President Obama may be popular with the public, but economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal give him and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner failing grades for their efforts to revive the economy. A majority of the 49 economists polled told surveyors they were dissatisfied with the Obama team’s economic policies; on average, they gave him a grade of 59 out of 100, while Geithner got just 51. (Fed chief Ben Bernanke, meanwhile, scored a respectable 71.) The Journal does cast a somewhat suspicious light on the judgmental economists, however, remarking that many of them “have been continually surprised by the depth of the downturn…On average, they expect the downturn to end in October. Last month, they said the bottom would arrive in August.”

Forbes’ list of billionaires has taken on an unusually macabre tinge this year. From German pharma king Adolf Merckle, who committed suicide in January after running up huge debts gambling on risky short positions, to India’s Anil Ambani, who lost $31.9 billion, or 79 percent of his fortune, as shares of his companies collapsed, the annual article makes for an addictive read. Overall, 793 made the list, a 30 percent decline; of 752 who retained their status, 87 percent saw their personal wealth tumble. Most shocking: Their collective net worth is now $2.4 trillion, down a whopping $2 trillion. David Geffen, whose net worth has fallen 25 percent to $4.5 billion, sums it up: “I don’t think we’ve hit the bottom. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Dow fell below 6000…I think [unemployment] will reach 15 percent or 16 percent by the end of the year.”

Two days after instructing the government to ignore President’s Bush’s signing statements, Obama has issued one of his own. In the statement—a direction to executive branch officials about how to implement the legislation—he reserves the right to bypass dozens of disputed provisions in the $410 billion omnibus spending bill. Obama writes that a provision instructing money not to be spent on any UN peacekeeping mission if it means putting US troops under a foreign commander “raises constitutional concerns by constraining my choice of particular persons to perform specific command functions in military missions.” He also takes on whistle-blower protections for federal employees; negotiations with other countries; what agencies should include in budget requests; and allowing money to be reallocated to a different program only with the approval of a congressional committee (an “impermissible forms of legislative aggrandizement”).

Watch out, John Thain: Andrew Cuomo has new details on Merrill Lynch’s bonus debacle. The New York attorney general is accusing the securities firm, bought by Bank of America on Jan. 1, of “misleading” Congress about when directors decided to pay out $3.6 billion in bonuses. On Nov. 24, as Merrill was piling up a $15 billion fourth-quarter net loss, a Merrill lawyer told Rep. Henry Waxman that bonus decisions hadn’t yet been made—though the firm’s compensation committee had voted two weeks earlier to move the bonus payments up from January to December. Also in Cuomo’s court filing today, he drops the bomb that Thain, Merrill’s chairman and CEO, “was told that he would lose any chance of succeeding [Ken] Lewis as CEO of Bank of America if he continued pressing Merrill for a 2008 bonus of as much as $40 million,” The Wall Street Journal reports. In the end, neither Lewis nor Thain collected a 2008 bonus, and Thain resigned from BofA in late January.

New day, new ideas: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner wants to boost our primary line of credit to the International Monetary Fund by $90 billion to give emergency support to the world’s struggling economies. The proposal, which requires congressional approval, offers a hint of the administration’s global economy strategy ahead of the G-20 summit in London on April 2. While Washington would expand its line of credit to the IMF to $100 billion from $10 billion, other countries would also be expected to boost their funds, including China, which so far hasn’t chipped in so much as a penny. If all goes as planned, the IMF will have $500 billion to loan, a ten-fold increase from its old budget. Geithner will push the plan this weekend at a finance ministers’ meeting in London.

Less than a year after besting Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, President Obama is setting up a new panel to ensure all federal agencies take into account how their policies affect girls and women. “I sign this order not just as a president, but as a son, as a grandson, a husband and a father,” Obama said this afternoon as he signed an executive order creating the White House Council on Women and Girls. “I saw my grandmother work her way up to become one of the first women bank vice presidents in the state of Hawaii, but I also saw how she hit a glass ceiling—how men no more qualified than she was kept moving up the corporate ladder ahead of her.” The chairwoman of the council will be the president’s friend and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett; Tina Tchen, director of public liaison at the White House, will serve as executive director.

