Now here’s something to think about: “The Fed’s green-lighting of capital returns also ran counter to recent experience.  Many banks spent huge amounts buying back stock in the years before the [2008] crisis, only to require government bailouts when trouble hit. Citigroup, for example, bought back more than $20 billion between 2004 and 2008, according to Capital IQ, only to require about $50 billion in bailout money during the crisis.”

This is merely one intelligent observation in a nice Heard on the Street piece in today’s Wall Street Journal titled “Fed Up With Bank Share Buybacks.”