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

David Ellis
CNNMoney.com staff writer

Loudmouth CEOs, islands in the desert and bringing dead celebrities back to life. Our annual list of the business world's bonehead plays marches on.

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For all the complex financial products they can dream up, simple common sense still seems to elude the bright minds of Wall Street. Or at least, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein.

Hoping to shore up his firm's battered image, he spearheaded an all-out public relations campaign this fall, touting his company's important role in building economies and helping everyday workers prosper.

Last month, however, he got a bit carried away, telling a Times of London reporter that he was just a banker "doing God's work." For $43 million a year.

Keep reading...

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.

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

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

Gold prices fell about 5% on Friday when a state-run investment company of Dubai requested a postponement of $60 billion in debt

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

Gold crossed $1,200 an ounce today and closed at a record high as the weakness of the U.S. dollar and the easing of fears surrounding the Dubai debt crisis pushed prices higher.

Gold futures touched an intraday high of $1,202.70 an ounce before backing off and settling up $18 to $1,119.10.

Gold prices had fallen about 5% on Friday on continued concerns about the state-run investment company of Dubai requesting a postponement of $60 billion in debt.

But on earlier today, reports said Dubai World was in talks over $26 billion of its debt, easing worries it would default on the total balance. That relief translated into a blow for the dollar, as increased risk appetite pushed the greenback lower.

A weaker dollar tends to boost gold, as it and other commodities are priced in dollars around the world.

The number of home sales contracts signed rose for the ninth straight month in October.

The National Association of Realtors says its index of pending home sales rose a seasonally adjusted 3.7% in October from September. The index is also up nearly 32% compared with last October.

Although these are not closed sales, and some deals can fall through, signed contracts are a good indicator of where the housing market is headed.

The NAR once again gave much of the credit for the increase in sales to the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit that was set to expire at the end of November. That credit has since been extended by Congress until the end of April and expanded to make other buyers eligible.

Bailed out insurance giant AIG says it has completed a deal wiping out $25 billion of its debt to U.S. taxpayers by selling stakes in two subsidiaries to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

AIG gave the New York Fed preferred shares of two of its international life insurance companies, including $16 billion of American International Assurance Co. and $9 billion of American Life Insurance Co. The deal was originally announced in March.

The deal brings the company’s debt to the New York Fed down to $17 billion. AIG also still owes the U.S. Treasury $44.8 billion from a separate TARP loan, so the insurer still owes taxpayers just under $62 billion.

Follow the money… on Twitter: @AndrewTorganCNN

The NRF estimates that 96.5 million Americans plan to shop on Cyber Monday this year, up from 85 million in 2008.

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

We shopped but we didn’t drop - a lot of money anyway...

More Americans turned out to bag Thanksgiving weekend deals this year than last year, according to the National Retail Federation, but shoppers on average spent less on their purchases compared to a year ago.

Average spending over the weekend dropped to $343.31 per person from $372.57 a year ago. Total retail spending for the holiday weekend was about $41.2 billion, the NRF said, up marginally from $41 billion last year.

Now it’s all about today - Cyber Monday - the online retail world's version of Black Friday. Millions of people are expected to take some time at work today and surf the Web in search of bargains.

The NRF estimates that 96.5 million Americans plan to shop on Cyber Monday this year, up from 85 million in 2008.

And despite the hype associated with Cyber Monday, industry experts say the busiest online shopping day tends to be in December, and is the last day that gifts can be shipped to guarantee deliver by Christmas Day.

Struggling to stem the swelling foreclosure tide, the White House today announced new steps to pressure banks to help homeowners over the long term.

The Obama Administration says it will require top loan servicers to report their plan to reach a decision on each loan for which they have all the needed documentation. Also, these servicers must explain to the Treasury Dept. how they will communicate their decisions to borrowers.

Servicers will also be required to report the status of each modification. Those failing to meet their obligations could face penalties and sanctions.

To help borrowers through the process, the administration is providing more information on the documents they need to submit to be considered for a permanent modification. Federal, state and local officials will increase outreach to delinquent homeowners.

