Out Fox The $treet

Summary Citigroup submitted a surprisingly large capital return plan that met no objections from the Fed. The results show the other large financial institutions requiring adjusted capital return plans. Previous recommendation to own the stock remains intact. For a very beleaguered bank, Citigroup (NYSE: C ) passed the Fed stress tests with flying colors. Considering the failure last year and the executive jobs on the line, the opinion all along was that the bank would easily pass the test this year. The surprise is the size of the capital returns approved and the struggles of the other leading financial institutions. Read the full article on Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: Long C. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Whether the Greece issue or Sovereign Debt in general it appears that they will impact Fed decisions on interest rates. Possibly its just unemployment, but it is clear that rates will remain too low for too long. Yes, unemployment is high and not normally a period when rates would be raised. Unfortunately though, rates remain 1-2% below even a normal low and hence should be increased back up to that level immediately. A basically zero rate shouldn't be allowed to remain this accomondative much longer. The system continues to punish savers and encourage reckless booms and busts. Interesting comments from Brian Westbury on the Kudlow Report on CNBC regarding the Fed and interest rates. His opinions continue to align close to ours.