Remember way back when Congress handed out $350 billion to bailout the financial services industry? Well people are starting to wonder where that money went. New York Times reporter, Eric Lipton, has been following the billions of dollars that was given out to banks and lending institutions across the nation and finds that a lot of banks are just holding on to their funds. He joins us now, hot on the trail of all that money.

Read Eric Lipton's article, In Michigan, Bank Lends Little of Its Bailout Funds, in today's New York Times

Congress could be asked to turn over control of the remaining $350 billion in bailout funds today. The Bush administration is expected to file the request for the rest of the money so the incoming Obama administration can start doling it out almost as soon as the President-elect takes office. The Congressional panel overseeing the Treasury Department’s $700 billion bailout isn't quite ready to approve the release of funds, though. First they would like some answers on how the first $350 billion of the bailout money was spent. Joining The Takeaway is former New Hampshire Senator John Sununu, who is on that Congressional oversight panel.

The final car sales numbers for 2008 are abysmal, especially for Chrysler whose sales dropped more than 50%. Vehicle sales at the Ford Motor Company fell 32.4 percent and 31.4 percent at General Motors from this time last year. The silver lining for the automakers is that they get to start the year with billions from the government. John Wolkonowicz studies consumer purchase motivation for Global Insight, an economic and financial analysis firm in Lexington, Massachusetts.