The administration's move is its latest attempt to jumpstart its $75 billion loan modification plan, which many fear will fall far short of its goal to help up to 4 million delinquent homeowners.

Help is on the way for some credit card customers as well.

Most credit card agreements are as big as a small book and are loaded with lots of legal jargon. Now, the nation's biggest bank is trying to make things a little simpler.

Bank of America is launching its “credit card clarity” campaign. Beginning tomorrow, it will start sending out 1-page summaries to its 40 million customers.

The summaries will include:

1) Interest rates you pay for purchases, balance transfers, cash advances.

2) Payment info to keep account in good standing.

3) All of the fees you're likely to pay - annual, transaction & late fees.

There's been much confusion and a healthy dose of outrage regarding some credit card companies that hit consumers with exorbitant late fees. Many are making many changes now before new legal reforms take effect that will restrict their ability to do so and have cut credit limits and raised interest rates and fees.

Now, however, some institutions like Bank of America are trying to make consumer-friendly changes ahead of the new laws that go into effect in February.

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Lee Eisenberg
Special to CNN

Three years ago I began research on a book dedicated to the national pastimes: shopping and buying.

The plan was to devote the first half of the story to what I called the "sell side": the retailers, marketers and consumer researchers who have their sights trained on us. The second half would be about us, the "buy side." I would explore all that attracts us - bees to nectar– to specific stores and products, why some of us are cheapskates and others have holes in our pockets.

Then, a not-so-funny thing happened. Between the time I started my reporting and the time I handed in my finished manuscript, both the sell and the buy sides had cratered. Home prices crashed. Credit markets collapsed. The government tried feverishly to glue broken banks back together. Unemployment went up and up and up.

The result: consumer spending - as in that which drives 70 percent of the U.S. economy - was running on fumes. Department store sales sank by double-digits. "The golden age of spending for the American consumer has ended and a new age of thrift likely has begun," said a Wall Street analyst. "Sixty percent off is the new black," quipped a magazine fashion writer.

Keep Reading...

Federal regulators announced the recall of 110,000 Toyota pickup trucks in 20 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

Wave after wave of economic data washed ashore this morning as the government compresses its weekly calendar ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

First up, the number of first-time claims for unemployment insurance fell by 35,000 to 466,000 last week, the lowest level in 14 months.

Continuing claims also fell sharply - by 190,000 to 5.42 million – to the lowest level since February.

Keep in mind though that many analysts cautioned against reading too much into the sharp drop in claims, noting that part of the improvement was due to large seasonal adjustment factors which smooth out changes that occur at certain times of the year.

Consumers got back in the buying mood in October as their incomes grew modestly.

The Commerce Dept. says consumer spending rose 0.7% last month, following a pullback in September when spending plunged by 0.6%. That was the best showing since a 1.3% jump in August when the government's “Cash for Clunkers” boosted car sales.

Incomes, meanwhile, rose 0.2% for the second straight month.

But orders for big-ticket manufactured items fell unexpectedly in October as the economy struggles to get back to full health.

The Commerce Dept. says durable goods orders dropped 0.6% last month, following a 2% gain in September. It marked the first decline since August.

And new home sales spiked in October, one month after declining unexpectedly.

The Commerce Dept. said new home sales rose 6.2% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 430,000 - far surpassing expectations. It was the sixth time new home sales had risen in the past seven months.

New houses sold in October for a median price of $212,200 and an average price of $261,100. There were 239,000 new homes on the market at the end of the month, a 6.7 month supply at the current sales rate.

That follows a report out Monday showing existing home sales surged more than 10% in October to the highest level in more than 2-1/2 years.

Trouble for Toyota… the Japanese car and truck giant announced today that it will fix gas pedals in at least 4 million cars for an accelerator problem that had previously been blamed on floor mats.

Toyota said that “the shape of the accelerator pedal will be reconfigured to address the risk of floor mat entrapment.” The company said that the floor of the vehicles will also be reconfigured.

