Announced today.

House leaders and the White House on Thursday announced a tentative agreement on an economic stimulus package of roughly $150 billion that would pay stipends of $300 to $1,200 per family, and more for families with children, plus provide tax incentives for businesses to encourage spending.

The accord was announced by Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, the Republican leader, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. at a Capitol news conference and hailed minutes afterward by President Bush as the fruit of “patience, determination and good will” in both parties.

The president and the speaker both described the accord as embracing the basic precepts of their respective parties. Mr. Bush called it “a powerful and effective way to help taxpayers and businesses” by letting people keep and spend more of their own money.

Ms. Pelosi said the package is aimed at the middle class “and to those who aspire to be in the middle class.” She described it as “timely, targeted and temporary — that was our standard.”

The article continues. We presume times must be hard indeed if people are “aspiring” to be in the middle class instead of aspiring to be celebrities. Perhaps our daydreams are also in a recession. And yes, it will take a while to get that check.

Lawmakers are racing to enact a stimulus measure to try to counter escalating risks of a recession. Bush said the U.S. economy faces short-term disruptions in the housing market and rising energy prices.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, at a press conference with House Republican Leader John Boehner and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson at the Capitol, said the stimulus package “will put money in the hands of hardworking Americans.”

Under the plan, individuals would receive rebates of up to $600 and couples could receive $1,200, plus $300 per child, Paulson said. Rebates would be phased out for individuals earning more than $75,000 and couples earning more than $150,000. Individuals must earn at least $3,000 to get a $300 rebate.

Paulson said the rebate checks may be mailed 60 days after the proposal becomes law, possibly in May.

“This is on a fast track,” Paulson said.

Your government at work….

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was quick to denounce the stimulus package.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York City intensified his attacks on the political leadership here on Wednesday, pointing to what he called the government’s failure to fix immigration policy and other problems of immediate concern to the nation.

In a speech before a group of his fellow mayors, Mr. Bloomberg described Washington politicians as shortsighted and said their priorities often reflected crass political calculations rather than sound policy judgments.

“We all know that spending decisions in Washington are driven by whatever will attract votes and campaign cash,” he said in criticizing the government for running up enormous budget deficits over the last few years.

Just days ago, E. Stanley O’Neal “retired” as CEO of Merrill Lynch in the aftermath of $8.5 billion in write-downs. Now with Citigroup facing the aftermath of $11 billion in write-downs, its CEO, Charles Prince has “retired.”

It’s official. Two major U.S. banks are without chief executive officers, days before filing quarterly financial statements with federal regulators, all because of ongoing concerns about their exposures to credit derivatives.

Citigroup (nyse: C – news – people )’s Charles Prince, under pressure for months because of the bank’s lackluster performance, quit Sunday. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin, chairman of the executive committee of Citi and a member of the board of directors, will serve as chairman of the board. Sir Win Bischoff, chairman of Citi Europe, will serve as acting chief executive officer. The company said it would move to fill the position “as expeditiously as possible.”

More stunning: the company also announced massive write-downs, $8 billion to $11 billion, related to its subprime mortgage assets following downgrades of the debt by ratings agencies.

E. Stanley O’Neal will “retire.”

Embattled Merrill Lynch Chief Executive Stanley O’Neal has finally stepped aside, making way for a board member, Alberto Cribiore, to lead a search for a new chief.

The company characterized the departure Tuesday as a retirement, though retirements rarely go into effect immediately and without concrete succession plans. In a statement, Merrill elaborated: “Mr. O’Neal and the board of directors both agreed that a change in leadership would best enable Merrill Lynch to move forward.”

The announcement capped days of speculation about O’Neal’s future as chief executive of Merrill (nyse: MER – news – people ), which is reeling from its outsized exposure to credit derivatives and subprime debt. Last week, Merrill stunned Wall Street by reporting $8.5 billion in write-downs, far greater than it had forecast just weeks before, and its biggest ever quarterly loss.

But it still leaves open the question of who will step in to bail out the ship. Ahmass Fakahany and Gregory Fleming will remain as co-presidents and chief operating officers while the board, led by director Alberto Cribiore, considers candidates from inside and outside the company.

Here is the Merrill Lynch press release. The International Herald Tribute reflects upon O’Neal’s legacy:

Stan O’Neal’s legacy will be cemented as the $8 billion (€5.5 billion) man. That’s about the size of the massive writedown that Merrill Lynch & Co. had to take during its just-ended quarter, which has ruined the reputation of the investment bank’s CEO.

Only months ago, he was being lauded for leading the nation’s largest brokerage firm to its most profitable year ever, thanks to broad cost-cutting and expansions in Merrill’s investment banking and trading operations.

Now, Merrill has added some unwelcome firsts to its list, by reporting the biggest quarterly loss in the company’s 93-year history and by taking the largest quarterly writedown ever by a financial institution, due to the plunging value of its mortgage-related assets.

All this has stripped O’Neal, who grew up in rural Alabama and rose to become the highest-ranking black executive on Wall Street, of his star power. His good standing in corporate America is gone, as is his job. He is surely getting a quick lesson in how today’s financial world works — the focus is on “what have you done for me lately,” not what you’ve done before.

The article continues.

E. Stanley O’Neal

Black Monday, the stock market crash of 1987 took place 20 years ago today. Elaine Garzarelli was an unknown analyst at Shearson when she predicted the crash. Twenty years later, she offers a few comments to 24/7 Wall Street,

We also wanted to ask market pundits of the time how today is different 20 years later, and Elaine Garzarelli was one of the more recognized pundits that was credited for having predicted the market crash in 1987. This week she responded to an inquiry and told 24/7 Wall St., “It is a different world today..In October, 1987 inflation was 5%, long rates were over 10%, and the S&P500 was 35% overvalued. In October, 2007 inflation is under 2%, long rates are near 5%, and the S&P500 is 30% undervalued…” Garzarelli Research can be accessed at www.garzarelli.com to see more detailed takes on her research. Thanks for the exclusive comments, Elaine.

Just when you thought you had a foot in the door, the price went up, remarkably:

One billion dollars is no longer enough. The price of admission to this, the 25th anniversary edition of the Forbes 400, is $1.3 billion, up $300 million from last year. The collective net worth of the nation’s mightiest plutocrats rose $290 billion to $1.54 trillion.

That is a lot of money. We don’t know how high a stack of 1.54 trillion one dollar bills would be, but we imagine it would be quite high.

Once the wind starts blowing, no doubt all those dollar bills circling the earth will cause an eclipse.

Or, as Forbes quotes:

The late John Paul Getty once observed, “If you know exactly how rich you are, you’re not really rich.” We don’t pretend to know exactly, either, but we can get pretty close.

The oldest of the 400, John Simplot, is 98. The youngest, John Arnold, is 33.

The alumni map of the Forbes 400 is quite interesting as well. Harvard, Stanford, Princeton and Yale dominate. High school seniors, it’s time to put down the Wii and the iPod Touch and ace those SATs.