John Thain -- whom you may recall as the man who presided over the spectacular implosion of Merrill Lynch -- is looking to have some new business cards printed up. Over the weekend, CIT Group (CIT) officially announced that its board of directors has elected Thain as chairman and CEO.

Due to his controversial past, the decision to elect Thain wasn't an easy one. After shelling out a small fortune to tart up his office digs at Merrill Lynch -- and doling out lofty bonuses amid the bank's hasty takeover by Bank of America (BAC) -- Thain became something of a poster boy for Wall Street excesses.

Defenders of former Bank of America (BAC) CEO Ken Lewis, who is now being charged with civil fraud by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, are quick to point out that Lewis may have been pressured not to reveal massive losses to shareholders by regulators -- namely Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson.

At the height of the financial crisis, Bank of America (BAC) acquired Merrill Lynch for $50 billion. Over the past year, Merrill's ranks have thinned from 18,000 down to 15,000.

Merrill's "thundering herd," as it was once known, was a powerhouse dealing largely with retail customers. Interestingly enough, even with the advent of electronic trading, many wealthy clients prefer to deal directly with a broker. B of A has a big book of 17 million "mass affluent" customers who need advice and services. "Mass affluent" customers are those whose income is between $100,000 and $1 million in investable assets.

A rose is a rose is a rose. Thank you Gertrude Stein for that observation. But a bank is not a bank is not a bank. That's because not all banks are serving the same market, nor are they all offering the same loans. If you're going to invest in banks, be sure you understand who they're lending to and what kind of loans they have on the books.

The first group of banks is community banks. As you might guess, they serve specific communities, usually within a fairly narrow geographic region. They rely on that region for their deposits with which they'll make loans, and loan demand. In other words, they serve a well-defined community. They know all the neighbors, participate in the local activities, have a high profile, hopefully do good things for a community.

While we wait for details on the president's plan to break up the banks, I wonder why the banks can't decide to break themselves up?

Wouldn't it be so much better to break up themselves than wait for President Obama to do it for them? Investment banks specialize in mergers and acquisitions and the converse spin-offs. Mergers and acquisitions are big business for Wall Street and they happen all the time. In fact, that's how many of the banks got so big.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage on BloggingStocks:

• Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) shares declined despite an earnings beat and a positive outlook
• Bank of America Corp. (BAC) reported that its Q4 loss widened more than expected by Wall Street.
• Capital One Financial Corp. (COF) reported better-than-expected earnings but shares declined.
• Colgate-Palmolive Co. (CL) is seen as on-track to record double-digit earnings growth in 2010.
• Cree Inc. (CREE) strong earnings and revenue growth sent shares to a new 52-week high.

Banks have seen a hectic couple of days' of trading, thanks to a bevy of news. I thought it may be good to take a look at some earnings results from a few of the banks, and what it could mean for the economy going forward.

First, let's look at the earnings:

• JPMorgan Chase (JPM): earnings of 74 cents per share; expectations for 60 cents per share
• Citigroup (C): a loss of six cents per share; expectations for a loss of 33 cents per share
• Goldman Sachs (GS): earnings of $8.20 per share; expectations for earnings of $5.20

U.S. stock futures were mixed Friday morning as investors mulled results from General Electric and others, and focused on the effects President Obama's plan to overhaul Wall Street would have on banks.

On Thursday, Wall Street suffered one of the worst day in month after the Obama administration announced a proposal to increase regulation on the financial industry. Despite several strong earnings, concerns over China's efforts to curb lending, a surprise increase in jobless claims and a drop in manufacturing amounted to the Dow industrials sinking 213 points, or 2%. The broader S&P 500 lost 1.9% and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 1.1%.

PPI came in at +0.2% and the core PPI was unchanged. This sounded good, but China put the hex on the market by curbing its overextended businesses by asking lenders to stop making loans for the rest of the month. The dollar went higher on Greek woes again, and both the Greek impact on the US dollar strength and the China news took a bite out of commodity prices.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,583.73 -141.70 (-1.32%)
S&P 500 1,138.04 -12.19 (-1.06%)
Nasdaq 2,291.25 -29.15 (-1.26%)

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U.S. stock futures fell Wednesday, indicating Wall Street is poised for a lower open, after Bank of America reported a big loss. Other concerns weighing on the market include Chinese clampdown on lending and the change in the balance of power in Washington. Meanwhile, investors will continue to focus on the many earnings and economic indicators coming out this morning.

U.S. stocks hit a new 15-month high Tuesday as IBM led tech stocks higher ahead of its earnings report late Tuesday, and health-care shares rose as the health care and insurance reforms hung in the balance. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 115 points, or 1.1%, the S&P 500 rose 14 points, or 1.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 32 points, or 1.4%.

Before the market opens tomorrow, Bank of America (BAC) is going to be reporting its fourth quarter earnings numbers.

Going into tomorrow's earnings release, Wall Street analysts are looking for the company to show a loss of 52 cents per share. For the same period last year, the company had a loss of 48 cents per share.

Last week, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) led off the coming parade of earnings from the big banks when it reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter and full-year earnings, though its revenue fell short of estimates.

Plenty more earnings from the financial sector are due out this week. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters anticipate fourth-quarter earnings growth from American Express Co. (AXP), Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BK), Hudson City Bancorp Inc. (HCBK), SLM Corp. (SLM) and US Bancorp (USB).

The past two years have certainly been tough -- even for the wealthy. We've seen turbulent markets, the crashing of major institutions, loss of confidence on Wall Street and a grueling recession. So what is the sentiment now?

Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAC) has released its latest quarterly survey, called Affluent Insights. This is based on phone calls between December 1st to 16th last year and involved a sample of 1,000 affluent Americans (defined as those with investable assets over $250,000).

The market held up well considering the news flow today. The jobless claims grew again and the retail sales were far from impressive. We had Obama publicly attacking the banks for more taxes, and even that didn't hurt the bank stocks. A well-received 30-Year Treasury auction helped with those who might spread fear about a bond market bubble as well.

Here are the unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,711.60 +30.83 (0.29%)
S&P 500 1,148.61 +2.93 (0.26%)
Nasdaq 2,318.01 +10.11 (0.44%)

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The Securities & Exchange Commission filed new charges against Bank of America (BAC) today, accusing the company of hiding "staggering financial losses" at Merrill Lynch prior to the consummation of the merger between the two companies.

The Associated Press has details, but there are a few interesting things about this latest development:

• Current Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan was the general counsel of Bank of America at the time of the alleged disclosure improprieties. Just saying.