And on Tuesday, Federal regulators announced the recall of 110,000 Toyota pickup trucks in 20 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that road salts can cause “excessive corrosion” of the Tundra's frame, which holds a spare tire mounted underneath the vehicle. NHTSA said dislodged spare tires can cause hazards for other vehicles on the road.

The corrosion can also damage the rear brake lines and lead to brake system failures, the NHTSA said.

After balking at government imposed pay restrictions, AIG chief executive Robert Benmosche has officially agreed to a non-compete contract that could total $10.5 million, the company announced Tuesday.

Benmosche, who was named CEO in August, had expressed frustration with the constraints placed on AIG by the government after the insurance giant was bailed out last year to the tune of $182 billion.

He reportedly threatened to quit his post in board meetings earlier this month, before issuing a statement saying he is “totally committed” to staying on as CEO.

Benmosche is one of several high-level executives at seven private companies under the purview of the Obama administration's "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg.

An “excessively loud” triceratops and a little girl's chemical-laced purse were among the items listed in the U.S. Public Interest Research Group's 2009 list of dangerous toys released Tuesday.

The 24th annual report, “Trouble in Toyland,” targeted 16 examples of toys in 3 categories: toys that it considers dangerously loud, or containing small parts that may present choking hazards for small children, or containing toxic chemicals or lead.

The toys are made or marketed by various companies throughout the world.

Follow the money… on Twitter: @AndrewTorganCNN

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

Do you remember last month when everyone was so pleased to hear the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 3.5% in the third quarter?

Well, not so fast…

A revised reading of gross domestic product from the government out today shows the economy actually grew at a rate of 2.8%. True, that's not as good as originally thought, but it’s still growth - and it comes after a record four quarters in a row of contraction.

So what's behind the downgrade?

A few things, actually - including weak consumer spending, a slowdown in commercial construction and a widening trade deficit.

Even with the positive growth, it's expected that things will be slow moving forward, and the GDP number still needs to be revised one more time.

In a somewhat ironic bit of timing, the Federal Reserve today released the minutes of its meeting earlier this month during which it raised its estimate for economic growth next year and forecast lower unemployment ahead - although it said the jobless rate will stay uncomfortably high for at least the next three years.

The forecast also shows the central bank expects GDP to grow between 2.5% to 3.5% in 2010. That's a bit more bullish than the 2.1% to 3.3% growth it had forecast for the period back in June.

The unemployment rate, which hit 10.2% in October according to the Labor Department's latest reading, is expected to improve to between 9.3% and 9.7% for all of 2010. The Fed's June forecast was for 2010 unemployment to hover between 9.5% and 9.8%.

The Fed’s forecasts don't show the labor market getting a lot better in the next few years. Its 2011 forecast is for unemployment of between 8.2% and 8.6%, while 2012 unemployment is expected to be between 6.8% and 7.5%, still above the average 6% annual unemployment rate recorded by the Labor Dept. over the last 30 years.

Also out today were two separate takes on the housing market.

Home prices rose for the second straight quarter, but remained nearly 9% lower than a year earlier.

Prices nationwide rose 3.1% in the three months ended Sept. 30, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, a closely watched gauge of housing market direction. That followed a similar 3.1% rise during the second quarter.

Prices were still below a year ago, however, down 8.9% compared with the third quarter of 2008. Nevertheless, that's an improvement from the double-digit price decreases the index had been reporting.

And in a sign that more foreclosures could be on the horizon, a new report says 23% of people with mortgages owe more than their home is worth.

Almost 10.7 million U.S. mortgages were “underwater” as of September, according to research firm First American CoreLogic.

Another 2.3 million homeowners are within 5% of negative territory, the report said. The two figures combined comprise almost 28% of all residential properties with mortgages.

Finally, the number of people shopping on “Black Friday” is expected to pick up more than 16% this year, according to a new survey.

A staggering 57 million people said they would “definitely” head to stores on the day after Thanksgiving, up from 49 million in 2008, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation.

An additional 77 million said they would wait to decide after seeing the weekend deals.

