What a difference a year makes: in 2008, President Bush was on television discussing the potential imminent collapse of our financial system.  He was explaining to a (rightly) angry public why TARP was necessary.  As we end 2009, Citigroup, the hardest hit of the banking conglomerates, is repaying its $20 billion TARP loan.

I'd like to think Citi is repaying its bill because it has a healthy balance sheet and wants to make right with the American taxpayer.  That's what I'd like to think.  But Citi, just like Bank of America and other banks, is repaying the funds so that the government cannot mandate executive pay and bonuses.  What was the saying from the Michael Douglas movie Wall Street?  Greed is good.  Greed seems to still be the motivational force for most bankers.

Here's what I find so interesting about all these shenanigans.  As a nation, we have massive deficits.  Banks just got slapped with new regulations that mitigate excessive fees (um, talking to an actual person costs how much?!).  More people are defaulting on credit cards.  There is less consumer spending.  Which means are "recovery" is fragile at best. Yet, somehow, banks are once again making profits enough to pay back the government so that they can pay their execs huge bonuses. 

And some people say we don't need any regulations.