It's the banksters, STUPID!

[Democrats_win]

What people are angry about is that we've given trillions to the biggest crime machine in history and they're thumbing their noses at us. People know that EVERY politician is in the pockets of the financial industry.

We know that our future is condemened to suffering forever as long as the banksters run America.

Look at the news: record profits for this "poor" industry that we bailed out. This industry is sponsoring the New York Met's new baseball stadium (Ch*itty Bank). Fraud Street bankers actually have 2 new stadiums, the other being Yankee Stadium. They've raised credit card rates to record highs at a time when the prime is at record lows.

The astroturf people can have their teabags, but for me, it's bring the pitchforks so the greedy banksters know that there are consequences for their love of money.

[damntexdem]

1. It's the stupid bankers.

[Lorax]

2. I'm a little confused.

It was my understanding that the bailout funds were a loan, with interest, that the banks have to pay back. So wouldn't we want Citi to announce profits so they can pay back the bailout funds?

Granted, it's galling to see companies using that money to pay outrageous bonuses, but I'm not sure I understand blanket anger at the banks for turning a profit.

Please feel free to correct me if I am missing something. I am not an expert in finance.

[CoffeeCat]

3. I'm a lot confused and and I'm getting pissed...

Last week, Wells Fargo announced a $3 billion profit in Q1. Their stock soared and the banking sector
soared as WF pulled it along. Hell, the entire DOW went up more than 300 points the day of the WF
announcement that created an optimism tidal wave.

Now...we find out that there are qualifiers behind those numbers and that the scenario may not be
as rosy as we were initially led to believe. Wells hasn't released the HOW of arriving at that $3 billion
figure, but many are speculating that WF didn't have to write down foreclosures, due to Obama's moratorium.
There's also some creative accounting and write downs going on--as well as WF's Wachovia acquisition muddying
the waters.

So.....that's one silver lining that may be tarnished.

Another example is Bank of America's impressive profitable January that wowed the market. Once again the market
reacted, but now we find out these impressive numbers were due to some finagling, also AIG's situation affected
BofA's numbers. So, another tarnished silver lining, when we were led to believe that things were improving.

So now, when i hear that Citi is announcing these "record profits"--pardon me if I'm not skipping in the streets. Is
this another example of creative accounting gone awry?

Also, the banking industry lobbied very hard to get Federal accounting standards changed. They succeeded and those
standard were changed TWO WEEKS AGO. As a result, THE BANKS determine what their toxic assets are worth--not market
value. Could this possibly be impacting their earnings numbers and creating better numbers?

Another point. Lending has been nearly frozen for the better part of Q1. On the demand side--businesses and consumers
aren't out borrowing. They're hunkering down and hurting due to the economy. How in the world could a bank have
"record profits" at a time like this? I'm asking...because I'm not a finance expert...

I'm just trying to understand this cluster$$#, and navigate the lies, half-truths and press releases.