She used to lunch at the exclusive Four Seasons. Now, the best-selling author jokes that she’s inviting friends to Taco Bell. Call it gallows humor, but Alexandra Penney has just lost her life’s savings.

She invested every penny with accused Ponzi-schemer Bernard Madoff. Penney thought she had weathered the bear market just fine, since Madoff put her money in super-safe Treasuries. Then, on December 11, she received a call from her best friend.

“She said, ‘I hope this is a rumor, but I’ve just heard Bernie Madoff’s been arrested,’ ” Penney recalls. “My other phone rang; it was my son. And he said, ‘Mom, sit down.’ He said, ‘Bernie Madoff’s been arrested.’ And I said, ‘For what?’ And he said, ‘He’s a crook.’ ”
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Barack Obama now says his plan to pump up the ailing economy could create or save three to four million jobs, more than the 2.6 million jobs the government says were lost last year.

In his weekly radio and YouTube address, the President-elect gave details on a report released by his transition team. The report details the types of jobs that would be created or saved by Obama’s stimulus proposals, officially known as the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan.”
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