Economic Stimulus Act

The U.S. commercial paper market grew in the latest week, resuming an expansion trend that supports signs of emerging economic growth, Federal Reserve data showed on Thursday.

The Treasury Department announced Thursday that it received net proceeds of $11.15 million from the sale of warrants to purchase common stock of Signature Bank. Treasury said it sold 595,829 warrants at $19 per warrant.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is joining the American International Group in a loss-sharing agreement that is part of the insurer s sale of its American Life Insurance Company unit to MetLife, Bloomberg News reports.

The Treasury Department did not adequately consider all options when bailing out troubled finance company GMAC and could have better protected taxpayers money, according to a report released Thursday.

* Bankruptcy could have put GMAC on sounder footing-report * Panel concerned about lack of Treasury exit strategy. * Treasury says chose least-cost GMAC restructuring path

The U.S. Treasury s decision against a bankruptcy restructuring for GMAC may have increased taxpayer bailout costs for the auto finance company and made it less viable, an oversight group said on Thursday.

In a move thats raising red flags among some consumer advocates, top negotiators for the Senate Banking Committee signaled Wednesday they favor establishing a new consumer financial protection agency within the Federal Reserve as part of a compromise financial regulation reform bill.

FEBRUARY DEFICIT: The government s monthly budget deficit hit an all-time high of $220.9 billion in February. DEFICIT PACE: The deficit for the first five months of the budget year, which began Oct. 1., totals $651.6 billion, 10.5 percent higher than the same period a year ago.

General Motors Co will pay back roughly $8 billion in debt to the United States and Canada before June and could go public in a way that would allow taxpayers to make a profit on the bailout, Chief Executive Ed Whitacre said on Wednesday.

The Federal Reserve, still dusting itself off from a fight that threatened to trim its powers, could emerge from a congressional overhaul of banking rules as the top cop over the nation s largest financial institutions.