Timothy Geithner

Cutting corporate tax rates and the deleting loopholes that let some companies pay little or nothing in taxes is just what most economists prescribe for the tangled U.S. tax code. So why isn't everyone cheering the plan President Obama unveiled Tuesday to do just that?

This week, the government took a big first step toward shutting down the Can't Lose Room in the Wall Street Casino. It's now one comment period away from enacting the Volcker Rule, which limits the kinds of risky investments banks can make with money insured by the U.S. taxpayer.

News reports said Treasury Secretary Geithner wanted to leave his post once debt negotiations were complete. With that milestone past, speculation now turns toward potential successors. The stakes are high, with unemployment at 9.2% and partisan theatrics as melodramatic as ever. Here are seven candidates that the president might do well to consider.

Citing unnamed sources, news outlets reported Thursday evening that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner might leave the Obama administration soon. In response to the rumors, Geithner insisted, "I live for this work.... I'm going to be doing it for the foreseeable future."

As a new week begins on Wall Street, nobody wants bank stocks, J.P. Morgan Chase hints at changes at the top, OPEC ministers tussle over crude, and airlines are in for some financial turbulence. In fact, the only good news is for France, which apparently won't lose the IMF over the DSK scandal.

State attorneys general and federal regulators are rushing to settle the robo-signing foreclosure mess created by the banks and get the real estate market back on its feet. But their proposals don't fully address the one of the fundamental problems of the crisis: Who really owns all those homes?

The administration's proposed revamp of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is actually an offering of multiple policy options, essentially passing the political hot potato to the Republicans. Problem is, any fix is sure to make mortgages costlier, with potential harm to the housing market.

When some new members of Congress recently said they oppose raising the U.S. debt limit, it triggered warnings of "catastrophic consequences." Indeed, the result wouldn't be pretty. But here's what's at stake as the country's debt burden swells every year.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was hospitalized Friday to undergo surgery for kidney stones, according to a MarketWatch report. Geithner, who was admitted into George Washington University hospital this morning, is expected to undergo surgery later today.

On the eve of an economic summit in South Korea, disturbing signs of discord are emerging over currency valuations and trade between the U.S. and its major trading partners. Failure to achieve an agreement could set off more "currency wars."