Big Banks Repay Bailout Money; Taxpayers See $4 billion Profit

Is the economy on the way to recovery?

Today, it is being reported that U.S. taxpayers have a billion profit from the fact that big banks repaid their bailout money. This is spurring some speculation that big banks might have recovered enough to provide some cornerstone for economic recovery.

Even so, it is important to be careful about optimism. The U.S. government still has a great deal of debt, and that could lead to dollar weakness later this year, even as economic recovery begins. Another thing to remember is that this repayment of bailout funds does not take into account the fact that the U.S. government did a great deal of other things to support financial institutions through the credit market crash. The U.S. government is still on the hook for billions in potential losses from corporate bailout efforts.