Many of the big banks received huge bailouts from the government during the great recession. If they faced a crisis again, what would stop them from expecting another bailout the next time around? That question has led one Fed official, Thomas Hoenig, president of the Kansas City Fed, to raise the issue of whether big banks should be reclassified as government sponsored entities, kind of like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

If JP Morgan loses a current class action suit, big banks may have to take more responsibility for informing their clients when a deal or a financial instrument raises red flags. New documents have surfaced in a class-action suit a group of pension funds is leading against JP Morgan. They show that during the financial crisis, JP Morgan executives realized a certain investment entity called Sigma was going under. They hedged their own bets, but didn't let their clients — the group of pension funds now suing — know of the danger. If JP Morgan loses this case, big banks may be obliged to intervene in such matters. Louise Story, whose piece on the suit was just published in The New York Times, tells us more. 

The Irish government is in the unprecedented situation of having a leader of parliament who does not head up his own party. On Saturday, Taoiseach (leader) Brian Cowen stepped down as head of the ruling party, Fianna Fail, after the resignation of key ministers a few days earlier. And yesterday, the government's coalition partner, the Green Party, withdrew its support. Now elections that were scheduled for mid-March will most likely happen in the next few weeks. And the fate of a finance bill that was to complete the IMF bailout is uncertain.

Under the unpopular bank bailout program, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, better known as TARP, the government invested money in struggling banks, and eventually got something in return. But the program's end got Louise Story, Wall Street and finance reporter for our partner The New York Times, thinking about whether the big banks got a better deal than the government did, when everything was said and done.

Insurance giant AIG has reached an agreement and a plan with the federal government to pay back some $70 billion given to the company in 2008 as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, just before their two-year deadline on October 3. Under the agreement, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York will remove it's ties to American International Group, and the Treasury will increase it's stake to 92 percent, gradually bringing the shares it owns from preferred to public to transfer the control back out of government hands. But is the public buying? Louise Story gives us the latest.

As the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission continues hearings on Capitol Hill this week, so does the debate over regulation. The head of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Bank Bailout, Elizabeth Warren, called for sweeping regulation on the show yesterday. Today, we a get a response from the industry.