What You Need to Know: 02.06.09

Jobless rate hits 7.6 percent as layoffs mount
"Recession-battered employers eliminated 598,000 jobs in January, the most since the end of 1974, and catapulted the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent.

The grim figures were further proof that the nation's job climate is deteriorating at an alarming clip with no end in sight."

Panel to Advise Obama on Economy
"Saying that he wanted to leave no stone unturned in finding ways to put people back to work, President Obama on Friday appointed a team of outside economic advisers to offer suggestions on ways to respond to the nation’s recession.

The White House Economic Recovery Advisory Board, led by a former Federal Reserve chairman, Paul Volcker, and modeled after the foreign intelligence board created by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, includes advisers from business, labor and academia."

Senators bounce stimulus proposals around
"The Senate struggled Friday to craft a huge stimulus package to revive the battered economy, with moderates trying to trim the $937 billion price tag to attract Republican senators who say it is too costly.

The cost has ratcheted up during five days of Senate debate, and a bipartisan group of senators tried to cut the package by up to $100 billion.

President Barack Obama said late Thursday he could accept a final price tag in the range of about $800 billion, but the challenge was agreeing on a list of cuts that would still garner the 60 votes needed to clear a certain Republican procedural roadblock."