Weekly Economic News Digest

Here are some of the top economic and finance news stories this week that we haven’t covered on the blog:

• Geithner changed his mind on Monday, and now is against compensation caps, but in favor of “policies that discourage all financial companies from rewarding excessive risk-taking.” Maybe he read what I wrote…
• Liar’s Poker author Michael Lewis has a book on the financial crisis coming out later this year. It’s called The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. I’m sure it’ll be a fantastic read.
• Creditcard companies lose as credit card “bill of rights” legislation wins senate approval.
• The Federal Reserve says approval for big banks seeking to repay bailout money could start in early June. Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley have all applied to return $45 billion of the TARP money.
• Thomas Sowell on the Housing Boom and Bust, an interview with Reason Magazine.
• Treasury is still shorthanded. Megan McArdle quips, “The longer this goes on, the more bite it has–in March, there was some excuse, but by June, you should probably have at least nominated someone to be undersecretary for domestic finance.”
• Secretary Geithner’s so-called Public-Private Investment Program is set to take off in six weeks. Look out taxpayer, another trillion of your cash is gonna get put at risk.
• The Treasury will supposedly announce soon that it will inject another $7.5 billion into GMAC, the finance arm of GM, which the government tacitly controls and may purchase outright.
• Credit card’s are about to get more expensive for everyone after the new rules Congress has passed. The President will likely sign the legislation as soon as next week.