserve.

The $2.7 trillion rebound in net worth, which is the difference between a household's assets and liabilities, comes as stock prices have rallied this year, boosting the value of Americans' investment portfolios.

Stock holdings rose by nearly 17% to $7.4 trillion, according to the central bank's quarterly flow of funds report.

Net worth was also supported by improvements in the housing market. Real estate values increased by 2% to $16.5 trillion in the third quarter, after rising in the second quarter for the first time since late 2006.

On the jobs front, the number of Americans filing initial claims for unemployment insurance jumped unexpectedly by 17,000 to 474,000 in the week ended Dec. 5 - the first increase in five weeks.

But the numbers are a little inflated, because state offices were closed for thanksgiving two weeks ago, delaying some claims.

And the number of people who continue to receive benefits for one week or more dropped by 303,000 to 5,157,000.

Speaking of jobs, are you out of work and looking for a new profession? You might want to consider becoming a computer systems designer or home health care aid.

Even with unemployment at 10%, some industries like professional service and health care will grow in the years ahead, according to a report from the Labor Dept.’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Professional and business services and health care and social assistance are expected to have the largest employment growth from 2008 to 2018, the Labor Dept. said.

Professional and business services will add 4.2 million jobs over that 10-year period while health care will increase its employment by 4 million.

Within professional and business services, consulting, computer systems design and employment services will have the most growth.

In the health care and social assistance industry, the top gainers are home health care, services for the elderly and those with disabilities, nursing care facilities and employment in offices of physicians.

Top executives at Goldman Sachs will receive no cash bonuses this year. Instead, the 30 members of Goldman’s management committee will be paid in a special form of company stock that would be subject to certain restrictions, the company says.

The changes, which will impact CEO Lloyd Blankfein among others, are part of a larger plan to revamp the company's compensation practices which was announced last spring.

Goldman Sachs, which has come under fire in recent months amid speculation that it’s on track to pay some of its biggest bonuses since the financial crisis erupted, also says it will give stockholders a “say on pay” vote for top executives at next year's shareholder meeting.

And Citigroup is reportedly working to reach an agreement with federal officials to return a portion of its bailout funds, which would free the company from the government's most restrictive limits on executive pay.

Citigroup, which received $45 billion in taxpayer funds, will seek to repay $20 billion raised at least in part through a stock offering, according to various reports.

This follows news yesterday that Bank of America has cut a check to the government for the $45 billon in bailout money it received from the TARP.

Follow the money… on Twitter: @AndrewTorganCNN

Editor's Note: This article continues our series excerpted from AC360°'s contributor David Gewirtz's upcoming book, How To Save Jobs, which will be available in December. Over the next few months, we'll be excerpting the first section of the book, which answers the question, "How did we get here?" Last time, we looked at the failure of the H-1B visa program. This time,we look at how outsourcing is becoming a growing problem for American employees. To learn more about the book, follow David on Twitter @DavidGewirtz.

David Gewirtz | BIO
AC360° Contributor
Editor-in-Chief, ZATZ Publishing

Back in the dot-com boom, the dot-coms had a lot of work to be done, and not enough Americans were available to do it all. Many of the dot-com firms began to outsource much of their work to make up for the lack of available U.S. workers.

At about the same time, many companies were concerned about the so-called Y2K crisis. If you recall, this was the worry that many computer programs were built with only two-digit date codes, but once the year went from 1999 to 2000, all the date calculations in all those programs would fail.

American companies started to send work offshore.

The Internet, of course, made this much easier to do. Email and the Web, along with the rise in instant messaging, made communication across previously daunting distances virtually instantaneous (and dirt cheap). With the availability of high-speed broadband Internet and VOIP (Voice-over-IP), a telephone call from New York City to Bangalore often costs less than a call over the plain ol' copper telephone system from New York City to Albany.

And that's why, when your computer fails, you're probably going to wind up talking to someone in India instead of someone in Indiana. When you call a U.S. number for support, your call is routed over the Internet (for free) to a call center located across the ocean. Call centers no longer have to absorb extreme telephony charges.

Your rant about your inability to get your computer to work so that you can order that fancy new $200 pair of shoes is likely to be responded to by someone in India who, if she's lucky, might own one pair of 10-year old shoes and makes less than $200 for an entire month's work.

