During the meltdown of Wall Street which resulted in numerous bailouts of huge financial institutions, all on the backs of taxpayers (and to be clear: done first by the Bush administration), a new theme has emerged. There will be no such thing as "too big to fail" in the future.

It has been one year since Congress allotted $700 billion dollars to bailout the financial industry. With TARP's first birthday the debate on if the program has been a success or failure is heating up.

In 1987 when I started as a "retail stock broker" there were hundreds of high quality “investment ideas” to show customers on a daily basis – literally hundreds. There were dozens of AAA rated fixed income products, many quality high yielding stocks, and pages of conservative, safe, AAA rated insured municipal bonds. Oh how things have changed.

Fannie Mae needs another $10.7 billion taxpayer bailout from the Treasury Department to stay afloat. The government-controlled mortgage insurer has drawn a total of $45.9 billion of its $200 billion lifeline this year.

CIT has not given up its quest for government assistance. Sheila Bair has refused to risk draining the FDIC's deposit insurance fund by guaranteeing the debt of the ailing lender, a guarantee which she somehow had no trouble doling out to Citigroup and Bank of America.

The President announces that 10 banks will repay their Troubled Asset Relief funds, and commits to new legislation codifying the Pay-As-You-Go principle, reports the White House.

Today's CNN reports a story that public funds from the stimulus package will be used to build a bridge connecting Microsoft headquarters. Critiques say it is waste of money. The local mayor supports the project saying the community will benefit.

The Wall Street Journal has a great article today filled with all the gory details of how AIG has blown through the $173 billion (and counting) in government bailout money.

Multiple reports from "people involved in the discussions" indicate that American International Group (AIG) is about to receive another $30 billion in bailout funds.

Today the 117-page GM Viability Plan is presented to U.S. Department of the Treasury as required under Section 7.20 of the Loan and Security Agreement Between General Motors and the U. S. Department of the Treasury, Dated December 31, 2008.

The chief executives of eight leading U.S. banks are facing tough questioning from lawmakers about how they have spent emergency funding from the government. The CEO's from Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Co, Citigroup, State Street, Bank of New York, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs shared testifying before the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee Wednesday to defending their spending practices.

By Paul Kiel, ProPublica

In a report today, the Congressional Budget Office tried to put a price tag on the bailout [1] (PDF) through the end of last year. The answer: $64 billion.