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Goldman Sachs announced last week that it will set aside $500 million for 10,000 Small Businesses.

Samuel Sherraden

Special to CNN

Goldman Sachs, the most profitable firm on Wall Street, announced last week that it will set aside $500 million for "10,000 Small Businesses," a charity co-sponsored by famed investor Warren Buffett and devoted to helping small American businesses survive the economic crisis.

While Goldman may see this as a generous move, its charity is an offense to struggling entrepreneurs and a symbol of failed government policy.

The $500 million allocated to fund the initiative is a small share of the massive profits Goldman has earned on the back of huge government subsidies it has received since the onset of the financial crisis.

When the financial system collapsed in fall 2008, the federal government supported "too big to fail" firms like Goldman Sachs with generous lending conditions, government guarantees, and outright subsidies.

Keep reading...

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

Sales of previously-owned homes - by far the largest segment of the real estate market - surged in October to the highest level in more than 2-1/2 years.

The National Association of Realtors says that existing home sales rose 10.1% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.1 million units, up from the downwardly revised rate of 5.54 million in September.

Sales activity is the highest since February 2007, when the annual rate was 6.55 million.

The gain was likely due to an influx of buyers looking to take advantage of an $8,000 tax credit that the Obama administration made available for qualified first-time home buyers, the NAR said.

The tax credit was scheduled to expire at the end of November, but it has been extended into next year and expanded to include more home buyers.

The NAR says we're getting closer to a “general balance” between buyers and sellers, but cautions that there will be a "measurable decline" in sales this winter.

That will be the result of both a typical a seasonal slowdown and the fact that potential buyers now have until April 30th the get a sale under contract in order to qualify for the new tax credits.

Despite rising fears of the U.S. falling into another recession, a survey of top economists found them more optimistic about growth in the fourth quarter of this year and throughout 2010. But job seekers will have to wait a little longer for employers to start hiring again.

According to the November survey by the National Association of Business Economics, 48 top forecasters now expect the economy to grow at a 3% annual rate during the last three months of this year, up from their prediction of 2.4% growth in October.

The economists also raised their forecast for growth during every quarter of 2010. They now expect a 3.2% rise in economic activity over the course of the next four quarters, up from their previous estimate of 3%.

But the outlook isn't as good for the record 31 million Americans unable to find full-time jobs.

The economists pushed back their expectations for when U.S. payrolls will start to grow again to the second quarter of 2010. They previously had predicted a gain of 12,000 jobs a month in the first quarter.

The nation's unemployment rate hit 10.2% in October. The continued problems in the labor market, combined with disappointing reports about housing and retail sales recently, have raised concerns about a so-called "double dip" recession.

More than a year after the financial meltdown of 2008, Congress is moving forward on plans to drastically curtail the power of the Federal Reserve.

There is a debate about lawmakers' motivations, and many details must still be worked out between different proposals.

Currently, the main bills in the House and Senate differ in specifics, and the Senate would go further than the House in curbing Fed powers. But both chambers are proposing fairly drastic changes.

Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, whose four-year term expires in January, is certain to face a contentious Senate banking panel at his confirmation hearing set for next December 3rd

State tax collections nationwide plummeted in the third quarter, and the forecast for the remainder of the year looks grim.

Tax revenue in 44 states fell by about 11% in the third quarter, compared to last year, according to the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government.

State tax collections totaled $119.7 billion in the third quarter, compared to $134 billion from the same 44 states in the year-ago period, the institute said.

The western states were the hardest-hit region, showing a 15.3% decline, according to the institute, which studies state budgets.

California, with a revenue decline of 16%, was largely responsible for the western region's decrease.

Finally, for the first time in a decade, more people paid their credit card bills on time in the third quarter this year than in the second quarter.

The delinquency rate on bank-issued MasterCard and Visa cards fell to 1.1% in the third quarter of 2009, down 5.98% over the previous quarter, according to credit reporting agency TransUnion.

