Obama Convenes First Cabinet Meeting

Obama Convenes First Cabinet Meeting
President Barack Obama convened his first formal Cabinet meeting, and the White House said he would challenge department and agency chiefs to look for ways to cut $100 million out of the federal budget.
Big gov't bigger threat than big biz: Poll

by Mark Silva

What's a bigger threat?

Big government, or big business?

Big government, say most Americans surveyed.

But, in this town that deals in threat assessments on a regular basis, the newest assessment from the public suggests that big business is gaining on big government.

"These shifts in attitudes have occurred even as the government has taken on an expanded role in regulating U.S. financial institutions in response to the financial crisis, under the Bush and Obama administrations,'' the Gallup Poll reports of its findings:

Fifty-five percent view big government as the biggest threat, 32 percent big business -- but that's down from 61 percent vis a vis gov't and up from 25 percent vis a vis business when Gallup asked the same questions in December of 2006.
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And guess what: The party breakdowns are dramatic: 80 percent of Republicans view big government as the biggest threat to the country, up from 68 percent in December 2006. Just 55 percent of Democrats said big government posed the greater threat in that 2006 survey, while 32 percent say so in the latest poll.

"A primary thrust of the American political tradition is a fear of centralized government with too much power,'' Gallup notes. "And the U.S. capitalist economic system has given businesses wide latitude to operate with minimal government interference. But those values were put to the test last year as the imminent collapse of several major U.S. corporations threatened to drive the country into an economic depression. The government responded by infusing some of these failing companies with cash and in some cases taking on significant ownership in the companies....

"The change in administrations from Republican to Democratic and the government's additional actions to stabilize failing companies or address other economic problems since early December have not caused fear of big government to escalate any further beyond what was the case late last year,'' Gallup concludes.

The latest findings come from a survey of 1,007 adults conducted March 27-29, with a possible margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Bank Profits: Sign Of Recovery, Or Blip On Screen?

Bank of America on Monday became the latest of the nation's big banks to post better-than-expected earnings results. Does this mean the banking sector is finally out the woods? Here, an attempt to tackle that and other questions.