Whatever the 25 bank CEOs descending upon the White House this morning told the president and his economic team, we hope JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon repeated one line from the speech he gave at the Chamber of Commerce earlier this month. (It's about 11:30 in.)

One of the main root causes [of the crisis], and this has been going on for a long time, was the huge trade and global financing imbalances which fueled very low rates and excess consumption, and over a long period of time I do not believe you can run those kind of trade deficits...

Dimon was getting at one of the root structural causes of the current crisis -- America takes, the world (China especially) makes, an unsustainable situation sustained above all by an increasingly usurous financial services industry. As the CEO of PNC Financial Services just pointed out, banking is the biggest sector of the American economy -- and it's been to the detriment of everything else.

And while that might seem obvious, intuitive even, Dimon's speech came just three days after Larry Summers told the Financial Times that the global trade imbalance wasn't the problem anymore, that it had been eclipsed by more pressing emergencies, etc. etc.

Naturally Dimon went on to condemn the demonization of Wall Street and corporate America.

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Is the Obama administration aping its predecessor by taking a dangerously broad view of state secrecy, enabling them to avoid revealing information about warrantless wiretaps and other controversial tactics in the war on terror?

The Washington Post raises the question today, but doesn't provide much of an answer.

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It sounds like we could soon be getting a look at a few more of those Bush administration legal opinions justifying the use of water-boarding and other "harsh interrogation techniques" for use in the War on Terror.

Newsweek reports that the White House is moving to declassify and release three of those memos, written by Justice Department lawyers in May 2005. In doing so, President Obama is siding with his attorney general, Eric Holder, over the objections of current and former CIA officials, who argue the disclosure could compromise "sources and methods". Ex CIA director Michael Hayden is said to be "furious" about the decision, and to have tried unsuccessfully to intervene directly with Obama officials.

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In a move that represents both a formality and a historic gesture, the Obama administration has announced that it's withdrawing the designation of "enemy combatant" for Guantanamo detainees. The Bush administration had drawn widespread criticism for its use of that designation, which allowed it to deny detainees rights they otherwise would have been entitled to.

In a press release, the Justice Department said it was submitting a new standard to hold detainees at Gitmo. Rather than relying on the president's authority as commander-in-chief, the department explained, the new standard "draws on the international laws of war to inform the statutory authority conferred by Congress."

It also said that the governent is conducting a review of detainee detention policy which could lead to "further refinements."

President Obama has already announced this intention to close Gitmo within the year. In a sense, today's announcement is an equally important step in winding down the "War On Terror" concept that the Bush administration announced, and shifting to an approach that sees the fight against terrorism as an effort to be conducted within the bounds of international and domestic law.

In other words: change we can believe in.

So this is weird.

Yesterday, federal agents raided the workplace of the chief technology officer for the city of Washington DC. The same day, they arrested Yusuf Acar, who serves as the city's information systems security officer, as part of a federal bribery sting.

The man who until recently was CTO, Vivek Kundra, was just named the first ever Federal Chief Information Officer by the Obama administration -- which put this story on the national radar.

It's unclear whether Kundra himself is implicated at all. CNN today reports:

A law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN that Kundra is not involved in the case.

But it also reveals that, according to the White House, Kundra has taken a leave of absence from his new gig, until more details are known about the FBI probe.

So for the moment, there are more questions than answers -- but this bears watching.

The office of Washington DC's chief technology officer has been raided by FBI agents, reports the Politico.

But this isn't just a local story. Vivek Kundra, who served in the position until February 4, was last week appointed the first ever Federal Chief Information Officer by the Obama administration.

An FBI spokeswoman told Politico that the search was part of an "ongoing investigation." And a separate source told the site that the FBI had sent all staffers at the office, aside from senior executives, home for the day.

The White House declined to comment to Politico.

We'll keep you posted on this.

