When you spend $787 billion, there's a lot of pressure to show results. So, there's no surprise that success is being proclaimed across the country. States are saying that they've used the federal stimulus package money to create or save more than 388,000 jobs this year. Teachers, construction workers and other professions have realized the upside of stimulus cash according to reports from 33 states and Puerto Rico, with the remainder of the results being released on Friday.

Of course, the numbers "should be taken with a grain of salt," says Ethan Pollack of the Economic Policy Institute. The states were tasked to count the jobs created or protected, but the results have been of dubious accuracy. This doesn't mean the stats can't provide fodder to people on both sides of the aisle.

Columbia Business School's Frank Lichtenberg says the data shows a solid economic impact, and the Obama administration's Council of Economic Advisors believes the stimulus spending has taken care of between 600,000 and 1.1 million jobs.

And, there are those who disagree.

The players at the G-20 summit have opened the curtain on Act 1.

First we have Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso. He holds the position that a strong stimulus program is the only means to pull Europe and the world out of the current crisis. He cited Japan's experience in the 1990s when Japan used a strong stimulus as a way to stimulate growth. He also cited Japan's current stimulus package, which amounts to $720 billion, and he even said that Japan would discuss further stimulus if the need arises.

Standing in opposition is German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She is firmly opposed to more stimulus and demands to know why it is needed. She believes that excessive public spending will not assure a vital recovery.

Since Obama's inauguration, the market seems to have responded negatively to the president's rhetoric, and yesterday was no exception. Within seconds of a White House alert that the president and his chief economic advisers would make an important announcement, stocks headed south.

And by the time that President Obama -- flanked by his team -- began the address at 3:50 p.m. Eastern, the Dow had given up more than 100 points, with investors fearful that the team had decided on a major policy shift.

Despite the poor timing of the White House's news conference, which contained little new information and spooked traders into a flurry of profit-taking, Wednesday's small correction did little to change Tuesday's upside reversal and the probability of further buying.

Listening to President Obama's speech last night I was very impressed with his grasp of the vast number of difficult issues that face our nation. I support him in addressing these problems head on -- with optimism, energy and forthrightness. He said, "I get it" -- I believe him.

Now, having laid out a vision for all that ails us, I can't help but think that the president is going to be playing out a fantasy. His epic journey to the White House has reinforced the President's conviction that 'anything' is possible, but the real question this morning is whether 'everything' is possible.

Tomorrow morning before the bell, The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO) will have its chance to impress Wall Street when it reports its fourth quarter numbers.

Going into tomorrow's announcement, analysts are expecting the company to show earnings on the quarter of $8.17 per share. Should the company hit this estimate, it would be a decline of 16.5% from its reported $9.79 during its fourth quarter 2007.

The alarming rate at which foreclosures have been rising over the past year is definitely something to be concerned about. Today, some homeowners are getting a little breathing room as a couple of the biggest banks are granting a moratorium on foreclosures.

As Lita Epstein pointed out yesterday, last month was the tenth month in a row where foreclosures were in excess of 250,000 as 274,399 foreclosures were filed in January. The foreclosure epidemic has been a serious drain on the overall economy, and it is hoped that the Obama administration is going to be able to develop a plan to help keep homeowners in their homes.

Looking over the recent history of America's automakers, one theme seems to stand out. Regardless of their situation, the economy, or the issue at hand, the Big Three have an almost preternatural ability to determine the most foolish course of action and pursue it with amazing vigor.

Regardless of whether we're talking about the Ford Motor Company's (NYSE: F) decision to focus its attention on cars (to the detriment of its truck lines), Chrysler's decision to channel stuff its dealerships, or General Motors' (NYSE: GM) decision to sit on its fuel cell cars, Detroit seems determined to misjudge the economy and the customers.

At their best, the three have minimized innovation while milking their successes. At their worst, they have spent time and money on expensive acquisitions or dead-end technologies, to the detriment of their bottom line.

Oil prices inched up slightly today, despite the fact that inventories swelled much more than the market had anticipated last week. Going into today's inventory report from the U.S. Department of Energy, analysts had been expecting to see an increase in oil inventories last week. But, on average, analysts had been expecting that the increase would be around 3.4 million barrels, and the actual increase was much larger, with a reported 6.2 million increase: a very bearish indicator.

Typically when we see inventories rise so much higher than expected, we would expect to see traders push oil prices lower, but not today. Instead, oil was able to move a bit higher on the day, trading up 58 cents a barrel to $42.16. Earlier in the session prices had been up as high as $43.60.

Shares of Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) have moved strongly higher in today's action after the defense contractor put up better than expected numbers for its fourth quarter this morning.

Going into today's earnings release, analysts had been expecting to see the company show $1.92 per share, but the company came in well above those estimates, with a reported $2.05 a share for its quarter ending December 31.

This morning's good news was slightly balanced by the company's announcement that its upcoming full year 2009 profit was probably going to be lower than it had previously forecast, a result of increasing pension expenses. The market was tough on the company's pension plan in 2008, and drove the plan's value down by 28%. The resulting increase in pension expenses forced Lockheed Martin to lower its full year 2009 profit guidance down to between $7.05 and $7.25 from a previous estimate of between $7.65 and $7.90 per share.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) has urged President Obama's administration to pony up $2 billion dollars to build and enable a nationwide emergency wireless network that could help response teams and first responders immensely when a disaster occurs. While that may not be high on the new President's priority list, it should fall in there somewhere in the next 18 months.