The information technology research firm Forrester estimates that 400,000 jobs were lost in the first four years of the new century and up to 3.3 million jobs will be of-fhored by 2015. A McKinsey report published in 2004 predicted that up to 4 million IT worker and back-office jobs would be outsourced to India alone by 2008 - and that prediction was made well before the 2008/2009 financial crisis.

I think it'll be a lot worse. A lot worse. As you'll see in the coming chapters, there are a lot of people outside the United States willing to work for a very small fraction of what Americans need (and that's before our cost of health care). With dwindling profits, I think it's going to be almost irresistible for larger American companies - and an almost unimaginable numbers of jobs will be sent to where the labor is dirt cheap. Unless, of course, we do something.

American firms got their feet wet sending work overseas during the dot-com boom, got comfortable with the idea, and when they suddenly needed to save a lot of money, decided that off-shoring would be a key business strategy.

And that's where off-shoring becomes compelling to companies in today's economy. A U.S. International Trade Commission report estimates that outsourcing to India can save American companies 30 to 70 percent on labor costs.

Off-shoring also allows U.S. companies to avoid paying ever-increasing health benefits. And off-shoring allows U.S. companies to convert a payroll expense into a fixed cost, making it far easier to budget and analyze production expenses.

Consider IBM. The global technology company began American layoffs in early 2009, dropping more than 5,000 workers. To make up the slack, according to the Wall Street Journal, many of those jobs were created in India. "IBM can pay an engineer in the U.S. $120,000 or an engineer in India $25,000, like the Indian providers do," says Ben Pring, research vice president at Gartner.

Next week: why outsourcing is a national security risk.

Follow David on Twitter at http://www.Twitter.com/DavidGewirtz.

Editor’s note: David Gewirtz is Editor-in-Chief, ZATZ Magazines, including OutlookPower Magazine. He is a leading Presidential scholar specializing in White House email. He is a member of FBI InfraGard, the Cyberterrorism Advisor for the International Association for Counterterrorism & Security Professionals, a columnist for The Journal of Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, and has been a guest commentator for the Nieman Watchdog of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. He is a faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley extension, a recipient of the Sigma Xi Research Award in Engineering and was a candidate for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Letters.

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

Despite recent, encouraging signs of life in the battered housing market, here’s a sobering reminder of just how much damage has been done: American homeowners will have lost nearly $500 billion in home value by year's end.

Still, that's a huge improvement over 2008, when values fell by a mind-boggling $3.6 trillion, according to a report released today by real estate Website Zillow.com.

The Los Angeles market suffered the largest total loss in home value at $60.8 billion. Metro Chicago values fell $49.6 billion and New York dropped $49 billion.

But some housing markets actually recorded gains for the year. In the Boston metropolitan area, home values increased by an average of 1.5%, lifting total market value by $23.3 billion there. Nearby Providence, RI, gained $12.4 billion; and Denver increased $10.7 billion.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner says the controversial $700 billion federal bailout program will be extended through Oct. 3, 2010.

The Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, will be scaled back and spending limited to newer programs aimed at stopping foreclosures, making loans to small businesses and propping up the credit markets to make loans more available.

“History suggests that exiting prematurely from policies designed to contain a financial crisis can significantly prolong an economic downturn,” Geithner wrote in a letter to congressional leaders. “We must not waver in our resolve to ensure the stability of the financial system and to support the nascent recovery that the administration and the Congress have worked so hard to achieve.”

Under the TARP law, the bailout program would have expired at the end of December if Geithner had not decided to extend it.

Geithner said that in the end he does not expect to spend more than $550 billion and that $175 billion will be repaid by the end of 2010.

That was followed by word that the billions of dollars in bailout money received by Bank of America over the past year is now officially back in government hands.

Just a week after announcing plans to repay $45 billion in taxpayer bailout money, the nation's largest lender says it has cut a check to the government for the full amount.

As a result of the announcement, however, Bank of America will no longer be beholden to government demands that have been imposed on the company over the past year, including caps on pay for its top executives.

Along those lines, President Obama will meet with the chief executives of several big banks next week, in an effort to help spur greater lending to consumers and small businesses, two senior White House officials tell CNN.

