Donald Trump, photo by Gage Skidmore

WASHINGTON – American business mogul and likely presidential hopeful, Donald Trump, has made headlines numerous times over the last few weeks after publically lashing out at political heads, including both President Bush and President Obama.

In the latest outburst, Mr. Trump criticized Rep. Mitt Romney during an interview on the CNN show “State of the Union” that aired earlier today.

After being asked by the CNN reporter Candy Crowley why Trump is preferable to Mitt Romney for Republicans, Trump characterized Romney as “a small-business guy,” going on to say, “I’m much bigger than this man and have a much, much bigger net worth. I mean my net worth is many, many, many times Mitt Romney,” when asked who was a better businessman.

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WASHINGTON—Early this Saturday morning, the United States House of Representatives voted 235 to 189 in favor of trimming $61-billion in federal spending costs off of the $1.2-trillion federal budget for fiscal 2011.

The Republican controlled House vowed to cut spending in a bid to avoid any future tax hike, even adding new limitations to the access of money that would have been earmarked to support Obama’s health-care reform plan.

Democrats will not accept the spending concessions, and as an early March spending deadline looms, the government could be shut out if lawmakers don’t reach a consensus on spending.

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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.

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The Obama administration today unveiled a proposal to create new economic incentives that are aimed at assisting middle class Americans during this difficult economic time.

President Obama is proposing to double tax credits, force the creation of IRAs (these are workplace retirement savings vehicles) in firms for employees, and to limit student educational loan payments at 10-percent of total annual gross income, additional tax-cuts for families that are overseeing the care of elderly relatives, among other initiatives.

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We’ve seen a lot of things happen in 2009, some things were expected, some were not, some were shocking, and some were simply never seen or heard of before.

From the biggest Ponzi scheme ever seen in U.S. history, to the global financial credit crisis, to historic health care reform championed by the first black President of the United States.

A lot has happened in 2009, and we’ve compiled it all up for you with the top 8 topics of the entire year.

1. The Global Financial Crisis

With the near collapse of the global credit market, and unprecedented actions being taken by global leaders to stave off a global economic meltdown, the financial crisis was plastered in the media almost every day and even became a primary presidential voting issue, thereby making it the story of 2009. With billions provided in emergency bailout loans to financial intermediaries, Wall Street was still paying millions in bonuses with outstanding government loans, while millions of Americans faced forclosurer and high unemployment rates. The Obama administration later moved to block $165-million in AIG bonuses alone and later blocked bonuses from being paid while the financial intermediaries had outstanding government debt. Warren Buffet’s company Berkshire Hathaway even reported its biggest loss ever (only its second loss in its history). There were also opportunities for firms to act on, such as Disney who acquired Marvel Entertainment for $4B. Despite households losing significant amounts of money primairly from their positions in risky equity positions, some did profit (though not for too long)…Bearnie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison following a conviction for operating the biggest Ponzi scheme ever seen in U.S. history that saw $50 billion defrauded from investors.

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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.

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President Obama just finished delivering a speech from NY’s Federal Hall, a day before the anniversary of the collapse of Goldman Sachs.

Obama urged Congress to pass a sweeping bill by the end of this year to help ensure firms don’t make irresponsible trades or make irresponsible lending decisions.

Obama said, “I did not run for president to intervene in financial markets,” but gave a stern warning that, “Those on Wall Street cannot resume taking risks without regard for consequences, and expect that next time, American taxpayers will be there to break their fall.”

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Update: The U.S. Transportation Department has in fact just announced the Cash for Clunkers program will end on Mon Aug 24, 2009. The department said it believes there will be enough cash left in the program for dealers up until the 8pm Monday deadline.

Reports indicate the Obama administration is looking at slowing down or even ending the Cash for Clunkers program with an announcement coming tomorrow.

The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) today announced it wants to see the Obama administration begin to shut the program down because its dealers could be left on the hook with rebates owing to customers if the program runs out of allocated funds.

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PepsiCo has just announced a massive $1 billion dollar Russian investment over a three-year time frame.

The new $1 billion investment brings Pepsi’s total investment in Russia to $4 billion, according to a statement released by Pepsi today.

Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi said today, “This investment reflects very clearly our great confidence in Russia and our long-term commitment to this very important market,”

The Pepsi investment marks the first significant foreign investment in Russia post the Georgia conflict in August 2008.

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Top U.S. Trade Representative Ronald Kirk said today that the U.S. would not try to redraft NAFTA. Kirk said, “The president has said we will look at all of our options, but I think they can be addressed without having to reopen the agreement,”

Redrafting NAFTA was a campaign promise made by Obama that was aimed to address labour union concerns of NAFTA hurting American jobs.

During the U.S. campaign, a leaked memo indicated Obama’s economic adviser told Canadian Consul General Georges Rioux that Obama’s statements should not be taken seriously Read the full story