The U.S. dollar fell to five-month lows against a basket of currencies Friday as an advance in global equities and signs of an easing global recession drove investors to snap up higher-yielding currencies and riskier assets.

Global stocks rose and some equities markets posted 2009 highs, diminishing the safe-haven allure of dollar assets and sending the euro to a 2009 high against the dollar. A government report showed the U.S. economy contracted slightly less than initially estimated in the first quarter but the market had expected evidence of a shallower recession. Read the rest of this entry »

By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
Taxpayers are on the hook for an extra $55,000 a household to cover rising federal commitments made just in the past year for retirement benefits, the national debt and other government promises, a USA TODAY analysis shows.

The 12% rise in red ink in 2008 stems from an explosion of federal borrowing during the recession, plus an aging population driving up the costs of Medicare and Social Security. Read the rest of this entry »

By Liz Capo McCormick and Daniel Kruger

May 29 (Bloomberg) — They’re back.

For the first time since another Democrat occupied the White House, investors from Beijing to Zurich are challenging a president’s attempts to revive the economy with record deficit spending. Fifteen years after forcing Bill Clinton to abandon his own stimulus plans, the so-called bond vigilantes are punishing Barack Obama for quadrupling the budget shortfall to $1.85 trillion. By driving up yields on U.S. debt, they are also threatening to derail Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s efforts to cut borrowing costs for businesses and consumers. Read the rest of this entry »

Three men were accused of trying to threaten voters and block poll and campaign workers by the threat of force — one even brandishing what prosecutors call a deadly weapon.

Charges brought against three members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense under the Bush administration have been dropped by the Obama Justice Department, FOX News has learned. Read the rest of this entry »

Today, Microsoft released a security advisory warning of a serious unpatched DirectX vulnerability, which attackers have already begun exploiting on the Internet. The vulnerability affects DirectX 9.0 (and earlier versions) running on Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 computers. It does not seem to affect DirectX 10 running on Windows Vista or Server 2008 computers.