Economic Crisis, Bank Bailout | featured news

Banks are finally beginning to lend, the big ones that is. Commercial and industrial lending is up this quarter 0.2% from the third quarter, according to Moody's Analytics. That might not sound like much, but it's the first quarterly increase in two years. This is great, right? After all, if banks are lending more to businesses, they can expand and begin to hire. That's true, but this trend reveals something else: the financial crisis has created an environment where big banks are getting bigger, as the small ones struggle.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the government rescued American International Group Inc. to prevent a "catastrophic" blow to the U.S. economy, not to save any of AIG's counterparties.

President Barack Obama singled out financial institutions for causing much of the economic tailspin and criticized their opposition to tighter federal oversight of their industry....

House members want the eight big banks to increase their lending and explain what they are doing with the taxpayers’ money.