US large-loan bank losses triple to $53 billion

U.S. regulators said total losses from large loans at banks and other financial institutions nearly tripled to $53 billion in 2009, due to a deteriorating economic environment and continued weak underwriting standards. According to an annual report released by the four federal bank-regulatory agencies on Thursday, credit quality deteriorated to record levels this year.

Here's the question to ask:  are these big banks still paying out massive bonuses and paychecks because they avoided taking $100 billon losses (and eventually losses will be in the trillions - trust me on that) OR are they paying massive bonuses because they were smart enough to convince the Government to keep them going with trillions in taxpayer money? 

Here's the article link:   Banks Lose Billions, CEO's Earn 10's of millions