If you think we're out of the woods, leaving behind all that bailout and stimulus cash that will one day devoid the greenback of any real value, you're wrong.
If you think President Obama's bank reforms are going to make a bit of difference in the near future, again, you're wrong.
While some of the original programs doling out "crisis cash" are marching toward extinction, there is a lot of cash waiting in the wings.
CNNMoney's David Goldman writes, "The bailout wind-up has nearly cancelled out the wind-down, and the government still has about $2.2 trillion of loans to reclaim."
But, continues Goldman, "The Fed, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Treasury Department have insisted that their rescue initiatives will have to be rolled back or terminated as the recovery gains traction."
Initiatives like Making Home Affordable, TALF, and even the Recovery Act.
While that's all well and good in theory, in practice is a completely different animal. In fact, some financial institutions are still being investigated for their actions leading up to the financial crisis.
"The European Union extended its probe of ING Groep NV’s planned risk transfer of 21.6 billion euros ($31.5 billion) of mortgage assets to the Dutch government and said the portfolio may be overvalued," said Martijn van der Starre and Matthew Newman of Bloomberg today.
The Union's Commission is concerned that ING may be getting preferential treatment or "an unfair competitive advantage." But this is the same Commission that granted approval of that transfer back on March 31.
Interestingly, this approval was marked "temporary," most likely so that the European Commission could study asset transfers from five other nations to determine if ING's transfer was overvalued.
Investigations like this may find their way into what President Obama is calling "common sense" rules for the financial industry.
"Obama said the rules he is proposing are 'essential' to ensuring that U.S. markets function fairly and freely," reports MarketWatch. "'Common sense rules of the road do not hinder the markets but make them stronger,' Obama said."
But some in Congress are wondering what's taking so long. There hasn't really been any reform package passed yet.
So while President Obama is "urging bankers to back financial overhaul," as reported by The Wall Street Journal, his administration and Congress have yet to put screws to thumbs.
"His proposed changes to financial rules have bogged down in part because of a backlash from banks and conservative lawmakers. They have also been overshadowed by the debate over health care. Mr. Obama's speech served as a reminder to many that the regulatory plan remains one of the administration's top domestic priorities," says the WSJ.
Some might argue that the government needed time to unwind some of the precarious deals it made during the crisis. Some argue that regulations won't stop the government from pumping even more money into an overloaded system.
Adam Lass, editor of WaveStrength Options Weekly, writes, "Each time around the wheel, Washington discovers anew that it is easier to open the dollar tap than to close it off and deny its two constituencies – the electorate and big business – cheap credit’s imaginary wealth and profits."
But there is a silver lining...
"Again and again, inflation slays as each upstroke ends at the top-line of the grand falling trend. The downside is that we pretty much know for a fact how far the market has to run. The upside: The reliability of it all offers up some pretty convenient methods of bringing in some coin," says Adam.
Take him literally, he says.
When the dollar falls, gold rises. Adam says, "Gold is once again flirting with its all-time high."
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