The president is also expected to discuss the sweeping financial regulatory reform package that the administration is currently trying to push through Congress during Monday's scheduled meeting.

Officials said that the list of attendees has not yet been finalized, but that it is likely that executives from some of the nation's biggest banks will be present.

The extent to which banks have been willing to lend has remained a focal point for Washington, after the U.S. government pumped billions into the banking sector over the past year in an effort to get the economy back on track.

Consumers and small businesses in particular contend that loans are still tough to come by. But many banks maintain that they are lending, even as the appetite for new loans has dropped off.

Finally, what was arguably one of the most-disastrous corporate marriages of all time draws to a close today as AOL and Time Warner have officially called it quits.

The two announced their intention to merge back in 2000, creating what one analyst referred to as “an unprecedented powerhouse” with dominating positions in the music, publishing, news, entertainment, cable and Internet industries.

At the time, AOL was an Internet giant was worth more than $100 billion and a stock price topping $100 per share.

Today, the company is worth just a little more than $3 billion and its shares will start trading in the $25 range Thursday morning.

Follow the money… on Twitter: @AndrewTorganCNN

Barbara Kiviat
Time

The Obama Administration is out to create jobs. Let's not get our hopes up.

The day before the Labor Department announced a second month of 10%-plus unemployment last week, the White House hosted a get-together to hear from executives, labor leaders and academics about how the Federal Government can jolt job growth. "We're looking for fresh perspectives," the President said. "I am open to every demonstrably good idea."

That may sound promising, but the truth is, drumming up new jobs on short notice isn't exactly in the government's wheelhouse. In the long term, what the government does and doesn't do is incredibly important to the health of the labor market. Trade policy, corporate tax rates, the structure of health care — these things all have a real impact on economic growth. But Washington's tool kit doesn't work nearly as well in the short run. Right now companies aren't hiring for a very specific reason: there's not as much demand for their products and services. Callous as it may sound, high unemployment at the front end of an economic recovery is perfectly normal.

Read More...

Job candidates wait in line at a job fair in McLean, Virginia.

CNN

Two years into the current recession, Americans don't see economic conditions getting better any time soon, and the steady growth in optimism that previous polls measured throughout the year appears to have stalled, according to a new national poll.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Tuesday indicates that 34 percent of those questioned say that things are going well in the country today. That's 14 points higher than a year ago, but a dip of 3 points since November.

Full results (pdf)

"This the first time in Barack Obama's presidency that this number has gone down," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

According to the survey, 39 percent of the respondents say the country's still in a downturn, up 6 points from last month. Nearly half of those questioned say the economy has stabilized and a small minority, 15 percent, think the country is starting to recover.

"The recession has hit blue-collar families the hardest," Holland said. "More than half of whites who never attended college say economic conditions are still in a downturn. Most whites who attended college say things have stabilized or are starting to get better."

The poll's release comes hours before President Barack Obama delivers a major speech on the economy at the Brookings Institution, one of the oldest and most prestigious think-tanks in Washington.

It's clear why Obama is again addressing the economy: Although more U.S. troops are headed to Afghanistan and the Senate is debating health care, most Americans continue to say that the economy is the most important issue for them. Four in ten say the economy is their top concern; 17 percent cited health care and 16 percent say that Afghanistan and Iraq are the country's biggest problems.

According to the poll, 84 percent of those questioned say the economy is still in a recession, with 36 percent saying it's a serious one and another 35 percent calling it a moderate one.

What about the chances of the recession turning into another Great Depression?

"Forty-three percent say that might happen in the next 12 months, slightly higher than the number who worried about a Depression a year ago," added Holland.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted December 2-3, with 1,041 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percent for the overall sample.

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

The Obama Administration is expected to slash the estimated cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Program by $200 billion, effectively paving the way for a massive federal jobs program.

The latest projection, which will be officially unveiled by the White House this week, would cut TARP's price tag by $200 billion to $141 billion, according to a Treasury Department official.

And officials tell CNN that President Obama will recommend using the $200 billion to fund a series of projects - including building bridges and roads and weatherizing homes, as well as providing further aid to the unemployed and to small businesses. That’s expected to come in a speech on Tuesday.

Such a move is certain to draw fire from Republican lawmakers, who have railed against using any leftover bailout funds or money that has been paid back by banks for any new projects.

