The FDIC, the body that insures the money we put into our bank accounts, is currently supporting 416 failed and "problem" banks. Is all that strain on our nation's banking backbone a cause for alarm? We speak to Louise Story, Wall Street and finance reporter for The New York Times, to ask her if we should start stuffing money under our mattresses.

After long negotiations, the Swiss bank UBS announced yesterday that it had reached a deal with the Internal Revenue Service. Part of the deal requires the bank to give the I.R.S. the names attached to 4,500 previously secret accounts. Swiss banks have long been valued for their secrecy and discretion; the I.R.S. suspects the bank may be harboring billions of taxable U.S. dollars in accounts owned by Americans.

Now that UBS is bowing to pressure from the U.S., the burning question is: where-oh-where will the fabulously wealthy go to hide their money now? For that and more, we check in with Louise Story, the Wall Street and finance reporter for the New York Times. 

Is $100 million too much for one year for one Citigroup trader? That's what the White House pay czar may decide as he starts his compensation review at bailed-out financial firms. But Citi is arguing that its energy trader deserves the money. Takeaway friend and finance expert Alvin Hall looks at the bank's argument. And we speak to two people with an opinion: Matt Spaulding is a small business owner in Atlanta; and Judy Coughlin is a clerical worker in Lowell whose union just voted for a pay freeze.

Watch a Fox Business News report on Citigroup's push for compensation.

The Swiss bank UBS has struck a deal with the U.S. government. Washington has been fighting for the release of some 52,000 names of wealthy Americans suspected of evading taxes by hiding billions of dollars in secret bank accounts with UBS and other Swiss banks. To help us understand the details of the deal and the impact on clients of the bank, The Takeaway turns to Bill Sharp, a lawyer who represents a number of clients with Swiss bank accounts.

This week in The Takeaway's Monday agenda: the Senate confirmation hearings of Sonia Sotomayor, the health care debate continues, bank earnings out this week may cause some controversy and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is in Europe and the Middle East. The Takeaway is joined by Marcus Mabry, the International Business Editor for The New York Times. Also joining the show is the BBC's Diplomatic Correspondent Jonathan Marcus.

The financial industry is getting a makeover. Today President Obama will lay out some of the most significant changes to the U.S. financial system since the Great Depression. For a look at some of the reforms we might see, The Takeaway talks to Peter Morici. He's an economist and professor at the University of Maryland's School of Business.

The Obama administration has announced the appointment of a compensation czar who will regulate executive pay at seven of the largest companies getting TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) funds. He will also develop a compensation structure for 80 smaller companies. The man who is taking on that job is Kenneth Feinberg, a Washington, D.C. attorney who was in charge of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. He joins The Takeaway to tell us about his plans. (Click through to read the interview.)

The Federal Reserve yesterday released the long-awaited results of the “stress tests”. The tests found that ten of the nation's 19 largest banks need a total of about $75 billion in new capital to withstand losses if the recession worsened. The banks in trouble will have until June 8 to come up with a plan and have it approved. While the verdict was far more upbeat than many in the industry had feared when the tests were first announced in February, will the results help build the confidence they're meant to? Edmund Andrews, New York Times economics reporter, joins The Takeaway to discuss.

For more, read Edmund L. Andrews' article, Ailing Banks Need $75 Billion, U.S. Says, in today's New York Times.

Stress-test results: click here to see which banks still need more cash.

The Federal Reserve yesterday released the long-awaited results of the “stress tests”. The report gave nine of the nation's largest banks a clean bill of health, and told ten others to raise $75 billion in new capital. The banks in trouble, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup, will have until June 8 to come up with a plan to raise the money and have it approved. Joining The Takeaway is Simon Johnson, Professor at MIT, former chief economist at the IMF, and co-founder of the economics blog Baseline Scenario. He's been a critic of Treasury Secretary Timonthy Geithner's approach to solving the nation's financial woes, he joins us to discuss the results, the after-hours upsurge in trading, and what this means for the economy.

Stress-test results: click here to see which banks still need more cash.

