Your customized news for Wed, Feb 22, 2012

Senior Federal Reserve officials are injecting themselves into a noisy debate over how to solve the housing crisis, drawing criticism from some lawmakers who say the Fed has no business straying from its traditional role as the U.S. central bank.

Debate over the rescue plan for Greece now shifts to the International Monetary Fund, which must decide whether it is willing to risk more money on a new bailout effort that the fund's own analysis shows has a strong possibility of failing.

The year was 1985, and I was excited to start work as a career counselor. My father felt that what most helped him heal his Holocaust scars was his work. So, I was eager to help other people find well-suited work.

"Three years ago, a newly elected President Obama told America that if Congress approved his plan to borrow nearly a trillion dollars, he would hold unemployment below 8 percent."

— Mitt Romney, Feb. 4, 2012

President Obama on Wednesday plans to propose a major overhaul of the nation's corporate tax code, an election-year gambit that is likely to draw a contrast over a key policy issue with the Republicans vying to replace him.

- Get excited, wonks: the CBO has launched its new Web site.

- The forgetting pill erases painful memories forever.

- The ultimate Barack Obama video timeline.

- "They're talking about how to end racism, I bet."

For the first time since the financial crisis, the Dow passed 13,000 on Tuesday. I've always liked this observation from Warren Buffett:

In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency — the independent office that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — has released a new plan to unwind the government-backed mortgage giants and help strengthen the private mortgage market: