Treasury

WASHINGTON -- Treasury Secretary nominee Jacob J. Lew on Wednesday faced tough questions from Republican senators about his tenure as a top executive at Citigroup Inc. in the years leading up to the financial crisis. Lew was criticized for not knowing more about the investment strategy of two Citi units for which he was chief operating officer from 2006 to 2009. Republicans also hit him for an investment in the Cayman Islands and accepting a $944,518 payout from Citigroup in early 2009, just days before the company received an expanded bailout from the federal government's Troubled Asset Relief Program.

WASHINGTON -- Treasury secretary nominee Jacob J. Lew told senators Wednesday that his top priority was to boost the economic recovery while also grappling with the nation's growing debt. In his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, Lew warned that automatic government spending cuts coming March 1 would damage the recovery. And he called for Democrats and Republicans to work together to improve the economy, citing his history of working across party lines. "In recent years, some have argued that Washington is irrevocably broken, that our government cannot tackle the nation's most serious problems, that bipartisanship is a thing of the past.

WASHINGTON -- It didn't take long for former Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner to land a new job, and it's not on Wall Street -- though it's in the same area code. The Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan think tank based in New York, said Wednesday that Geithner would become its newest senior fellow later this month. He stepped down as Treasury secretary on Jan. 25. President Obama has nominated White House Chief of Staff Jacob J. Lew to replace him. Geithner has followed this route before.

WASHINGTON - President Obama selected a close aide and foreign policy advisor as his next chief of staff on Friday, part of a White House shake-up that signaled the president intends to rely on familiar faces in his second term. Denis McDonough, a deputy national security advisor and a longtime aide to the president, will replace outgoing Chief of Staff Jacob J. Lew, Obama's nominee to lead the Treasury Department. Unlike Lew, McDonough comes to the job from the Obama inner circle, knowing his boss and his colleagues well.

WASHINGTON -- The trillion-dollar coin isn't going to save the day. The U.S. Treasury says it won't mint the coin as a way of escaping the debt-ceiling crisis. The Federal Reserve also nixed the plan. Even though the platinum coin idea started as something of a joke, it caught on in the blogosphere and gained some notable supporters such as Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman. The plan envisioned the administration minting a platinum coin, then depositing it at the Fed to draw the trillion bucks to pay government bills should Congress fail to raise the debt ceiling.

WASHINGTON -- The unusual signature of penmanship-challenged Treasury Secretary nominee Jacob J. Lew is drawing as much attention as any of his views on fiscal policy. And now anyone can see how the man whose John Hancock soon could grace our greenbacks would sign their name. Yahoo News has created the Jack Lew Signature Generator . Just type in your name, hit the "sign my name, Jack" button and the widget will scrawl out a series of Lew's now-infamous curlicues. Lew wouldn't be the first Treasury Secretary who has struggled with a pen. Outgoing Timothy F. Geithner has admitted to his own problems , describing his signature as “a completely illegible scrawl that did not seem suitable for the dollar bill.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama on Thursday announced the nomination of White House Chief of Staff Jacob J. Lew to be Treasury secretary, touting his lengthy resume as preparation for upcoming budget battles and saying he "has my complete trust. " Lew, 57, known as Jack, would succeed Timothy F. Geithner, who is stepping down after four years. In a ceremony in the White House East Room, Obama praised Geithner's work in helping stabilize the economy and said Lew, a former White House budget director, was the best person to take over.

WASHINGTON - President Obama nominated White House Chief of Staff Jacob J. Lew to lead the Treasury Department on Thursday, saying the longtime Washington operator and unassuming budget wonk would focus on the battles over the federal budget that are likely to consume the much of Obama's second term. In brief remarks in the East Room, Obama highlighted Lew's past experience negotiating budget deals, first as an aide to Speaker of the House Thomas P. “Tip” O'Neill Jr. and then as budget director for President Clinton.

WASHINGTON - President Obama on Thursday will nominate his chief of staff, Jacob J. Lew, a fiscal policy expert with deep Washington roots, as his new Treasury secretary to help lead the administration through budget battles ahead. Lew, 57, would replace Timothy F. Geithner, who has been planning to leave the administration this month, according to a White House official. The official announcement is expected to come at 10:30 a.m. Pacific time. “Throughout his career, Jack Lew has proven a successful and effective advocate for middle-class families who can build bipartisan consensus to implement proven economic policies,” the White House said.