Is China's economy chugging along or failing victim to the global meltdown? With differing signals, it's hard for economists to figure out. On the one hand, exports dropped by 25 percent last month—a record. But on the other hand, the country's domestic investment surged. Investors are just as wary as analysts. "The uncertainty has produced sometimes violent swings in stock markets, particularly commodity markets, with each contradictory hint of China's economic health and speculation about further government spending," the New York Times reports.

Who didn't see this coming? Star magazine reports that Sarah Palin's 18-year-old daughter, Bristol, has broken off her engagement with her child's father, Levi Johnston. His sister Mercede told the tabloid that "Levi tries to visit Tripp every single day, but Bristol makes it nearly impossible. She tells him he can't take the baby to our house because she doesn't want him around 'white trash'!" She also claims that Bristol ended their relationship more than a month ago, despite Palin's daughter proclaiming all was well in an interview last month with Greta Van Susteren. Their child, Tripp, is two months old. If the report is true, what will Levi do with the tattoo of Bristol's name he has on his ring finger?

Police in Germany killed a school shooter this morning who had fired randomly at fellow students, killing at least 15 victims. "He went into the school with a weapon and carried out a bloodbath," said the local police chief. "I've never seen anything like this in my life." The suspect—identified as a recent graduate named "Tim K."—was found after he hijacked a car. When police caught up to him, he shot two bystanders before officers returned fire.

The New York Times op-ed page has tapped the frighteningly talented Ross Douthat to replace the, well, frightening Bill Kristol. The Columbia Journalism Review’s blog reprints a memo saying that Douthat will join The Times in April and take over a Monday column opposite Paul Krugman. Douthat is the author, with Reihan Salam, of Grand New Party. His writing focuses often on politics, religion, and the movies.

The Obamas haven't spent two months in their new digs but already the opposition is gearing up for a rematch. A small political group in Connecticut claims to have launched the first donation-collecting effort to draft Sarah Palin to run for president in 2012. The FEC has confirmed the "2012 Draft Sarah Committee" is the first to do so, founder Paul Streitz told the Associated Press. Funds raised--$3,000 so far--will be used for "grassroots organizing." Palin has not expressed explicit interest in running for president, though she has established a PAC, seen as a way of maintaining her visibility.

Horrible news from Alabama, where Michael McClendon went on a shooting spree in two towns in the south of the state yesterday, killing at least 10 before turning the gun on himself at a metals plant. The Alabama Department of Safety says police are investigating at least four separate shootings, all by McClendon. The rampage began late Tuesday afternoon in the town of Samson, where the gunman killed five people in one house and one each in two others. He also wounded a state trooper, shooting at his car seven times, and then killed a person at a supply store and another at a service station, before going to a metals plant where he wounded the town police chief and killed himself. Among the dead are McClendon's grandparents and aunt and uncle. 

President Obama and congressional Democrats are trying to unite in an effort to take away a key Republican talking point: that they've become the party of pork and earmarks. "The awarding of earmarks to private companies is the single most corrupting element of this practice, as witnessed by some of the indictments and convictions we have seen," Obama said at the White House today (though he added that earmarks for "public entities" were acceptable). But is the president walking the talk? "Obama made his statement even as he was prepared to sign a $409.6 billion omnibus budget bill which carries with it thousands of the same sort of projects he wants to restrain," according to Politico. "I am signing an imperfect omnibus bill because it is necessary for the ongoing functions of government," Obama said in his defense.

In well-isn’t-this-adorable news, actress Mandy Moore has quietly married “New York, New York” singer Ryan Adams in a small ceremony in Savannah, Ga. After their engagement was announced this February, 24-year-old Moore said she hoped the wedding would be “less of a big deal” and “slip by unnoticed” from the typically paparazzi-heavy celebrity bashes. In a recent issue of Marie Claire, Moore calls Adams “a good egg. I’m in awe of him—his brain, his passion. He’s truly one of a kind.”