In addition, average credit card borrower debt drifted downward nationally 1.87% to $5,612 from the previous quarter's $5,719, and down 1.71% compared to the third quarter of 2008 ($5,710) TransUnion said. The highest state average credit card debt remains in Alaska at $7,699, followed by Tennessee at $7,039 and Alabama at $6,453. The lowest average credit card debt was found in Iowa ($4,225), followed by North Dakota ($4,449) and Wisconsin ($4,602).

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More Americans are expected to travel for the 2009 Thanksgiving holiday than they did last year, although air travel will decline.

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

When it comes to the financial crisis, there's been a lot of blame-shifting and finger-pointing. But in a surprise move, one of the nation's biggest banks is now admitting it played a part in the debacle.

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has apologized for taking part in the era of free and easy money.

"We participated in things that were clearly wrong and have reason to regret," Blankfein said at a corporate conference in New York. "We apologize."

Blankfein’s comments came the same day that Goldman announced it’s launching a $500 million initiative called "10,000 Small Businesses," aimed at unlocking the job creation and economic growth potential of America's small companies.

The project's advisory council features an array of business luminaries, including Warren Buffett, the bank’s largest shareholder

It’s worth pointing out that Goldman Sachs earned an eye-popping $3.2 billion in the third quarter, as revenue from trading rose fourfold from a year ago.

We have new signs today that the recovery in the housing market is tenuous at best.

Construction of new homes plunged by nearly 11% last month as builders waited on the sidelines to see whether Congress would extend the homebuyer tax credit.

Housing starts fell 10.6% in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 529,000 - the lowest level in six months. And applications for building permits, a gauge of future activity, fell 4% to an annual rate of 552,000 units.

Both readings were below expectations.

Also on the economic front, consumer prices in October were essentially unchanged from a year ago as the rising cost of oil and gas offset price declines elsewhere.

The Consumer Price Index, the government's key inflation reading, is now down only 0.2% during the past 12 months compared to the same period a year ago. This is the smallest 12-month rate of decline since February.

The core CPI, which is more closely watched by economists because it strips out volatile food and energy prices, is up 1.7% over the past year.

If you thought this year’s graduating class faced a bleak job outlook, next year’s not going to look much better.

New college graduates had 40% fewer job prospects this year, according to a new report. And the outlook for 2010, while better, is still not very promising.

Jobs for graduates with bachelor's degrees, which account for most new graduate hires, will drop nearly 1% next year, according to Michigan State University's survey on recruiting trends.

Hiring of master's degree graduates will plummet by 11% based on a weaker labor market for accounting students, the study said.

Jobs for Ph.D.s will spike by 20% and those for MBA graduates will rise 11%.

Overall, hiring of grads with any degree will decline by 2% compared to 2009.

After a sharp drop last year, more Americans are expected to travel for the 2009 Thanksgiving holiday, although travel by air will decline.

According to the latest forecast from AAA, 38.4 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home for the Thanksgiving weekend, an increase of 1.4% from last year, when 37.8 million traveled.

Driving will account most of the increase, with 33.2 million Americans expected to travel by car, up 2.1% from the 2008 season, according to AAA. But flying will decrease 6.7% to 2.3 million travelers.

Travel by train, boat, bus and other means is expected to edge up 1.2% to 2.9 million Americans, AAA said.

Last year, Thanksgiving travel plunged 25.2% compared to 2007.

Finally, you’d better hoard your Eggos!

Grocery stores will be experiencing a shortage of the frozen waffles until mid-2010 due to problems at two bakeries, a Kellogg's says.

Flooding at an Atlanta bakery during heavy rains in October forced Kellogg, which makes Eggo products, to shut down production temporarily. Plus, equipment at Kellogg's largest waffle facility in Tennessee needs extensive repairs.

Remaining Eggo inventory will be rationed to stores across the country.

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McDonald's says it plans to open 1,000 new restaurants next year

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

President Obama, facing a nationwide unemployment rate north of 10%, said today he's organizing a White House jobs summit next month.

The president said people are “desperately searching for work” and that the government has “an obligation to consider every additional responsible step we can” to get people back to work.