Many have not only proposed shutting down the program altogether, but argued that any unallocated TARP funds should go toward cutting the nation's bloated deficit. The Treasury Dept. currently estimates that the annual deficit for fiscal year 2010 will hit a record $1.5 trillion.

Also on the bailout front, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says he's confident the central bank will make money on the trillions of dollars it’s pumped into the economy since the start of 2008.

“I think we're in very good shape,” Bernanke said, answering questions following a speech at the Economic Club of Washington. “I do believe we're going to get back all the money, and indeed we'll be showing for the taxpayers fairly significant extra income.”

But most of Bernanke's speech was focused on the outlook for the economy, and he repeated his earlier forecasts of moderate growth through next year, dogged by continued high unemployment.

He said the economy continues to face “formidable headwinds” that are likely to result in only a moderate recovery.

Stocks kicked off the new week with a choppy session - driven by a strong dollar, falling oil and gold prices and those comments from Bernanke that cooled worries about higher interest rates.

At the close of trading, the Dow gained just a single point to close at 10,390.11. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 both ended fractionally lower.

The week ahead brings a modest array of economic reports. Highlights include readings on retail sales, weekly jobless claims, consumer sentiment and the trade gap.

Finally, the new “must-have” accessory in your wallet or purse next season might be your pay stub.

The Federal Reserve is proposing new rules that would make it harder for retailers to offer you a credit card at the cash register by dangling a discount.

You know the drill: get 20% off or no interest payments for 18 months if you apply for a store’s credit card on the spot.

The new restrictions would make retailers collect more detailed financial information from customers - including how much money you make - before giving your so-called “instant credit.”

But the National Retail Federation is pushing back, and is asking the Fed to reconsider the proposed rules. The NRF says the current practices are quote, “safe, valued and desired by both retailers and customers.”

Many retailers have actually sold off their credit card units to banks in recent years, but still use the cards to track spending habits and reward customer loyalty.

For its part, the Fed wants the new, tougher rules to protect consumers from being lured into taking on debt they ultimately can't afford to pay off. After all, we know where that got us, don’t we?

Follow the money… on Twitter: @AndrewTorganCNN

Carbon trading is said to be one way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Graciela Chichilnisky
Author and architect of the carbon market
Special to CNN

Two market mechanisms within the Kyoto Protocol can help overcome the North-South divide, and help reach a solution between rich and poor nations while overhauling the world's energy industry and creating win-win solutions for the world economy.

The carbon market that I designed and drafted into the Kyoto Protocol is now trading $120 billion annually through the European Union Trading System. It starts by setting firm emission limits and allows those who over emit to compensate those who under emit, so far by $120 billion per year.

This secures a firm lower emission ceiling and provides market flexibility, creating incentives to introduce new clean technologies and products. Through its Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) the carbon market has provided an additional $25 billion investment in clean, productive commercial projects in developing nations that are compensated with tradable carbon credits.

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CNN

Last quarter, the economy grew by the largest amount since the summer of 2007, but there are signs that things are still getting worse.

Go here and learn more about the ups and downs of the economy.

Editor's Note: This article continues our series excerpted from AC360°'s contributor David Gewirtz's upcoming book, How To Save Jobs, which will be available in December. Over the next few months, we'll be excerpting the first section of the book, which answers the question, "How did we get here?" Last time, we looked at how the dot-com bubble lost $5 trillion. This time, we begin our look at outsourcing and how its hurting American jobs. To learn more about the book, follow David on Twitter @DavidGewirtz.

David Gewirtz | BIO
AC360° Contributor
Editor-in-Chief, ZATZ Publishing

To many Americans, the word "outsourcing" is a four-letter word. It implies, as Ross Perot called it, a "giant sucking sound," where jobs leave the United States for less advantaged countries.

Perot was concerned about NAFTA in the early 1990s sucking good paying American jobs to Mexico, but as it turns out, he had no idea what was coming - and certainly no idea of the magnitude of the problem we'd be facing a couple of decades later. As you'll see, NAFTA is the least of our worries.

We've been actively permitting foreign companies to set up shop here, and then bring in their people to displace ours.

