FDIC’s Insurance Commitments 34% Higher Than Reported – Rolfe Winkler – … Odd, no?  Why such a small increase even though FDIC dialed up deposit insurance limits so significantly during Q4?  FDIC Senior Banking Analyst Ross Waldrop told me during an interview last week that it’s because so-called “temporary” increases in deposit insurance are excluded.  If included, these would boost total insured deposits from $4.8 trillion to $6.2 trillion … – Option Armageddon

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Obama Wants to Control the Banks – Stuart Varney – There’s a reason he refuses to accept repayment of TARP money. – Here’s a true story first reported by my Fox News colleague Andrew Napolitano (with the names and some details obscured to prevent retaliation). Under the Bush team a prominent and profitable bank, under threat of a damaging public audit, was forced to accept less than $1 billion of TARP money. … Fast forward to today, and that same bank is begging to give the money back. The chairman offers to write a check, now, with interest. He’s been sitting on the cash for months and has felt the dead hand of government threatening to run his business and dictate pay scales. … But the Obama team says no, since unlike the smaller banks that gave their TARP money back, this bank is far more prominent. The bank has also been threatened with “adverse” consequences if its chairman persists. That’s politics talking, not economics. – WSJ Opinion

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Treasury Chief Says He’s Open to Ousting Heads of Frail Banks – By BLOOMBERG NEWS – Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner says he is prepared to oust the senior management and directors at banks that require extensive aid from the federal government. – NY Times

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Robert Reich: Will Geithner Fire Corporate America? – … Why stop there? Perhaps Geithner intends to fire executives and directors of any company that’s dependent on taxpayers and is now losing money. Just think of the corporate house-cleaning this will mean. … agribusiness executives … military contractors. Hell, the whole pharmaceutical industry … All told, about one out of every five large American companies depends on government contracts, and a majority of these firms are losing money right now. So … off with their heads. – TPM Blog

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Bernanke Told Fed’s TALF Favors Moody’s, S&P, Fitch – By Michael McDonald  -  The U.S. Federal Reserve’s $1 trillion effort to restart the market for securities backed by loans “unfairly” benefits the three largest credit rating companies, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a letter to Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke. – Bloomberg