Government and Economy White House Predicts Zero Job Growth This Year Christina Romer, Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, expects the GDP to begin growing in the fourth quarter of this year, but she also expects unemployment to rise after the economy turns, saying the GDP must grow at 2.5% before unemployment improves. NYTimes.com Intense Bargaining Earns Banks Stress Test Concessions After two weeks of intense negotiations, the Fed scaled back the size of the capital hole facing some of the nation's biggest banks shortly before concluding its stress tests, using a measurement of bank-capital levels that resulted in much smaller capital... [Read Full Article]

  Government and Economy House Forgets Small Business in New Credit Card Reform Bill The Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights, which restricts some aggressive tactics by credit card companies, passed the House but doesn’t apply to small business credit cards even though such cards function the same way consumer credit cards do. BusinessWeek.com Stress-Tests Results Delayed With banks disputing the findings of the recent federal stress tests, the Fed and US banking regulators will now reveal the results on May 7 after the financial markets close. Bloomberg.com [Read Full Article]