Big Banks Still Think We're Chumps

Have the big banks learned their lesson from the financial crisis? Not a chance, writes Charlie Gasparino in the Daily Beast. Citigroup’s recent attempt to bar a well-respected financial analyst from questioning its executives about accounting practices, plus new documents proving the bank’s top brass knew about its massive risk-taking, all prove that this “behemoth” still holds “contempt for the needs of investors and the American taxpayer.”

Since “the notion of 'too big to fail' is now established,” Gasparino writes, “once the financial crisis is forgotten, wild risk-taking will resume.” Although Citigroup is now under new leadership, the bank still closely guards financial information that should be public, resulting in “a familiar cycle that will once again, I fear, be paid for, at the end, by the U.S. taxpayer.” (Click here to read an optimistic take on the brand-new banking regulations.)