A survey by Financial Executive International showed CFO optimism on the economy increased by 33 percent in the first quarter of 2010. 

Its Optimism Index plotted CFO's bright outlook at a 58.14, up from 38.96 a year ago, as they predict double-digit percentage increases in net earnings over the next 12 months. 

However, they still remain cautious in their outlook for the overall health of the economy, and they continue to examine and reevaluate staffing, layoffs, and compensation. Issues surrounding healthcare remain foremost on their minds as the new healthcare law is expected to create added costs for companies that may result in difficult sacrifices for employees. 

According to the survey, CFOs are anticipating an 8 percent increase in costs directly related to the healthcare law and they foresee that these added costs will force them to act in ways that could be detrimental to their employees or retirees. Over 60 percent of respondents said they may increase employee's co-pay as a result of the new law, 48 percent indicated they would need to reduce the quality of the health care, and 46 percent said they might have to reduce benefits.  

Senate Agriculture Chairman Blanche Lincoln, (D-Ark.) requested Friday an emergency designation of $1.25 billion to compensate black farmers who have been victims of discrimination. 

In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, (D-Nev.), Lincoln said she "strongly support efforts to include emergency funding needed to execute the administration’s settlement agreement in the fiscal year 2011 supplemental appropriations bill."  

The long-standing case, known as Pigford II, first settled during the Clinton administration, but never resolved, requires the Agriculture Department to compensate black farmers who say they faced discrimination by the Farm Service agency lending program between 1981 and 1996.

Farmers said they lacked access to much-needed capital to operate their farms. There is $100 million included in the 2008 Farm Bill and the Obama administration has requested an additional $1.15 billion for the settlement. 

A new agreement was reached in February and a settlement is in effect until May 30. 

"Every farmer in America should receive equal access and treatment in the delivery of USDA's programs and services," Lincoln said in a release. "Congress should move swiftly to provide the funding necessary to fulfill the settlement agreement and close this chapter on discrimination within USDA." 

Without closure on the issue, Lincoln said it's difficult to move forward on other policy and outreach work related to minority farmers and land owners. 

The provision has quickly developed into one of the most contentious parts of legislation aimed at regulating the multitrillion-dollar market.

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Leading lawmakers and analysts predict short-term improvement in the federal budget but forecast a sustained growth of debt. 

The ratio of the deficit to gross domestic product is expected to ease through 2014 -- declining from about 10 percent of GDP to 2.3 percent -- but costs spiral out of control after that, a new report released Friday by the Tax Policy Center predicted. 

Without major changes in budget policy, deficits are expected to climb to nearly 7 percent of GDP by 2020, more than twice the Congressional Budget Office's forecast, according to Bill Gale, co-director at the TPC and Alan Auerbach, an economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley. 

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A Senate bill to overhaul Wall Street makes consumer protection a top priority that will prevent abusive and deceptive practices. 

The bill focuses on holding credit providers accountable so "they can't trap customers with misleading terms buried in the fine print," Jen Psaki, White House deputy communications director, said Friday on her blog. 

President Barack Obama has been "clear from day one that a consumer agency must be independent, with independent authority, funding, rule-writing and enforcement," she wrote.  

Republicans are playing "Whac-a-Mole" with financial reform and the bill isn't about regulating dentists or grocers, Psaki wrote. 

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The White House fiscal commission has scheduled six meetings before it plans to produce its recommendations to reduce deficits in December.

The meeting dates, which are subject to change, are:

Wed., May 26 

Wed., June 30 

Wed., July 28 

Wed., Sept. 29 

Wed., Nov. 10 

Wed., Dec. 1

The May session will be on Capitol Hill, the commission's co-chairman Erskine Bowles said this week. Each meeting of the full commission will be broadcast live on the internet, said Conor McKay, a commission spokesman.

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Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) Friday said he believes the final version of the Senate's financial regulatory overhaul will be more robust than the House's version.

Brown, a populist Democrat who has been a leading voice on the Wall Street bill, has introduced an amendment to the bill that would limit the size of large financial firms so they do not become "too big to fail."

“It's going to be tougher than it is now," Brown said in an interview to air on Bloomberg's "Political Capital" Friday evening. "It's going to be tougher than the House bill. It'll come out of conference. It'll be something I'm proud to vote for and something the president is proud to sign."

Republicans lifted their filibuster to begin debate on the bill this week, saying that they scored key assurances from Democrats on closing what they say were loopholes that would have allowed for future bailouts of failed firms.

The House legislation, which passed last year, is considered to be tougher than the Senate's version in some ways, such as the structure of the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). But the Senate's bill is thought to more strictly regulate derivatives than the House's version.

House Democratic leaders have said they will conduct a conference to reconcile differences between the two pieces of legislation.

Cross-posted from Blog Briefing Room. 

Two weeks was the deadline tossed out Friday for the Senate to complete debate on a financial regulatory reform bill. 

Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said today he expects the measure will require two weeks of debate to iron out the remaining issues and deal with amendments. Votes on amendments are scheduled to begin Tuesday. 

Three cloture votes and a couple weeks of partisan rhetoric finally resulted in an agreement Wednesday to move forward on the legislation. Dodd and Senate Banking ranking member Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) became deadlocked on resolving any other issues on the bill and decided it was time to allow for floor debate. 

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) cautioned today that debate can't go on forever and at some point lawmakers would need to complete their work. Reid blamed a lost week on delays by Republicans. Debate began Thursday. 

The chamber has a full agenda including a budget resolution, which usually takes about a week of votes to complete. 

Dodd, Shelby and others said they were planning to work through the weekend to go through possible amendments -- there were 22 filed through Thursday -- in an effort to speed up the process. 

There is still plenty of heavy lifting on consumer protection agency and derivatives provisions in the bill but lawmakers were optimistic that some progress could be made before next week. Dodd expects to release a revised version sometime next week to reflect any agreed upon changes. 

White House adviser Larry Summers on Friday predicted that past employment rates for certain men will not return after the recession. 

"The best way to put it is this: Forty years ago, one in 20 men [ages] 25 to 54, in America, was not working at a given point in time," he said. "Today, the number is not one in 20. It's one in five. And a good guess, based on extrapolations of trends in this area, is that when the economy recovers, five years from now, assuming we return to normal cyclical conditions, one in six men who are 25 to 54 will not be working at any point in time."

Summers's comment came at an event by the Center for American Progress on the American worker. 

A White House spokesman said Summers expects the overall unemployment rate to return to levels seen before the financial crisis. 

"Dr. Summers expects the unemployment rate to return to historically normal levels as reflected in the administration's economic forecast," said Matthew Vogel. "But even as our economy recovers, it is critical that we continue to address a variety of structural challenges ranging from decreased employment among men in some demographics, to the lower wages women earn relative to their educational backgrounds, to the long term trends in sectors like manufacturing."  

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