NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The wear-and-tear of a 22-month campaign may seem like a Caribbean vacation next to what awaits President-elect Barack Obama when he takes over as the 44th president of the United States.

In his first year in office, he will have to tackle the mountain of complex and unprecedented problems facing the country. His agenda will be driven by the need to stabilize the financial system and the pained economy.

Since mid-September, which was the last time CNNMoney.com took a crack at gauging what No. 44's economic to-do list would be, the financial world — and Washington — have been turned on their heads.

Click here to read more at CNNMoney.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) – In his Democratic convention acceptance speech sixteen years ago, Bill Clinton declared that as one of the first initiatives of his administration, he would "take on the health care profiteers and make health care affordable for every family."

Two years later, his "Health Security Act" was dead, never having gotten even as far as a vote in Congress.

Nearly two decades of soaring premiums and reduced coverage later, health care is again at the top of the reform agenda in Washington. Barack Obama and John McCain have each issued their own plans for sweeping reform: Obama's would rely on a new National Health Insurance Exchange to allow more businesses and individuals to access cheaper pool coverage, while McCain's would replace the tax deductibility of employer-sponsored coverage with a flat-rate $2,500 per person, per year tax break to be used toward health insurance.

Full story

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) – Negotiators from Capitol Hill and the Bush administration - after working well past midnight - are set to resume talks Saturday over a proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial system.

The talks, which broke at 1:40 a.m., involve staffers from Congress, the Treasury Department and the White House, a senior administration official told CNN.

The exact status of the legislation and the next steps remained unclear, but officials say they face pressure to agree on a bill and vote very soon.

Fewer than a dozen "unresolved issues" remain, a spokesman for a key lawmaker said Saturday.

Full story

President Bush is urging Congress to pass the rescue plan as is.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) – The Bush administration's proposed $700 billion financial rescue took fuller shape on Monday as lawmakers debated whether to add provisions to protect taxpayers while banks and other companies called for expanding its scope beyond mortgages.

Democrats want the measure to include independent oversight, homeowner protections and limits on executive compensation.

"We will not simply hand over a $700 billion blank check to Wall Street and hope for a better outcome," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Sunday.

Watch: What's the latest on the bank bailout plan?

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson called on Congress to move swiftly. "We need this to be clean and quick," Paulson said.

Full story

Voters are focused on the continuing pain at the pump.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) – The high price of gasoline is voters' top economic concern, according to a poll released Friday.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll found that 35% said price of gasoline was their highest concern. That was followed by availability of good jobs (28%), high taxes (18%) and mortgages or home values (18%).

The poll was taken on Sept. 5-7 and surveyed 1,022 adults. It has a margin of error of three percentage points.

While energy concerns led the list, the percentage of respondents who said that high gas prices were causing them "financial hardship" fell to 63% from 75% in July.

Indeed, gas was selling at $3.67 on Friday - more than 80 cents higher than it was a year ago - but 40 cents below its high point in July.

Commodity investors have been worried that the high price of gasoline and other petroleum-derived fuels have been cutting into demand.

Volatile gas prices ticked upward Friday as Hurricane Ike threatened the north Texas coast

John McCain's running mate supports drilling but she has also tangled with Big Oil.

(Fortune) – Within hours of Senator John McCain picking Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, the talking heads of CNBC had coined a new term: "Palinomics." In a nutshell, the doctrine stands for expanding the search for domestic oil and gas as a solution to the energy crisis.

But while Palin might be a proponent of more drilling in Alaska, she's hardly a patsy of the oil industry. One theme at the Democratic convention was Republicans' cozy relationship with Big Oil. As Al Gore put it Thursday night, the industry has been "drilling [the GOP] for everything it's worth." But whatever you think of such a statement, it would be hard to say that about Sarah Palin.

Full story