Late Update: It looks like Kundra may not be the focus of the probe after all. The Washington Post reports that an employee in the office, Yusuf Acar, who serves as the information systems security officer for the city, has been arrested as part of a federal bribery sting.

A spokesman for the US Attorneys office said the case is "is under seal."

President Obama has issued a new memo that seeks to restrict his administration's use of presidential signing statements, one of the key techniques that President Bush used to get around the law.

Among other things, the memo directs executive branch officials to tell Congress ahead of time if there are constitutional concerns about pending legislation, thereby reducing the number of occasions when a signing statement will be needed.

It also declares that the president will act with "caution and restraint" in determining whether an act of Congress is unconstitutional.

And it pledges that the president's signing statements will identify "constitutional concerns about a statutory provision with sufficient specificity to make clear the nature and basis of the constitutional objection."

You can see the full memo here ...

Here's one other key aspect of the Rove-Miers testimony agreement that's worth noting...

The agreement declares that the famous "Scudder memo" will be made available "for Committee review only". In other words, the committee won't get to keep a copy, nor will it be able to release the memo publicly.

That seems at first like a significant concession.

The Scudder memo, to refresh your memories, appears to be a key piece of evidence in the effort to get to the bottom of the White House's role in the firings. Michael Scudder, an associate White House counsel, was tasked by White House staff with conducting an internal inquiry fully documenting the White House's involvement in the affair. He interviewed numerous White House and DOJ officials, including Rove. In their report on the firings released last year, Justice Department investigators identified the Scudder memo as one of the most crucial documents to which they lacked access, that might have helped them uncover the truth.

But it's not quite that simple. In an emailed statement to TPMmuckraker, a committee source explained why the committee settled for being able to review the memo only:

The Scudder memo was identified by OIG/OPR as a critical document even they could not get, and we would not have accepted a settlement that did not get us full use of the document in the interviews. At the same time, we do respect the need for White House lawyers to investigate rising controversies, and so we think the agreement works a fair compromise that won't limit our investigation or unduly burden any future Administration.

In other words, it sounds like one or both of the Bush and Obama White Houses were concerned, perhaps legitimately, about maintaining the ability to conduct internal reviews of controversial issues with the confidence that the results will remain confidential. And the committee felt willing to compromise on that point, as long as it was given adequate time to review the memo before it questioned Rove and Miers.

And of course, when transcripts of the testimony are released, we'll likely learn the key facts included in the memo anyway-- since they'll presumably be included in the committee's questioning and in the witnesses' responses.

On the related subject of the Obama White House's role in the deal, here's the cover letter that went with the agreement, written by Obama White House counsel Gregory Craig, and sent to Judiciary chair John Conyers, and President Bush's lawyer, Emmet Flood.

The letter, which notes that "both the Bush administration and the House Judiciary Committee have confirmed to me orally and in writing that they have accepted the terms of the enclosed Agreement."

In other words, as recent reports have suggested, the Obama White House was intimately involved in shaping this agreement -- a fact that would appear to explain the concern for maintaining the White House's ongoing ability to conduct confidential internal inquiries.

Here we go again...

Ron Kirk, the former Dallas mayor picked by President Obama to be US Trade Rep, has tax problems. Senate finance committee staffers told members of the committee that Kirk underpaid on his taxes by almost $10,000 from 2005 to 2007. He has agreed to file adjustments.

According to National Journal's Congress Daily:

The underpayments deal in part with speaking honoraria he received that he listed as charitable donations to his alma mater, Austin College.

Kirk instead should have reported the honoraria as taxable income and then deducted the donations. The panel also asked Kirk for substantiation of other charitable donations he has made, including a television set, and it has questioned Kirk's write-offs of business expenses, including those for Dallas Mavericks season tickets.

Finance chair Max Baucus seems to be standing by Kirk. Baucus issued a statement saying Kirk "is the right person for this job and I will work to move his nomination quickly."

But something tells us that's not going to be the last word here.