Late this afternoon, the Treasury Department is scheduled to announce the results of so-called “stress tests” applied to America’s 20 largest banks. The idea is to determine how well they are prepared to handle further downturns in the economy.

The topic…

Tim Geithner: Is second time the charm? (Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty)

The American public rightly is skeptical about the way the first $350 billion in Troubled Assets Relief Program funds were spent. Now comes the Obama administration with a new name for the…

President George W. Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Over the past 70 days, federal officials have doled out more than $250 billion in public money as part of the massive Wall Street rescue package passed…

Last week’s 18 percent stock market plunge was sparked by fear that the American economy is headed into a deep recession driven by a disastrous worldwide freeze-up of the credit system. Monday’s 11 percent rally reflected hope that the industrial…

In a recent experiment, the Treasury Department’s tax watchdogs tested the competence of a small sample of commercial income tax preparers. The result: The preparers made mistakes on two-thirds of the returns.

So why, it’s worth asking, do taxpayers pay preparers an average…

The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve rode to the rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the weekend, promising to lend freely to the giant mortgage companies and provide capital if necessary.
The government’s goal was to fend off…