He said the summit in December will bring together CEOs, small business owners, economists, financial experts and representatives from labor and non-profits groups to talk about how to get job creation back on track.

President Obama’s comments followed some encouraging signs out this morning on both the labor and housing fronts.

The number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment insurance fell last week to their lowest level this year. And foreclosure filings were down 3% in October, the third consecutive month-over-month dip.

Initial jobless claims dropped by 12,000 to 502,000 in the week ended Nov. 7. That’s the fewest number since the week ended Jan. 3, when 488,000 initial claims were filed.

The president called that “a hopeful sign,” but he also said that finding jobs for the millions without them remains one of his administration's greatest challenges.

In addition, the Labor Dept. said 5.63 million people filed continuing claims in the week ended Oct. 31, the most recent data available. That was down 139,000 from the preceding week's revised 5.77 million claims.

As for those foreclosure filings, the 3% decline in October followed a 4% drop in filings during September and a 1% dip in August. Still, foreclosure rates remain elevated from a year ago: They're up 18% compared with October 2008.

Mixed results from the world’s largest retailer today. Wal-Mart reported third-quarter profits that beat analysts' estimates, boosted by inventory reductions and other cost-cutting measures.

However, Wal-Mart's same-store sales declined 0.4% in the quarter as Americans continue to spend very cautiously. Same-store sales measure sales at stores open at least a year, and are a key measure of a merchant's performance.

Wal-Mart also issued a disappointing same-store sales forecast for the fourth quarter, which includes the crucial holiday shopping season.

Another company that dominates its respective landscape, McDonald's says it plans to open 1,000 new restaurants next year and renovate 2,300 existing locations.

At a meeting of company investors today, the fast-food giant said it would focus on opening new restaurants primarily in the U.S., Germany, France, Russia, China and Australia.

Specifically, McDonald's plans for 150 new U.S. locations plus: 260 in Europe; 490 across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Australia; 80 in Latin America; and 20 in Canada.

Beating Congress to the punch, the Federal Reserve today released a new rule to prohibit banks from automatically enrolling customers in overdraft protection programs, which charge fees when consumers spend more than they have.

Starting on July 1, 2010, all banks will have to ask their customers to opt in to overdraft protection plans for ATM and debit card transactions.

Some banks charge as much as $39 when customers overdraw their bank account by even a few dollars.

Currently, more than 75% of banks automatically sign customers up for overdraft programs, according to a study by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

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Most cities in the U.S saw gains in the median price of single-family homes sold during the three months that ended Sept. 30

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

The prolonged period of pain in the housing market seems to be easing, at least temporarily anyway.

Most cities in the U.S saw gains in the median price of single-family homes sold during the three months that ended Sept. 30, according to the National Association of Realtors' quarterly report on home prices. This is the second consecutive quarter of gains.

The national median home price was $177,900 in the third quarter, up $7,000 from the previous quarter. And while that was still down more than 11% from the third quarter of 2008, the pace of decline is slowing. In the second quarter of 2009, home prices fell more than 15% from the same period last year.

The NAR attributed much of the recent increase in home prices to the government's first-time homebuyer tax credit, which has helped revive sales.

Also on the home front… the Treasury Department says some 650,000 troubled borrowers have been put into trial loan modifications under President Obama's $75 billion foreclosure rescue plan.

That number represents 20% of eligible homeowners at least 60 days behind in their payments, according to the Treasury. This is up from 16% a month earlier.

Despite the progress, housing counselors say the number of people falling into foreclosure vastly exceeds the ranks getting assistance. The number of filings hit a record high of 937,840 in the third quarter. That's a 5% increase from the second quarter and a 23% jump over the third quarter of 2008.

And JPMorgan & Chase says it plans to hire 1,200 mortgage loan officers as the bank moves to expand its home loan business.

The New York-based bank said the hiring spree will grow its home loan sales force by 60% and will be complete by the end of 2010.

New loan officers will be hired in 23 states - including California, Florida and Texas and key cities such as New York and Chicago.

