The stimulus package is now signed into law, so the Obama administration is turning its focus to the housing crisis.

The president is expected to unveil a $50 billion housing plan today in Phoenix. One likely component will be interest-rate subsidies for at-risk borrowers, with the government matching the servicer's rate reduction. Borrowers would have to take an affordability test to see whether they could handle the monthly payment on the reworked loan. The administration is also expected to ramp up loan modifications of borrowers in default. These modifications would lower monthly payments to more affordable terms -- often 31% to 38% of gross monthly income -- through reducing interest rates or lengthening the loan's term.

GM and Chrysler submitted their survivability plans to the government yesterday, and along with the plans’ drastic measures come a drastic plea for an infusion of another $22 billion. The two firms said they would cut 50,000 jobs worldwide by the end of the  year. GM said it plans to close five more plants in the next few years and confirmed it will drop some of its weaker brands. A newly-appointed auto panel will review both plans and determine by March 31 if GM and Chrysler can be viable in the long run.

One company that’s weathering the economic crisis just fine is Wal-Mart, whose worldwide sales topped $400 billion last year.

The EPA said yesterday that it will consider whether to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants. The agency has reportedly granted the Sierra Club’s petition to review a Bush administration’s decision stating that officials weighing federal applications by utilities to build new coal-fired power plants cannot consider their greenhouse gas output.