$200 billion less: The Obama administration will lose $200 billion less than expected from the federal bailout program and is looking at using part of the savings to fund new job creation efforts. A Treasury official said that the administration now believes the cost of the financial rescue program will be at least $200 billion below the $341 billion estimate it made in August. The official said that the administration believes the losses incurred from the money already spent will total $42 billion. About half of those losses are expected to occur from the support provided to troubled automakers General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC; the other half will come from the rescue package put together for insurance giant American International Group. The $42 billion in projected losses from TARP spending that occurred in the 2009 budget year, which ended on Sept. 30, is a sharp improvement from the administration’s August estimate that those losses would total $110 billion. The loss figure represents the net loss to the government after subtracting earnings the government has received in interest and dividend payments.
OPEC ministers not likely to change production levels: Oil prices fell below $75 a barrel today as the dollar strengthened and several OPEC ministers said they don’t expect their group to change production levels at a meeting later this month. By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for January delivery was down 67 cents to $74.80 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost 99 cents to settle at $75.47 on Friday. Top oil officials from Libya, Kuwait, Algeria and Qatar said Saturday that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which supplies about 35 percent of the world’s crude, will likely leave output levels unchanged at the group’s next policy meeting on Dec. 22. Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, Ali Naimi, said Saturday that oil prices, which have bounced around the high $70s for about two months, were “perfect.”