The new loan officers will work with personal bankers and referral sources, such as real estate agents and builders, as well as with their own network of homeowners, JPMorgan says.

“There’s no place like home for the holidays,” or so the old song says. But despite some discounts on plane tickets and hotels, people continue to look for even cheaper travel deals for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday - and some may wind up avoiding the airlines altogether.

The Air Transport Association says it expects a 4% decline in the number of airline passengers during Thanksgiving compared with a year ago.

The ATA attributes the drop-off to the tough economic climate, citing high unemployment and the recession as the main reason.

There are also many new fees for checking bags and a host of other charges that can add to the cost of air travel - and that may be leading more people to stick closer to home this year.

But travelers shouldn't expect planes to be less crowded than in the past. In fact, they'll be even more crowded. Airlines have been cutting back on flights or rolling out smaller planes in response to the decline in bookings.

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Gas prices are down for a fourth consecutive day

Gene Bloch
CNN New York Managing Editor

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times....for news on the economy.

Just when one report seems to offer a glimmer of hope, we receive a stark reminder that recovery or not, people are still hurting and conditions are tough.

Housing serves as a good example of one big problem with a few silver linings; a new report by Zillow.com shows 21% of single-family homeowners carrying a mortgage were “underwater” on their loans (or owed more than the value of their home) at the end of the third quarter. Troubling as that news is, the proportion is lower than the 23% reported in the second quarter. And home prices, while still falling in many areas of the country, are slowing in their rate of decline, and places like Fayetteville, NC and Cumberland, MD saw healthy price INCREASES in the third quarter.

Gas prices are down for a fourth consecutive day – AAA reports the average price of regular unleaded gasoline fell half a cent to $2.664 ($2.66 for graphics).

The Lundberg Survey out Sunday, which measures prices over a two-week period, reported a 3 cent increase to $2.68 a gallon, and noted that the increase is not due to rising crude prices, but from an increase in gas retailers’ margin, which bounced back a bit in the period after being squeezed in October.

Gold prices continue to surge to new records this morning, and if that run has you selling your jewelry for quick cash, be careful. You need to be sure you’re getting a good deal on your bling. Poppy Harlow has some helpful tips in today’s Breakdown.

From CNNMoney.com

The greatest real estate turnaround ever Charlotte Street in New York City's South Bronx was once the epicenter of urban blight. No longer. Now single-family homes line the strip and boats sit in driveways.

Kraft is making a hostile bid for Cadbury

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

The nation's unemployment rate rose above 10% for the first time since 1983 in October, a much worse jump than expected as employers continued to trim jobs from payrolls.

The reading is a sign of the continued weakness in the labor market - even though the economy grew in the third quarter following the longest and deepest downturn since the Great Depression.

The Labor Dept. said this morning that unemployment rate spiked to 10.2% last month, up from 9.8% in September. That’s the highest rate since April 1983.

There was also a net loss of 190,000 jobs in October. And while that’s worse than what economists were expecting and is still a big number – it is an improvement from the 741,000 jobs we lost in January.

The largest losses last month were in the construction, manufacturing and retail sectors.

The jump in the unemployment rate was driven up by a large drop in the number of people who describe themselves as self-employed, as well as the number of teenagers who have jobs. The unemployment rate for teenagers in the labor force soared to 27.6%, up 1.8 percentage points and hitting a third-straight record high.

It’s with that employment report as a backdrop that President Obama signed into law a bill to provide up to 20 additional weeks of jobless benefits to unemployed Americans, as well as extend the $8,000 tax credit for new homebuyers into the middle of next year.

After calling the jobless rate “sobering,” Obama said the bill he signed “will help grow our economy, help create and save jobs, and help provide necessary relief to small businesses,” in a statement following the signing.

The House approved the measures by a 403-12 vote Thursday afternoon, a day after the Senate passed the legislation.

The closely watched legislation will extend jobless benefits in all states by 14 weeks. Those that live in states with unemployment greater than 8.5% will receive an additional six weeks. The proposal will be funded by extending a longstanding federal unemployment tax on employers through June 30, 2011.