Report cards on the nation's 19 biggest banks will be released later today, but not all of the banks will be getting gold stars. While the results of the government-ordered stress tests are still to be released, early news of the results have been trickling out for days. The early leaks suggest that Bank of America will need $33.9 billion in additional capital. In fact, many of the banks tested need more money. But, this doesn't mean another multi-billion dollar bailout is looming. So if the additional funds don't come from the government, where will they come from? Eric Dash is following this story for our partners the New York Times and he joins The Takeaway with a report.

For more, read Eric Dash's and Louise Story's article, As Stress Tests Are Revealed, Markets Sense a Turning Point, in the New York Times.

Which banks will need more money? See our report card

Want to keep an eye on your stocks? Watch the market here.

Want to watch how the big 19 are doing in the market?
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
Citigroup Inc.
Bank of America Corporation
Wells Fargo & Co.
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Morgan Stanley
Metlife, Inc.
PNC Financial Services
U.S. Bancorp
The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation
SunTrust Banks, Inc.
State Street Corporation
Capital One Financial Corp.
BB&T Corp.
Regions Financial Corp.
American Express Co.
Fifth Third Bancorp
Keycorp
GMAC LLC
Still want more? Here is related coverage from The Takeaway.
And here is Pro Publica's investigation into the stress tests.

Today the Securities and Exchange Commission will unveil several proposals aimed at restricting short-selling—a technique used by investors to profit from falling stock prices by selling at one price and then buying back at a lower price. While it has thus far been legal, it is widely considered underhanded. That may all change with the SEC's new rules. But there are many issues at the SEC that could also use revision, problems that go far beyond short-selling. The Takeaway is taking a broad look at SEC reform with John Coffee, a professor at Columbia Law School and director of that school’s Center on Corporate Governance.

There's been plenty of outrage in the U.S. over collapsing banks, bailouts and bonuses, but the financial crisis is turning violent in Europe. Fred Goodwin, the former chief executive of the ailing Royal Bank of Scotland, had his house and car vandalized this week and the manager of a 3M factory in France was barricaded in an office by workers demanding better severance packages for employees being laid off. All this comes ahead of the G20 meeting in London next week, where some protesters are planning to hang effigies of bankers from lamp posts. Damian McLoughlin, managing director of the security firm Guardian GS, joins us for a look at the security concerns for bankers in this environment.

For a look at the vandalism on Fred Goodwin's home in Edinburgh watch the video below.

The Fed announced its new plan to help stimulate the economy yesterday calling for roughly $1 trillion to be spent on the mortgage market and treasury securities. Maya MacGuineas is the Director of the New America Foundation’s Fiscal Policy Program and the President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, and she joins us to talk about the Fed's new plan.



Curious exactly how money is made? Watch this clip from How It's Made explaining the process.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are busy pointing fingers in the fallout over the $165 million bailout of AIG and the executive bonuses. There's more to come today, as AIG boss Edward Liddy testifies in front of furious U.S. lawmakers at a House subcommittee. The Takeaway talks to Todd Zwillich from Capitol News Connection for the reaction, the political implications and what's ahead.


See reactions from Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Chuck Grassley in this clip from Countdown with Keith Olbermann:

There have been a lot of numbers thrown around during the ongoing banking crisis. But here's a few you might not believe: 28 million people in the United States have NO bank account while another 40 million households are "underbanked," meaning they have an account but don't really use it. You might think America's big banks would be scrambling to bring these folks into the fold. But they aren't. To help us understand what big banks could be doing better—and how a number of smaller banks are stepping in to fill the vacuum—The Takeaway talks with Jennifer Tescher, the Director of the Center for Financial Services Innovation.

As 28 million Americans know, living without a bank out has its perks. For example, there are no overdraft fees, no worry about bouncing your rent check and there is no need to hunt all over town looking for YOUR banks ATM machine. But it also means it next to impossible to get a decent rate on a mortgage or get approved on a car loan. Frank Garcia, Chairman of the Hispanic Bronx Chamber of Commerce and also the owner of Millenium Recycled Toner walks us through the pros and cons of going bankless.