Now that the Great Recession has been declared dead and gone by everyone who failed to see the possibility of it happening in the first place, it is important to examine the reasons for its demise. The White House has been busy declaring that its stimulus policies have created or saved 640,000 jobs .

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Even with $45 billion in TARP funds, billions more in government asset guarantees , Citigroup has earned a rare distinction in the last year. The still-massive bank was actually the worst performing stock in the S&P 500 since Obama’s election. Citigroup had compnay among the worst performers from fellow financial services firms like Bank of America, Huntington Bancshares, MBIA, SuntTrust Banks, BB&T and Hudson City Bancorp.

bloomberg.com : Finance’s version of Audrey II is thrashing about with threats that, crisis or not, they’d better get their extravagant pay and light-touch regulation. Anything less and — real horrors — financial innovation will decline and the world as we know it will end.

Eleven years ago, U.S. economic leaders should have listened to Brooksley Born. Then head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Born was concerned about new and unregulated futures markets

Dealbreaker.com : British-based Barclays Capital may be a bellwether for Wall Street’s bonus season. The bank is ratcheting up stock payments to its execs and axing the amount of cash it pays out in bonuses this year – a move that may influence US-based firms. Read the whole story: Dealbreaker.com


 
 Financial advisers said they agreed with several Supreme Court justices who appeared to suggest during oral arguments yesterday that the Securities and Exchange Commission — and not the courts — should ultimately decide when mutual fund fees are excessive. The case heard yesterday, Jones v. Harris, involves a lawsuit filed by a group of investors against Harris Associates LP, which advises the Oakmark Funds.