The Senate had been bickering over the details since September, and that cost more than 200,000 people their benefits. Some 7,000 unemployed Americans run out of benefits each day, according to the National Employment Law Project.

Commodities prices also reacted to the unexpected spike in the unemployment rate.

Crude oil prices dropped by more than $2 to around $77 per barrel. Oil prices have risen from a low of less than $33 a barrel last December to a high for this year of $82 in October.

And gold powered through the $1,100 an ounce barrier as nervous investors sought out the metal as a safe haven.

Gold prices have soared 5% this week amid speculation that overseas central banks may be moving toward buying more gold as they look for ways to reduce their exposure to the U.S. dollar - the traditional reserve currency of choice for many of those foreign central banks.
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Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

Unemployed Americans are set to get up to 20 additional weeks of jobless benefits, while new homebuyers are poised to see the $8,000 tax credit extended into mid-next year.

The House approved the measures by a 403-12 vote this afternoon, one day after the Senate passed the legislation. The bill now moves to the White House for President Obama's signature.

The legislation would extend jobless benefits in all states by 14 weeks. Those that live in states with unemployment higher than 8.5% would receive an additional six weeks. The proposal would be funded by extending a longstanding federal unemployment tax on employers through June 30, 2011.

The measure would apply to those whose benefits run out by Dec. 31, which is nearly two million people, according to Senate estimates. Those whose checks have already stopped would be able to reapply for another round.

The House, which passed its own benefits extension in September, giving an additional 13 weeks in high-unemployment states, approved the Senate's version.

The Senate had been bickering over the details since September, and that cost more than 200,000 people their benefits. Some 7,000 unemployed Americans run out of benefits each day, according to the National Employment Law Project.

The legislation also would extend the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit to contracts signed by April 30 and closed by June 30. The controversial credit, which many say has boosted home sales in recent months, was set to expire after Nov. 30.

The bill also creates a $6,500 credit for those who buy a home after living in their current house at least five years. That measure would apply to contracts signed by April 30 and closed by June 30. The current credit defines a first-time homebuyer as someone who has not owned a residence within the past three years.

News of the unemployment benefits extension comes as the number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits fell by 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 512,000 last week - the lowest level in 10 months.

And the number of people who continue to claim benefits for one week or more fell by 68,000 to 5.75 million – the eighth decline in nine weeks.

Still, companies are reluctant to hire and economists expect the unemployment rate will tick up to 9.9 percent when October's figure is reported Friday.

And the House passed a bill Wednesday to move up the effective date for credit card reforms to Dec. 1, from February and August 2010.

In May, President Obama signed into law a credit card reform act to crack down on the way issuers raise fees and interest rates. The reforms were scheduled to roll out in three parts over 12 months.

"Just in time for the holidays, Congress can lock in a ban on interest rate hikes on existing balances, and the tricks that have kept far too many consumers trapped in a never-ending cycle of debt," said bill co-sponsor Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., in a statement issued late last month.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., was the other sponsor of the bill.

The Senate will also have to vote to pass the measure expediting the changes in order for it to go to President Obama for his signature.

Finally, in an effort to give troubled borrowers yet another way to avoid foreclosure, Fannie Mae says it will allow eligible homeowners to rent their own homes.

The Deed for Lease program lets homeowners transfer the deed back to their lender and then sign a lease to remain in the home. The effort is aimed at borrowers with mortgages owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae who do not qualify for or cannot sustain a loan modification. Borrowers must live in the home as their primary residence and must be released from any subordinate liens.

The program aims to reduce the number of foreclosed properties being abandoned because they often fall into disrepair and hurt the surrounding homes' values. Also, it keeps a roof over troubled borrowers' heads and a steady stream of income coming from the property.

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AC360°

The Obama Administration has announced that 640,329 jobs have been created/saved as of October 30th due to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Jobs created/saved are determined by what a company receiving Recovery Act funding reports through the contract, grant or project that they receive.

Check out Recovery.gov's map of what organizations are receiving money in your neighborhood...