Outsourcing is one of our main job-related problems and I'll talk more about it later in this chapter. But it's not our only problem. In fact, the policy of the American government over the last half a decade or so has not only made outsourcing economically viable, it's all but encouraged bringing foreign workers into the United States.

And, in a shining example of your tax dollars at work, we weren't just bringing foreign nationals into the United States, we've been actively permitting foreign companies to set up shop here, and then bring in their people to displace ours.

The failure of the H-1B visa program

So, while China and India were slowly moving their 2.5 billion people out of abject poverty and into the world economy back in the late 1990s, many American investors were trying to figure out how to make billions of dollars by creating companies that produced no products, provided no value, and made no money - in other words, the dot-com craziness was in full force.

To support the insanity, companies that didn't exist six months earlier and had no plans of ever figuring out how to make a profit were hiring thousands of workers at a break-neck pace. For a short period of time, it was nirvana for job hunters. Companies were offering not only excessively high compensation packages, but side benefits like a company masseuse and cafeterias run by chefs who used to work for 5-star hotels.

In order to meet their soaring demand for workers, particularly specialty technical workers, many of the largest established tech companies as well as many new startups both took advantage of the U.S. government's H-1B visa program and started to "insource" jobs from - you guessed it - India and China.

The U.S. H-1B visa program allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ non-citizens and keep them in the United States for an extended period of time - three years, extendable to six, and extendable again for up to another four years - for a total of 10 years for certain workers.

Back in the early days of the program, only 65,000 H-1B visas were granted each year, and the cap was never reached. But once the Internet boom took off, American companies lobbied to have the quota increased. In 1998, it got bumped up to 115,000 and then in 2000 (at the peak of the dot-com boom) to 195,000.

Since the quota increases were temporary, they eventually dropped back down to 90,000 by 2004 and then, shortly after, to 65,000. But that didn't last.

In 2006, the United States Senate passed a bill which permanently raised the 65,000 quota to 115,000, set it to automatically increase the quota by 20 percent whenever the top-end was reached (with no provision to lower it back down), added another 6,800 visas for various trade agreements, added 20,000 additional visas for those with graduate degrees, and made visas for work at nonprofit organizations completely and totally exempt from the quota - which means colleges, hospitals, and other enormous nonprofit enterprises can bring in as many foreign workers to America as they'd like.

Ostensibly, the H-1B visa program was intended only for workers with special skills, skills that either Americans don't have, or for which there aren't enough American workers to go around. But the special provision for additional H-1B visas to those with graduate degrees showed that special skills requirement was quite loosely defined.

You'd think American companies would be the ones most likely to be issued H-1B visas, since the whole purpose of the program was to allow American firms to hire foreign individuals of unique skill.

You'd think that, but you'd be wrong. Six of the top 10 companies issued H-1B visas: Infosys, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services, Satyam Computer Services, Patni Computer Systems, and Larsen & Toubro Infotech are all based in India. A seventh company, Cognizant, has most of its employees in India but has a U.S. headquarters in Teaneck, New Jersey.

Rounding out the top ten are Microsoft (ranked #3), IBM (ranked #8), and Oracle (the huge California-based database software maker, ranked #9).

The bottom line is the H-1B visa program doesn't work - and actually harms American workers. A program designed to bring in foreign workers with special skills to help American companies instead helps foreign companies bring foreign workers into the U.S. to displace both American workers and American companies.

While foreign workers were being brought into the U.S. to displace American workers with the help of the U.S. Congress, American jobs were also being sent to India and China...

Follow David on Twitter at http://www.Twitter.com/DavidGewirtz.

Editor’s note: David Gewirtz is Editor-in-Chief, ZATZ Magazines, including OutlookPower Magazine. He is a leading Presidential scholar specializing in White House email. He is a member of FBI InfraGard, the Cyberterrorism Advisor for the International Association for Counterterrorism & Security Professionals, a columnist for The Journal of Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, and has been a guest commentator for the Nieman Watchdog of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. He is a faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley extension, a recipient of the Sigma Xi Research Award in Engineering and was a candidate for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Letters.

Amy M. Wilkinson
Special to CNN

It's the oldest trick in the political playbook: Call together a "summit" of fancy people so you'll appear to be focused on work that must get done.

