Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) reported earnings of $3.50 billion, or $1.10 a share, down 32% from a profit of $4.77 billion, or $1.51 a share, from the same period a year ago. On an adjusted basis, the company earned $1.11 a share, beating analysts' expectations of $1.03 a share by 8%. Revenue dropped from $22.76 billion to $20.50 billion over the same time period; analysts surveyed by Zacks expected revenue of $17.79 billion.

You may be surprised to learn which industry has announced the most layoffs so far this year: finance

After the banks made wildly risky bets with our money, we bailed them out. Congress enacted financial reform (the Dodd-Frank law). But Wall Street lobbyists immediately set about diluting it, along with its regulations. Dodd-Frank is now riddled with so many exemptions and loopholes that the largest banks are back to many of their old tricks

Citigroup agreed to settle a $285-million negligence lawsuit that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed that day over a $1-billion investment product linked with the housing market

Newsweek's latest cover story declares that The Great Recession is over. A Merrill Lynch report concurs, saying, 'The recession is over... We are bullish on global equities.' Goldman Sachs is placing riskier bets on the market than it did before the financial meltdown (and setting aside huge amounts of money to pay its executives). The problem is ...

There is currently plenty of alarming smoke pouring out of our economic Vesuvius, but it is being dismissed. Don't worry about economic tremors, we're told, our financial system is back on track, the bailout worked and we'll start our slow but steady climb to recovery. But warning signs are all around us ...