Ten Firms Allowed to Dump The TARP

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and seven other lucky firms have been given the green light to repay the billions of dollars they borrowed under the U.S. government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, causing many banking insiders to sing of the beginning of the end of the recession (no doubt Goldman’s Lloyd Blankfein and JPMorgan’s Jimmy Dimon are belting out ecstatic tunes about being able to pay their employees millions of dollars again without having to use the word “retention.”)

However, some folks (including President Obama) say we shouldn't be donning our party hats and breaking out our noisemakers just yet.

Exhibit A: Big banks such as Citi, Bank of America and Wells Fargo are likely many months away from being in a position to repay their TARP funds.

Exhibit B: Does the prospect of the 10 firms given the okay to repay their TARP funds going back to business as usual (aka business partially responsible for their having to take TARP funds in the first place) bring you much comfort?

And Exhibit C: Job cuts at major financial firms aren't going out of style any time soon.