The United States must live within its means once its economy recovers if it is to preserve global confidence in the U.S. dollar’s status, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Friday.

The Iraqi government said Saturday it has approved a contract with a British-Chinese consortium to develop a prized oil field in southern Iraq, a significant achievement for a country that has struggled to attract foreign investors despite its vast natural resource wealth.

Pushing back against his critics, President Barack Obama says overhauling the health care system, while helping millions of people, also will test whether policy makers can “serve the national interest despite the unrelenting efforts of the special interests.”

The federal government is reportedly investigating whether Toys R Us Inc. has improperly acted to discourage discounting and keep the prices consumers pay on baby products such as strollers and car seats higher than they otherwise may have been.

Toys “R” Us is facing a U.S. antitrust probe over whether the toy retailer used its market clout to stifle discounting by retail competitors and force consumers to pay higher prices for baby products, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

Regulators have shut down San Joaquin Bank in California, marking the 99th failure this year of a federally insured bank.

What is $1.42 trillion? It’s more than the total national debt for the first 200 years of the Republic, more than the entire economy of India, almost as much as Canada’s, and more than $4,700 for every man, woman and child in the United States.

The U.S. budget deficit hit a record $1.4 trillion in the just-ended fiscal year, the government said on Friday, as the deep recession and a series of bank rescues cut a gaping hole in public finances.

Regulators shut down San Joaquin Bank in California on Friday, marking the 99th failure this year of a federally insured bank.

The former top procurement official in George W. Bush’s administration was sentenced Friday to a year in prison for lying about his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.