There is still no nationwide advanced communications network to assist responders as soon and efficiently as possible in the wake of a terrorist or natural disaster. Thinking back to overloaded wireless networks (and non-functioning towers) during the Hurricane Katrina disaster, there's the proof that something like this is needed. Is Sprint the right company to build it? It says $2 billion and one year is all that it would take.

Sprint's suggestion says the $2 billion -- which would come from the "bailout money" (whatever that is, heh) -- would make a new emergency network operable for up to five years. It would include 100 satellite-based cells placed strategically around the U.S. and 100,000 ready-to-use handsets to work on the new network. Perhaps this is Sprint's way to continue utilizing its Nextel assets for something other than a network that loses customers every quarter.

The honeymoon between President-elect Barack Obama and the American people may end about the time crews finish cleaning up from tomorrow's inauguration festivities. For now, the American people and Congress are willing to cut the charismatic politician some slack, especially when it comes to his troubled nominee for Treasury Secretary.

Priority number one for the first African-American leader of the free world is the U.S. economy. It's more important than the war in Gaza, more important than education and more important than the fight against terrorism. The U.S. economy is in its worst shape since the early 1980s. If the slump, which has already lasted 12 months, lingers for more than 16 months than it will equal the Great Depression, according to Reuters.

Obama is well aware of the challenges that lie ahead. CNN reports that he is planning to meet with his top aides Wednesday "to map out how to step up his personal lobbying efforts to get Congress to pass his stimulus plan, which has a price tag of $825 billion."

When Hank Paulson scared Congress into passing the Troubled Asset Relief Plan (TARP) last fall, he said that it would be used to buy toxic waste from banks. That never happened. All we know is that $350 billion of our taxpayer money is gone and that most of it went to banks and a bit to the auto industry. What are they doing with our money? How is the government measuring the success of TARP? Is it helping? Until we get those answers, we should not allow more good money to be thrown after bad.

What we have now is a bunch of talk. Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) said "Without the first TARP, we may have a Dow at 4,000 right now and the economy in an absolutely free fall." Thanks Kent -- I'd like to see your proof for that claim. Why not Dow 400? Progress on finding out what happened to the money is coming from Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) who got Treasury to cough up contracts between the government and 10 financial institutions -- by threatening a subpoena.

The so-called "death tax" refuses to die.

Despite pleading from Republicans to kill the estate tax, President-elect Barack Obama plans to do no such thing. According to the Wall Street Journal, Obama and congressional leaders "plan to move soon to block the estate tax from disappearing in 2010."

George W. Bush has made eliminating the death tax one of the cornerstones of his economic policy before the current crisis. Critics of the tax dubbed it "the death tax" as if Uncle Sam in standing before the pearly gates of heaven with his hat in his hand. They claim it is a huge burden to small businesses. Nothing can be further from the truth.

Data from experts show that a small number -- several hundred -- small family businesses ever pay the tax. Only individuals with estates of more than $2 million and couples with more than $4 million estates are subject to the tax. Estate taxes are designed -- in theory anyway -- to prevent the U.S. from developing a European-style aristocracy based on familial wealth. That's why Warren Buffett backs the tax.

Steve Rattner -- a major Democratic party fundraiser who heads the investment firm Quadrangle Group is the leading candidate for a position that does not formally -- and should never in my view -- exist. That is, Rattner for Car Czar. The Car Czar's job -- if Congress creates it -- will fix the U.S. automobile industry by using the threat of throwing the companies into bankruptcy to force economic "haircuts" on labor unions, dealers, bondholders and others.

I worked with Rattner in the Kerry presidential campaign and hold him in high regard. He worked to raise money for Hillary Clinton and when she did not win the nomination Rattner raised $100,000 for Barack Obama. And Rattner does not just serve Democrats -- reportedly he is managing independent New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's $13 billion fortune. I find that feat to be a remarkable testimony to Rattner's investment acumen.

Nevertheless, I think it would be better to find a different way to use Rattner's talents. If the Car Czar position does get created, it should go to an individual with demonstrated experience turning around large organizations in deep trouble. The person who comes to mind is Louis Gerstner who fixed International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM). Gerstner is not a car guy but he knows how to fix a big organization and could bring in automotive expertise as needed.

Rattner would be an asset to Obama's administration, but if there must be a Car Czar -- find a better fit.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College. His eighth book is You Can't Order Change: Lessons from Jim McNerney's Turnaround at Boeing. He has no financial interest in IBM securities.

When President-elect Barack Obama was Candidate Obama on the campaign trail, there was talk of raising the tax level on long term capital gains from the current 15% to as high as 29% but soon became 25%. It has not been that high for quite some time.

Obama was challenged by this throughout the campaign and it was one of the questions he faced in the presidential debates. He had to answer a direct question as to why he would raise this particular tax in light of evidence that the reduced rate had benefited the government coffers and investors. He replied that he was interested in balancing the budget and fairness in the system, but that he would be weighing all of the issues under discussion and he might temper his opinion.

Well, as I recall, toward the end of the campaign he tempered his opinion all the way down to 20%.

Now what brings this to mind as we close out the year is that I have been reviewing 2008 with my accountant and making projections for the purpose of last minute adjustments I might need to consider. As we were discussing capital gains for 2008 we, like many of you reading this, discovered there would not be any. The losses outweighed the gains.

Then I started thinking about Obama wanting to raise the tax and realized he could raise the tax to 100% because this year and next many people may not be paying any due to their accumulated losses. As a matter of fact, in extreme cases some folks may not be paying any capital gains even if he is in office eight years.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money.