The investment bank Morgan Stanley said today Germany, Europe’s largest economy, is considering exiting the European Monetary Union, as the country believes some European nations pose a significant risk to the country.

Germany is reportedly proposing a smaller bloc of European nations that are more economically sound to unite in a new and smaller monetary union.

Specifically, with the Greek debt bailout looming, Germany believes it is setting a bad precedent for other European members that are also heavily indebted and not well capitalized to seek their own bailouts.

Read the full story

U.S. President Barrack Obama will soon outline specific details about the efficient energy rebate program, the Home Star Program, which he has recently been promoting.

Under the program, people who renovate their homes with approved energy efficient equipment would be eligible for a rebate of up to $1,500. Eligible renovations include insulation, heaters, new windows, roofing, doors, among other renovations and equipment. Consumers would receive the rebates immediately from vendors, who would later be reimbursement by the government. Special financing for projects will also be offered through the program to help consumers complete more expensive projects.

Read the full story

GM Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre (left)

Breaking now: General Motors just said that it has made payments to both the U.S. Treasury and Canadian federal and Ontario provincial governments to start paying down the emergency government loans made by the respective countries.

GM confirmed today the company returned $192 million to Canada, and $1 billion the U.S. Treasury. Aggregately, GM still owes both nations $5.77 billion.

The Canadian government firstly committed $2.8 billion in emergency loans to the Canadian auto sector, a proportional amount based on Canada’s 20-percent North American auto sector market share.

Read the full story

President Obama today just wrapped up a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington urging the federal government to do more to help smaller businesses to help create jobs.

Obama’s new proposal aims at investing $50 billion for infrastructure, the removal of capital-gains taxes on new investments for up to a year, more investments in clean energy, and likely most importantly, a tax break for small businesses. The main hope, besides getting firms to increase capital spending, is to get small businesses to hire more people as U.S. unemployment remains above 10-percent.

Read the full story

General Motors announced today that it has lost $1.2 billion since emerging from bankruptcy protection through September 30, 2009.

The company says the number is far better than expected and that it is making progress towards change.

GM chief executive Fritz Henderson said today in a statement, “today’s results provide evidence of the solid foundation we are building for the new GM,”

Read the full story

American homes facing foreclosure were up 24% in Q1 of 2009. 804,000 homes got foreclosure notices, up from 650,000 in the same period last year. 191,000 properties completed foreclosure in Q1 2009.

The news comes as banks will start to reissue foreclosure notices after a government backed foreclosure break. The numbers are only expected to get worse.

President Obama is also set to put his mortgage plan into action, offering banks $75 billion in incentives to help curb the foreclosure crisis with modified loans.

The Canadian government announced plans today to offer GM, Chrysler up to $4 billion in bridge loans to continue operations.

Under the announced plan today, the Canadian government will earmark $1 billion for Chrysler, $250 million of witch will become available immediately, and an additional $500 million by sometime in April. Part of the deal, Chrysler must interest notes equal to 6.67% of the aggregate loan.

GM would receive the remaining $3 billion. Read the full story

GM CEO Rick Wagoner, 56, has just announced he will be stepping down from his post because of pressure from the Obama administration. Wagoner has worked at GM during his entire career, joining GM’s treasury department in 1977 immediately following earning his MBA from Harvard.

GM and Chrysler have already received $17.4 billion in loans since December 2008. GM and Chrysler collectively say they need an additional $21.6 billion in loans just to survive. Ford says it will not require any more government help to wither out the financial crisis.

The news comes as Obama is set to unveil his new round of emergency government bailout loans for the auto sector Monday 11AM EST. Obama says the big three have not yet done enough to restructure.

It is currently unclear as to who will replace Wagoner.

AIG has said today that its financial products division will in fact return $50 million in bonuses amid a public uproar given the U.S. fed has provided the failing company with $170 billion in aid.

15 AIG executives from the financial products’ is set to return $30 million, and the rest of the $50 million coming from other AIG division.

Obama has been widely criticized for the recent bill passed by The House of Representatives who imposed a 90% tax on bonuses aimed at executives who earned more than $250,000 of firms who got more than $5 billion in government aid.

In Q4 2008, AIG posted the largest corporate loss recorded in America, $61.7 billion.

American International Group (AIG), is planning to pay about $165 million in bonuses. Today, President Obama said at the White House he plans to explore every legal avenue to block the payments. Obama said today at the White House, “This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed…how do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers,”

However, blocking the payments is a very difficult challenge mainly because of existing contracts already in place between AIG and executives. Others argue failing to pay bonuses will drive the best talent to other firms or even out of the market.

AIG lost $40 billion in 2008. The Fed recently provided $173 billion (80% stake) in emergency government loans to AIG