Growth is the miracle deficit cure. When the economy expands, more people work — and they work more hours at higher wages. That leads to more tax revenues. At the same time, when more people work, fewer people tend to need unemployment benefits, which helps lead to lower spending. That dynamic, combined with efforts in Washington to hold down spending, is helping to shrink the annual budget deficit.

Today, Treasury released its latest monthly statement, which details revenues and spending for January, and for the first four months of the current fiscal year. It can be seen here. In January 2012, revenues were $234 billion, up 3.5 percent from $226 billion in January 2011. Meanwhile, federal spending was $261.7 billion in January 2012, down 5.3 percent from $276 billion in January 2011. The deficit for the month was $27.4 billion, down from nearly $50 billion in January 2011 — a decrease of 45 percent.

For the first four months of fiscal 2012, revenues are up 4.2 percent compared with

Every day, Michelle Leder and the crew at Footnoted.com comb through Securities and Exchange Commission financings to ferret out the highlights—and lowlights — of executive compensation. And every month, she joins us to discuss the findings. January got the year off to a good start.

Mad-den Money. In this day and age, few people enjoy lengthy tenure — the promise of lengthy, guaranteed employment -- except judges and college students. And Steve Madden, the founder and chief creative officer at the eponymous shoe company. Madden, who spent time in prison last decade after being convicted of stock fraud charges, can't serve as CEO of the company. But he still works for the firm. And he just signed up for a nice deal that will keep him employed or another decade. The agreement, which runs through 2023, promises a base of $5.41 million per year, a raise of about $2 million per year for the next several years, and a cash bonus, a grant of restricted stock worth $40 million, and another

Markets

-Greek deal limbo weighs on markets: Stock markets fell Friday after Greece's crucial international bailout was put on hold by its partners in the 17-nation eurozone, a day after it seemed that the country's tortuous journey to pacifying its creditors had reached a conclusion. (Wires)

-Rioters clash with Greek police at Athens protest: Greek riot police have fired tear gas to disperse rioters throwing petrol bombs and stones, as thousands protest in Athens against new austerity measures. No injuries or arrests have been reported. (Wires)

-Fed's 'Operation Twist' Tangles Treasury Trade: Economists and traders say there are signs the policy, taken together with the Fed's pledge to keep interest rates near zero until late 2014, has in fact pushed some investors into competition with the Fed itself. That is keeping yields on the 30-year Treasury bond lower than many expected, even after taking the planned purchases that are part of $400 billion Operation Twist into account. (WSJ)

The rescue operations of the Great Panic of 2008 continue to unwind.

Today, with the announcement of the sale of a few billion dollars worth of securities held by an investment fund named Maiden Lane II, one of the chapters of the very expensive rescue of AIG is coming closer to a close.

Maiden Lane II was one of the vehicles set up in late 2008 to help bail out the stricken insurance company AIG. Essentially, the Fed lent money to Maiden Lane II so it could buy mortgage-backed securities from AIG. That maneuver would allow AIG to gain much-needed cash while getting rid of some hard-to-sell assets. Maiden Lane II borrowed $19.5, and used the funds to buy securities from AIG that had a face value of about $39.3 billion. (AIG agreed to defer payment of an extra $1 billion.) Basically, Maiden Lane II bought the bonds for 50 cents on the dollar.

The theory — hope, really — was that, over time, as the panic passed, Maiden Lane would collect interest payments from the mortgage-backed

You would think members of Congress would realize, on their own, that trading stocks based on inside political information they may possess is wrong. But it turns out they may indeed need a law to telll them so. Ever since 60 Minutes exposed the ways in which some lawmakers, and their staffers, have profited based on privileged insider knowledge, the public has clamored for action. (See: OUTRAGE OF THE DAY: Insider Trading In Congress)

President Obama heeded those cries in his State of the Union Address in January.

"I've talked tonight about the deficit of trust between Main Street and Wall Street. But the divide between this city and the rest of the country is at least as bad — and it seems to get worse every year," Obama said. "Send me a bill that bans insider trading by Members of Congress, and I will sign it tomorrow. Let's limit any elected official from owning stocks in industries they impact. Let's make sure people who bundle campaign contributions for Congress can't lobby Congress, and vice versa — an idea that has bipartisan support, at least outside of Washington."

Earmarks are another prime example of how politicians can wield their influence for personal gain. The Washington Post on Tuesday published the results of a comprehensive investigation into pork-barrel spending on infrastructure projects that conveniently took place close to property that Congressional members own. More...

Is Wall Street over? Done?

In the months since the Great Panic of 2008, investors, regulators, politicians, and the culture at large have given Wall Street banks a series of kicks to the groin. And while the stock market may have recovered some of its lost swagger, the Wall Street investment banks haven't. That's the thesis of Gabriel Sherman's New York cover story, "The Emasculation of Wall Street."

And he's right — to a large degree. Surveying a world in which structured products have disappeared, new capital standards have reduced the ability to take on leverage, regulations have prohibited once-profitable practices like proprietary trading, Sherman concludes that Wall Street is "afflicted by a crisis it would not be flip to call existential." Indeed, the widely documented decline of bonuses — combined with the high cost of living — has many bankers wondering what the point of the whole thing is.

As we discuss in the accompanying video, this delayed reaction has been a long time

Markets

-Stock index futures edged higher on Wednesday as leaders in Greece again attempted to reach a deal on reforms in exchange for a new bailout.

-The euro zone rescue fund anticipates it will play a significant role in steps to set Greece's debt back on a sustainable path and provide more bailout funding, the fund's deputy CEO Christophe Frankel said on Wednesday.

-It was just last summer that the Dow Jones industrial average shed 2,000 points in three terrifying weeks. Investors had a host of things to worry about, including the possibility of another recession. Now the Dow is within reach of the rarefied 13,000 mark — a level it hasn't seen since May 2008, four months before the financial system almost came apart.

-Applications for home mortgages jumped last week, fueled by increased demand for refinancing as interest rates fell, an industry group said on Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which

There were plenty of objectionable ads during the Super Bowl — the absurdly sexist GoDaddy.com spots, Adriana Lima's come-hither pitch for Teleflora, Coca-Cola's lame polar bears. So it's surprising that the biggest controversy has been generated by Clint Eastwood's spot for Chrysler. The ad, "It's Half-Time in America," told a story of how a country and a city that have both suffered adversity and some tough knocks can nonetheless return to prominence and usefulness through hard work and ingenuity. Of course, the ad was a metaphor for Chrysler, which filed for bankruptcy in 2009, received a government bailout and has been revived under the ownership of Fiat.

Some Republican operatives cried foul. Karl Rove complained that "The President of the United States' political minions are, in essence, using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising and the best wishes of the management, which has benefited by getting a bunch of our money that they'll never pay back."

Huh?

Let's review the