For a brief moment this week, the housing crisis took a back seat to another once hot-button economic issue: the financial health of Social Security.

The Social Security trustees issued their annual report Tuesday, and it showed how soon the system will run into trouble.

The problem is well-known: Funded by taxes on workers' wages, the Social Security system currently takes in more funds than it has promised to pay out to retirees. And the federal government has been borrowing those surplus funds over the years. But that surplus is shrinking, and eventually the system won't be able to pay out all of the promised benefits.

The trustees estimate that by 2017, the funds going in to Social Security will be less than the benefits promised.

The government will cover the difference by paying back the surplus it borrowed plus interest, which could be a problem, given other big-ticket items that lawmakers want to fund in the next few years. Namely, reforming the Alternative Minimum Tax and extending some or all of President Bush's tax cuts.

By 2041, the trustees have estimated that the trust fund - that is, the money the government owes the system - will be tapped out and in-coming funds would cover only 78% of promised benefits.

"Whereas Social Security has been helping to prop up the budget, it will become a diminishing resource,"

NEW YORK (AP) -- Bear Stearns Cos. Chairman James Cayne on Thursday dumped his entire stake in the embattled investment bank for $61 million as it appears closer to a takeover by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Cayne sold 5.66 million shares for exactly $10.84 a share on March 25, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. His stake was once valued at about $1 billion when the stock was trading at $171.50 per share.

His stake at one point plunged to about $27 million when JPMorgan announced nearly two weeks ago it would acquire the No. 5 U.S. investment bank for $2 per share. JPMorgan later upped that offer to $10 per share, and agreed to acquire 39.5 percent of the company without a shareholder vote to block any rival offers.

On Thursday, Bear Stearns Chief Executive Alan Schwartz said in a letter filed to the SEC that the company will issue 95 million shares to JPMorgan within the next 10 days as part of the takeover deal. He said the latest agreement was "essential to maintaining the company's financial stability."

In addition, Schwartz said Bear Stearns is able to bypass shareholder approval because "securing stockholder approval would seriously jeopardize the financial viability" of the company. About one-third of the company's shares are owned by Bear Stearns' 14,000 employees.

Cayne, who serves as non-executive chairman, was said to be unhappy about the deal struck to sell the

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The economy nearly sputtered out at the end of the year and probably is faring even worse now amid continuing housing, credit and financial woes.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the gross domestic product, or GDP, increased at a feeble 0.6 percent annual rate from October through December. The reading, unchanged from a previous estimate a month ago, provided stark evidence of just how much the economy has weakened. In the previous three months, the economy had a sizzling 4.9 percent growth rate.

The GDP measures the value of all goods and services produced in the United States and is the best barometer of economic health.

Many economists say they believe growth in the current January-through-March quarter will be even weaker than the 0.6 percent figure from late 2007. A growing number says the economy actually may be shrinking now. Under one rough rule, the economy needs to contract for six straight months to be considered in a recession. The government will release its estimate for first-quarter GDP in late April.

"The economy just kept its head above water" in the fourth quarter, said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at Global Insight. "We think that GDP will decline, albeit slightly, during the first half of 2008," he said. "The first half outlook is bleak."

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, in an interview with The Associated Press, said, "We know the first