You might want to stop searching for cute photos of cats unless you want to get bombarded with PETA ads. Google is rolling out a new feature for its advertising network called "Interest-Based Advertising," (also known as behavior targeting) which will tailor ads for users based on browsing and search histories. "Previous interaction" ads will also aggravate the easily-tempted—if you browse, but do not purchase items on shopping sites, future ads will remind you of the products. To be fair, Google allows users to control their privacy settings and opt-out of future sidebar notices, while Yahoo and AOL have similar systems in place without the same consideration.

The immigration controversy just became more heated. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, known throughout some circles for tough enforcement of immigration laws, is currently being investigated by the Department of Justice for discrimination and unconstitutional searches and seizures. The timing is impeccable: the House Judiciary Committee Chairman and leaders of several activist groups, who were calling for the investigation, were set to hold a rally today at the Capitol, where they would present a petition 35,000 signatures strong against the lawman.

Bernard Madoff’s scheming began over 20 years ago. It ends today, with the financial conman expected to plead guilty to all criminal charges against him. It came to light this week that Madoff sustained the scheme by creating false and fraudulent documents and moving millions of dollars between banks to create an illusion of trading. The 11 felonies against him include securities fraud, money laundering, and perjury. He faces up to 150 years.

George W. Bush is gone from office but not from the hearts and minds of his aides. Loyalists Dana Perino, Ari Fleischer, and Karl Rove, among others, are continuing to come to the ex-president's defense. "Even though Bush is keeping quiet in Texas before heading out on a lucrative speaking tour, an informal network of former aides is keeping his views in the political bloodstream, defending his legacy in TV appearances and backgrounding reporters about his record," Politico reports. The aides admit that fixing the impression of one of the least popular presidents in history is an uphill battle, but it's a fight they welcome. "We do what we can, and we believe that history will get it right in the end," Perino said.

Around Christmas time, commentators discovered that Miracle on 34th St. was a film, in part, about subprime lending. Now, upon revisiting Lorraine Hansberry’s classic play, A Raisin in the Sun, Henry Louis Gates Jr. discovers that it too resonates newly with our present crisis. “ A Raisin in the Sun, which opened on March 11, 1959, is about deferred gratification, its merits and its necessity if black America is ever going to catch up economically to the rest of the country and take our rightful place in the larger American middle class. Why talk about an old play in the midst of the greatest economic crisis since the Depression? Because this is precisely the time for us to do some very hard thinking about how the downturn is going to reshape the class structure of black America, and what we—within the race—can do about it. And Raisin holds clues.”

The good news: The Senate has given its final approval to a $410 billion omnibus spending bill to fund most of the federal government through 2009. The bad news (for some people): The legislation’s still laden with pork. The final bill—which was approved on a voice vote after 62 senators voted to cut off debate, overcoming strong Republican opposition and a few Democratic defections—includes thousands of earmarks inserted by members of both parties. The president is expected to sign the bill, though he’s said he has misgivings about the earmarks and will make an announcement about reforming the practice on Wednesday morning.

A few months ago, it seemed banks couldn’t do enough for taxpayer money. Now, some want to give it back. According to The New York Times, several banks, including Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo, are complaining about onerous restrictions attached to the bailout money and plan to return it as soon as regulators set up a process to accept the funds. Restrictions include slashing dividends, allowing shareholders to vote on executive pay, canceling employee training exercises, and withdrawing job offers to foreign citizens. The Times reports “One of the biggest concerns of the banks is that the program lets Congress and the administration pile on new conditions at any time.”

Apple has shrunk the size of its signature product--again. This morning the company unveiled a smaller iPod Shuffle that's less than the size of an AA battery. The device fits 1,000 songs and can read titles, artists back to the listener. The new Shuffle is too tiny for controls, so designers moved them to the headphone cord.

You may have 5,000 friends on Facebook, but do any of them only speak Arabic? The social networking site originally intended for Harvard is now branching out into the Middle East by launching an Arabic version. Currently, the English site has 900,000 users in Egypt, 250,000 users in Saudi Arabia, and over 300,000 in Lebanon--but that's nothing compared to the 250 million people worldwide who speak Arabic. "It's potentially huge," said the site's director of localization. Facebook is also adding Hebrew as a language option.