Thursday, the White House convened CEOs from companies such as Boeing, AT&T, Comcast and Dow Corning, top leaders of the United Steelworkers, United Food and Commercial Workers, American Federation of Teachers unions, Ivy League academics and a few small-business representatives to brainstorm how the country might generate much-needed jobs.

A schmooze-fest is nice, but the hard work of putting America back to work will be done by entrepreneurs, not the leaders of the biggest companies in the nation and the heads of big unions.

The mom-and-pop shops, garage start-ups and small businesses across the country will put Americans back on the payroll. According to the Census Bureau, nearly all net job creation in the U.S. since 1980 has been generated by firms operating less than five years.

Keep Reading...

Speeders doing more than 85mph in Georgia will soon pay an additional $200 in fines.

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

Today we received the best news on the jobs front that we’ve had in about two years.

The job market showed signs of stabilizing in November as employers trimmed the fewest jobs of any month since the start of the recession, and the unemployment rate posted the biggest one-month decline in more than three years.

Still, today’s number brings job losses since the start of 2008 to 7.2 million. Additionally, 15.4 million Americans are now unemployed and seeking work. Another 6 million want jobs, but are not counted as part of the labor force because they have stopped looking.

As for the specifics, employers cut 11,000 jobs last month, far below any of the job losses posted over the last 23 months. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a loss of 125,000 jobs in November. And the unemployment rate improved to 10% in the month. The forecast was that it would remain at October’s 10.2% level - a 26-year high.

Job losses in the construction, manufacturing and information industries were offset by job gains in temporary help services and health care.

The report comes the day after the Obama administration held a jobs summit at the White House, where business leaders and economists discussed what could be done to spur job creation.

Today, the president begins a multi-city tour in Schnecksville, PA, focusing on jobs and the economy.

Still, the picture for jobseekers remains grim, with 10% unemployment and six workers competing for every job vacancy.

Plus it’s the holiday season - but if you’re putting your job hunt on the back burner until after New Year's, that could be a big mistake.

Some hiring managers say December could actually be the best time to reinvigorate your hunt.

Each industry has its own busy hiring times and business cycles, but certain times of year are particularly good for job hunting in every field, and right now is one of them.

“There is a certain pattern to when companies hire in general,” said Rob Saam, a senior vice president at outplacement firm Lee Hecht Harrison. “There is more hiring in January than December, but the thing about a job search is that it's a process so you should start looking before that,” he said.

While job seekers typically believe that there's no sense in sending out résumés over the holidays when many people are on vacation, that may actually be the very best time to put yourself out there.

Shifting gears to the auto industry, there’s been another management shake-up at General Motors.

Acting CEO Ed Whitacre pulled long-time auto executive Bob Lutz out of his role as head of marketing, putting him in a new role as an advisor on global design and product development. Lutz retains his title as vice chairmen.

GM also named Mark Reuss president of GM North America. Reuss had been head of GM's Holden division in Australia before briefly taking the role of vice president of engineering.

"I want to give people more responsibility and authority deeper in the organization and then hold them accountable," Whitacre said in a statement.

On Tuesday, Whitacre announced he was taking over as acting chief executive following the resignation of Fritz Henderson. Henderson had led GM through bankruptcy and in the months following after taking over for Rick Wagoner, who resigned back in March as part of a government bailout of GM.

Whitacre, an executive who formerly ran AT&T, was named chairman of a new, more independent GM board as part of that bailout.

Finally, speeders doing more than 85mph in Georgia will soon pay an additional $200 in fines. Racehorse owners in New York now must fork over $10 to enter their steeds in events. And Massachusetts started charging a 5% tax on broadcast satellite service.

These measures are part of a record $23.9 billion in tax and fee hikes and $7.7 billion in other revenue increases enacted by states in fiscal 2010, according to a report released this week. This is a massive jump over the $8.1 billion in revenue hikes instituted the previous year.

Some 29 states enacted revenue hikes for fiscal 2010, which began on July 1 in nearly all states. Personal income tax hikes accounted for the largest portion, some $10.7 billion. Corporate levies declined by $202.2 million.

Follow the money… on Twitter: @AndrewTorganCNN

Chris Isidore
CNNMoney.com senior writer

The long-suffering U.S. jobs market improved significantly in November, as employers trimmed the fewest jobs of any month since the start of the recession, and the unemployment rate posted the biggest one-month decline in more than three years.

