WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe said Saturday that Congress was not told the truth about the bailout of the nation’s financial system and should take back what is left of the $700 billion “blank check” it gave the Bush administration.

“It is just outrageous that the American people don’t know that Congress doesn’t know how much money he (Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson) has given away to anyone,” the Oklahoma Republican told the Tulsa World.

“It could be to his friends. It could be to anybody else. We don’t know. There is no way of knowing.” Read the full article

Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) — Alaska has enough natural gas trapped in ice formations beneath permanently frozen subsoil and offshore to heat more than 100 million homes for a decade, a U.S. report estimated.

Hydrates, crystalline structures consisting of gas and water locked below the permafrost, contain 85.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, the Interior Department’s U.S. Geological Survey said in a report released today.

“The hydrates have more potential for energy than all other fossil fuels combined,” Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said in a news conference. “This is a huge resource for energy and one cannot overstate that.”

Natural gas is considered a bridge fuel to cleaner energy because it produces fewer emissions of greenhouse gases, which are blamed for global warming, than coal and involves fewer hazards than nuclear reactors. Coal generates half of the U.S.’s power. Read the full article

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) — Former Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin sharply questioned expanding the federal economic bailout plan Thursday during her first extended remarks since the end of the presidential campaign.

Addressing fellow GOP governors and party leaders at the Republican Governors Association convention in Miami, Florida, Palin criticized the growing list of industries and others seeking federal assistance. Read the full article

Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) — Henry Paulson became Treasury secretary 28 months ago, when he was at the top of the financial world: Wall Street’s best-paid chief executive officer, capping his career with a high-profile sojourn in public service.

Today, two months before he leaves office, some say Paulson is a reduced figure, damaged by the financial-market meltdown that happened on his watch and by the government’s struggles to respond to it.

Like many others who have served in President George W. Bush’s administration — among them former Secretary of State Colin Powell and former Treasury chief Paul O’Neill — Paulson, 62, will leave office casting a smaller shadow than when he arrived.

“Paulson’s credibility has certainly been substantially diminished,” said Peter Wallison, who was general counsel at the Treasury under former President Ronald Reagan and is now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. “There has been a lot of shifting back and forth and he clearly hasn’t thought through much of these policies. He has lost a lot of confidence from the market from all of this.” Read the full article

THE LONDON SUNDAY TIMES - Investors in America are trying to figure out just what Barack Obama’s sweeping victory will mean for the economy – and for them. Here are a few guesses.

The president-elect meant it when he promised to redistribute income from families earning more than $250,000 (£155,000) a year to those earning $50,000 (£30,000) or less. Taxes on the “richer” families will go up to fund cheques that will be mailed to the lower earners who now pay no income taxes. Read the full article