Iraq’s budget surplus, Florida bank seized

Iraq’s budget surplus

Iraq’s government has a massive budget surplus, but is spending less than 1 percent of it to maintain and rebuild the country’s infrastructure, the U.S. government’s auditing agency said this week. The General Accountability Office’s report said that Iraq, which derives 90 percent of its revenues from oil sales, has built up an $80 billion surplus since 2005, but that bureaucratic chaos and political disputes have stalled reconstruction efforts.

Florida bank seized

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The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. this week took control of First Priority Bank of Bradenton, Fla.—the eighth bank seizure this year and the first of a Florida bank since the credit crisis erupted a year ago. Analysts say it won’t be the last. Florida’s central Atlantic coast was a hotbed of subprime mortgage lending, and several small banks in the area have large concentrations of shaky home loans.