U.S. payrolls slipped 11,000 jobs in the month, far below any of the job losses posted over the last 23 months. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a loss of 125,000 jobs in November.

The October and September job loss estimates were also revised sharply lower, trimming previous job loss estimates by 159,000 between them.

The new reading put October job losses at 111,000 jobs, and September's loss estimate was cut to 139,000. Each of those new estimates would have been the smallest declines in more than a year.

Keep Reading...

Bank of America said late Wednesday it planned to return the entire $45 billion in bailout money it received from the government over the past year.

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

President Obama called on business leaders this afternoon to help his administration kick-start hiring as policymakers contend with rising unemployment that’s weighing down the economy.

Some 130 executives, economists, small business owners and non-profit officials are gathering for the jobs summit at the White House on the eve of the government's November unemployment report. The nation is expected to have lost another 114,000 jobs, with unemployment remaining at 10.2%, the highest in 26 years, according to an economists' survey.

"I'm not interested in taking a wait and see approach when it comes to creating jobs," Obama said.

The employment picture is certainly grim. Nearly 16 million Americans are out of work, one-third of whom have been unemployed for more than six months. There are now six workers competing for every job vacancy.

The jobs picture remains front and center amid the deluge of both private and government reports this week.

This morning, the Labor Dept. says first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell unexpectedly last week by 5,000 to 457,000 - a near 15-month low.

That's the lowest level since the week ended Sept. 6, 2008, but part of decline is being attributed to government offices being closed for Thanksgiving.

In addition, continuing claims edged up by 28,000 to 5.5 million.

Meanwhile, people who are employed are working even harder.

Worker productivity increased more than 8% the third quarter. That’s the largest amount in six years. Aggressive cost cutting by businesses has pushed productivity sharply higher over the past months.

Unit labor costs, a gauge of inflation and profit pressures closely watched by the Federal Reserve, fell 2.5%. While that does signal inflation is under control, it also means workers are feeling a tight squeeze on their wages.

Elsewhere in Washington, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke got a rough going over from both his supporters and detractors at his Senate confirmation hearing today.

Even those who praised his actions during the financial troubles of the last two years, such as Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, balanced that support with arguments that the central bank should be stripped of some of its bank regulation powers due to its past failures of oversight.

While many Democrats on the banking panel joined Dodd in saying they would vote for another four-year term for Bernanke, some of the Republicans questioned whether they could support the chairman who was first appointed by President George W. Bush.

One long-time Bernanke critic, Jim Bunning (R-KY), said he was ready to do everything he could to block or delay the confirmation, joining a similar threat made late Wednesday by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who is among the 60 members of the Democratic caucus.

The threat of a filibuster by Sanders and Bunning, two lawmakers with diametrically opposed views on most issues, shows the breadth of anger faced by Bernanke sparked by the Wall Street bailouts. A filibuster would mean that Bernanke would need to get at least 60 votes, rather than the simple majority of 51, in order to be confirmed.

Turning to news making waves on Wall Street, Bank of America said late Wednesday it planned to return the entire $45 billion in bailout money it received from the government over the past year.

The move would allow Bank of America, the nation's largest lender, to break free from a variety of government restrictions it has had to abide by, including pay caps for its top executives.

It could also smooth what has been a difficult search for a new chief executive.

Outgoing CEO Ken Lewis is scheduled to depart by year end. Bank of America's board of directors originally hoped to select a successor by Thanksgiving.

And General Electric and Comcast announced a joint venture this morning worth a combined $37.25 billion that will give the cable company eventual control of NBC Universal.

In the complex deal, NBC Universal will borrow $9.1 billion from third-party lenders to distribute to parent company General Electric. GE will use that money to buy Vivendi SA's 20% stake in NBCU for $5.8 billion, clearing a major hurdle in the company's path to sell control of the entertainment giant to Comcast.

Comcast will pay GE $6.5 billion in cash for the conglomerate's media unit and will contribute programming and other businesses valued at $7.25 billion, including E!, the Style Network and several cable sports stations. The sale values NBC Universal at $30 billion.

Comcast will take a controlling 51% stake in the joint venture, and GE will control 49%.

Follow the money… on Twitter: @AndrewTorganCNN