When the financial crisis hit, Washington chose to rescue America's biggest banks, lest their failure crush the economy. Now, "too big to fail" has morphed into "too big to jail," and letting them remain that way isn't good for the economy -- or the banking industry.
Your bank, that's who: Despite payday lenders' well-deserved reputations for charging insanely high rates for the short-term loans, if you overdraft your plain-vanilla bank account, you'll get zapped by an even more usurious system.
There's never a dull moment on Wall Street. Next week brings a Xoom-related media event from Verizon and Motorola Mobility, as well as fourth quarter results from Apple and several of the country's biggest financial institutions.
Moody's is reviewing 10 large regional banks for possible downgrades because it thinks financial reform means total government support is now less likely. That's setting off a debate about whether those banks will actually take a hit to profitability.
After a boom year for bonds in 2009, experts say investors this year will need to keep a closer eye on their fixed-income investments to bring home the highest returns. Several concerns include growing fears of inflation and worries that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates.
Citi isn't getting off the hook anytime soon. But Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bancorp might. It took $3.4 billion to mend its bruised balance sheet and could need to raise as little as $1 billion to repay TARP