President Obama’s nominee to chair the National Intelligence Council has ended his bid, but he’s not going down quietly: In a statement after his withdrawal, Chas Freeman wrote, “The libels on me and their easily traceable email trails show conclusively that there is a powerful lobby determined to prevent any view other than its own from being aired,” referring to the Israel lobby. Freeman has been, at times, a harsh critic of Israel, but was also criticized for his connections to the Saudi government and for statements he had made about China—he apparently supported the Chinese government’s crackdown on pro-democracy protestors at Tiananmen Square. Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, is taking credit for Freeman’s defeat.

Can the Republican National Committee’s first African American chairman make it two months in office? Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire reports that, according to “Republican insiders,” Steele will likely face a no-confidence vote on March 31 after a special election for a House seat in New York, regardless of whether the GOP wins said seat. Katon Dawson, who came in second to Steele for the RNC chairmanship, is said to be organizing the vote and to already have several state-party chairmen on board.

Viktor Ivanov, the head of Russia's anti-narcotics service has admitted that his country is the world's biggest consumer of Afghan heroin, the Independent writes. Russia has 2.5 million addicts out of a population 140 million strong—about one addict for every 50 working age Russians. Addiction costs Russia up to 3 percent of its annual gross domestic product, Ivanov estimated. Thirty thousand Russians die from drug use each year. Ivanov said he was in favor of spraying with pesticides Afghanistan's poppy fields, which produce 93 percent of the world's heroin and have seen 44-fold increase in production since 2001, and blamed the war on terror for Russia's increasing addiction. A Human Rights Watch report has criticized Russia's drug treatment programs, which ban methadone therapy, regard needle exchange points as controversial, and put addicts who ask for help on a "narcological register" that is available to the police.

Britain is trying to plan the G20 summit in London, but is having trouble getting in touch with the Obama administration, the Independent reports. Yesterday, Sir Gus O'Donnell, Britain's most senior civil servant said, "There is nobody in there. You cannot believe how difficult it is." Downing Street immediately began to back pedal, insisting that the comments had been taken out of context and calling the relationship between Britain and the US "very good and close." O’Donnell was stressing the importance of a permanent civil service, like Britain’s, rather than one like the U.S.’s, which turns over with every administration.

More details are surfacing about what sparked the incident between Rihanna and Chris Brown. TMZ reports that it was allegedly 40-year-old Tina Davis, Brown's producer and manager, who sent the text messages that caused the singer to become enraged the night of the Grammy Awards. Los Angeles cops said the messages were from "a woman Brown had a previous sexual relationship with." According to E! News, the couple is in a Santa Monica studio recording a duet. Meanwhile, in a potentially awkward upcoming moment, Chris Brown is still nominated for the Favorite Male Singer award at Nickelodeon's Kid's Choice Awards, set to air March 28.

Meet Khamisa Sawadi, a 75-year-old widow who has been sentenced to 40 lashes for the crime of "mingling" with men who weren't her relatives. Who were these men? Her husband's nephew and his business partner, both aged 24, who she met with and asked for five loaves of bread. The men also received prison sentences and lashes. Some Saudi commentators have accused the religious police of going overboard.

With the economy melting down, it’s been easy to forget about other looming catastrophes. Here's one: Up to 50 percent of the fuels emitted over the past 200 years have been absorbed by the world's oceans, and emissions since the Industrial Revolution have increased the acidity of the sea by about 30 percent. According to British scientist Carol Turley this spike in acidity could lead to a "mass extinction" among underwater wildlife, which would threaten humans' food supply. While some take issue with Turley's claim, saying that overfishing will affect sea animals before Ph levels do, a bay off the coast of Naples, Italy supports her prophecy. The Bay of Naples has been over-acidified thanks to volcanic CO2 vents, and many sea creatures are in short supply. Turley will be chairing a session on ocean acidification at the Copenhagen Climate Change Congress.

Light at the end of the tunnel, is that you? Yesterday's huge one-day rally, the best this year has seen, appeared to boost this morning's numbers, as the Dow briefly rose past 7,000. Citigroup extended its gains up 16 percent today, which appears to be continued success off yesterday's announcement of their 2009 profits. Other financial stocks had positive momentum as well, with Bank of America up 11 percent and J.P. Morgan Chase rising 4.4 percent.