Articles by Jeff Mason and Lisa Lambert

President Obama Backs Flexibility for States on Healthcare Law

President Barack Obama extended an olive branch on Monday to U.S. states struggling to implement his healthcare law, offering support for a proposal that would give them some flexibility in carrying out its key parts. Obama’s signature healthcare reform plan …

Warren Vows to End Financial ‘Tricks and Traps’ with New Consumer Agency

Wall Street critic Elizabeth Warren said Friday she accepted the job of setting up a consumer financial protection agency for U.S. President Barack Obama and declared that the time for financial “tricks and traps” was over. Obama was expected to …

BP Agrees to $20 Billion Claims Fund; Amount Not a Liability Cap

BP Plc Wednesday agreed to a demand by U.S. President Barack Obama to pay $20 billion into a special fund to handle claims from its huge Gulf of Mexico oil spill and said it was suspending payment of dividends this …

Obama to Name Gulf Oil Spill Panel; BP Safety Record Faulted

President Barack Obama will create a presidential commission to probe the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and energy giant BP said Monday it had “turned the corner” in its efforts to contain it. London-based BP Plc said its …

China, U.S. Try to Jumpstart U.N. Climate Change Talks

China laid out a plan to curb carbon emissions by 2020 and U.S. President Barack Obama called on all nations to act now to tackle global warming, as world leaders tried to inject momentum into climate change talks. With less …

UN Seeks Momentum in Climate Talks as Obama, Hu Speak

China and the United States, the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters, will try to ignite efforts Tuesday to secure a U.N. global warming pact as worries grow of a “dangerously close” deadlock in talks. U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese …

Obama to Push G20 Leaders to Rethink Global Economy

President Barack Obama said Sunday he would push world leaders this week for a reshaping of the global economy in response to the deepest financial crisis in decades. In Europe, officials kept up pressure for a deal to curb bankers’ …

Obama Vows Climate Action Despite Financial Crisis

Barack Obama said Tuesday that the United States would “engage vigorously” in climate change talks when he is president, and he pledged to work to reduce emissions sharply by 2020, despite the financial crisis. The Democratic president-elect, who regularly criticized …