WASHINGTON – In this week’s address, President Barack Obama reiterated his call for comprehensive reforms to the financial system including commonsense rules of the road and a Consumer Financial Protection Agency that will advocate for everyday Americans. The President also urged the Senate to remain strong and resist the pressure of those who wish to preserve the status quo.

The audio and video will be available online at www.whitehouse.gov at 6:00 am ET, Saturday, March 20, 2010.

Remarks of President Barack Obama As Prepared for Delivery Weekly Address March 20, 2010

On Monday, the Banking Committee of the United States Senate will debate a proposal to address the abuse and excess that led to the worst financial crisis in generations.  These reforms are essential.  As I’ve urged over the past year, we need common-sense rules that will our allow markets to function fairly and freely while reining in the worst practices

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12:39 P.M. EDT

Q    Thank you so much.  Thank you, Ms. Weymouth, for your hospitality, and thank you all for coming.  This is our cover subject.  We tried to make the picture a little bigger.

MRS. OBAMA:  I know, right.  (Laughter.)

Q    But I will say Newsweek has been publishing for 77 years, and I believe this is the first time within six weeks or so we’ve had both a husband and a wife write the cover story.  So — (laughter) — I know you’ll –  

MRS. OBAMA:  So whose was better, though?  (Laughter.)  That’s ultimately how spouses operate, right? (Laughter.)

Q    That’s a very good point, that’s a very good point.  So with all this “first” stuff and living in the White House, forget it.  It’s the Newsweek –

MRS. OBAMA:  This is the one.

Q    It’s the Newsweek cover.

MRS. OBAMA:  I agree.

Q    Why this issue?  Why childhood obesity, of all the things you could have

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This bit from Time magazine gets right at the central problem of the Obama administration's reset policy with Russia - it just isn't being reciprocated when there are so many advantages to keeping Washington as the great enemy.

But inside the Russian government, the trend was going in the opposite direction. Medvedev and other liberals still felt trust for Obama and seemed ready to meet him halfway. But conservatives -- mainly old-school apparatchiks, security chiefs and former KGB officers like Putin -- began to express their doubts about the reset in relations. "It's been frustrating," the U.S. senior official tells TIME on condition of anonymity. "We came in with an aggressive reset mentality, and it was not necessarily shared by everyone in the Russian government. The Russians are overwhelmed by all the things we want to do tomorrow, and they say, Let's take time."

Rogozin puts the matter more

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Owen Matthews at Newsweek has been writing some hard-hitting stuff on Russia lately - namely the take down of Medvedevian faux modernization in that recent cover story.  In this latest piece, Matthews conjures the irresistible James Bond comparison of Vladimir Putin as Dr. No, meaning that it is the aim of Russian foreign policy to say "nyet" to as many initiatives pursued by the broader international community as possible, with the principle goal of achieving leverage, and, according to argument, the only way to stay relevant in global affairs.  Think of it as a policy of constructive disruption - Russia applies its foreign policy to the creation of problems, and then request political concessions in return for their offers to help with the solution ... one reason why there are so many critics of the Obama administration's reset policy ...

VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN:  Mr. President, thank you for that lovely introduction.  And thank you for hosting me at such a world-class center for higher learning.  It’s been a long time since I’ve been back on campus.  I was a mere child, a 31-year-old Senator when I was here the first time.  But it’s a privilege to be back. 

The past few days being back in Israel has been wonderful.  It’s — it’s been an honor to be here, and it’s been — I wanted everyone to know with whom I spoke, and all of you to know, the deep friendship and kinship I feel as well as President Obama feels for this magnificent country.  I should probably be used to it by now, but I’m always struck every time I come back by the hospitality of the Israeli people.  No matter how long I’ve been away — and I imagine you’ve

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I reported previously on the DiscoverCard Small Business Watch, i.e. monitoring small businesses with cash flow issues. As seen in the graph below (courtesy of Clusterstock – Chart of the Day), the situation has improved somewhat, although 49% of owners have still experienced cash flow issues in the past 90 days.

Without a turnaround in this situation, small businesses will not create jobs. And this is key to the overall economic recovery as small businesses are responsible for more than 60% of employment. When asked if they are likely to hire new employees if offered a $5,000 tax credit, such as the one proposed by the Obama administration, 69% said that it was “not very likely” or “not at all likely,” 15% said they would be “very likely” to hire, 10% said they would be “somewhat likely,” and 6% weren’t sure.

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I reported previously on the DiscoverCard Small Business Watch, i.e. monitoring small businesses with cash flow issues. As seen in the graph below (courtesy of Clusterstock - Chart of the Day), the situation has improved somewhat, although 49% of owners have still experienced cash flow issues in the past 90 days.

Without a turnaround in this situation, small businesses will not create jobs. And this is key to the overall economic recovery as small businesses are responsible for more than 60% of employment. When asked if they are likely to hire new employees if offered a $5,000 tax credit, such as the one proposed by the Obama administration, 69% said that it was “not very likely” or “not at all likely,” 15% said they would be “very likely” to hire, 10% said they would be “somewhat likely,” and 6% weren’t sure.

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George Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece, who has just returned from meetings in Washington with US officials and President Obama, sits with Charlie Rose to discuss the Greek debt malaise.

A link to the transcript of the interview follows at the end of the post

Click here or on the image below to view the video.

Click here for a transcript of the interview.

Source: Charlie Rose, March 10, 2010.

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The pills that I thought were tranquilizers turned out to be vitamins, and although I am on the verge of some kind of mental breakdown because of the mix-up, I feel great!

Turning to the old tried and true, I soon learned that I had started too late, and I was not nearly drunk enough to have properly anesthetized my nerves when I chanced to read Agora Financial’s 5- Minute Forecast report that “The CBO’s latest numbers reveal that President Obama’s proposed fiscal 2011 budget would add $9.7 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years.”

My hands shook and my guts churned at the horrific prospect of adding $9.7 trillion to the money supply, which means (I gulp in horror at the prospect) inflation in pieces like you never saw! Yikes!

I mean, (my voice rising in pitch and volume) the entire GDP of the USA is about $14 trillion,

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Government spending is out of control, and President Obama seems to at least recognize it…even if his administration is doing little to remedy it.

Instead, his efforts to rein in spending seem concentrated on health care reform, despite the fact that it’s such a convoluted and expensive proposition. Health care reform can’t help but invite the twin evils of confusion and corruption to the bargaining table.

It’s enough to make you start to appreciate the evils you already know.

You Know it’s Bad When the Current System Looks Good originally appeared in the Daily Reckoning. The Daily Reckoning, offers a uniquely refreshing, perspective on the global economy, investing, gold, stocks and today's markets. Its been called "the most entertaining read of the day."

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