The Banks pull the rabit out of the hat

It amazes me that this bailout of the banking system continues and the administration allows for CEO such from Citi and BOA to give irresponsible statement to the public regarding how profitable they have been during the first quarter. This is complete manipulation and it is how we got into the mess in the first place. People wrongly assumed that banks were being honest about their number and they bought the story. It appears that we are all buying it again as they pass out kool aid for wiling drinkers. The banks have soaked the tax payer for trillions of dollars and would have been bankrupt a few weeks ago if they had not gotten massive injections of capital from the government. In a miraculous turnaround a few weeks later they have become profitable companies? Wow these CEO’s must be the best and the brightest and it is a shame that they weren’t there running the companies during the meltdowns and massive liquidity problems. Oh wait! I forgot most of them were there during the meltdown and were the ones at the helm during most of the credit crunch. But now they come out with a memo or a luncheon speech and say whatever they want about profitability and now ones questions them, the stock market bounces, and Obama looks like a “guru” stock picker. I have heard the stock market is always looking forward by several months but I don’t see how the banking system can be fixed in several months as housing is still falling, credit is tightening, unemployment rising, and taxes increasing. There was no lag time between the Citi memo on profitability and the market turning upward. Where was the forward looking lag time? I tend to believe that this was more of a short covering rally than the all in signal but I don’t know either way. It just seems to me like we are adding to the lack of trust in the system by allowing bankers to have public forum to preach profits without examination of the data. If we see a downturn of the banks again after this bounce we will have done even more harm to the fragile confidence of investors and the American public. If the banks are saved it is great for everyone and now they can just write the check back –with interest- to the government and send out that memo tomorrow. If this is more smoke and mirrors from the CEO’s we will have taken two more steps back.