When the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) sees that a bank has financial troubles, it moves in Friday afternoon to seize the bank, and hands it over to another bank that runs it at the start of the next Monday.

Back in 2007, when the economy was doing well for most of the year and people were paying their loans, the FDIC closed only three banks. The number moved up to 25 for all of 2008. Then, with the Obama-era Stimulus economy of "things could have been worse," things indeed got worse: The FDIC shuttered 140 banks in 2009, and it became only worse the following year with the closure of 157 banks.

In the first few weeks of the current year, the FDIC closed 22 banks, surpassing the twenty banks closed the same time last year. Indeed, 20 versus 22 is not much of a difference, but one would think that with 'the Stimulus meetings its goals,' we would see a reduction in the number of FDIC banks closing compared to last year. However, as of yet, things are worse than 2010, and indeed worse than 2009, when only fourteen banks were closed at this time of the year. (See here week-by-week bank closing info of the FDIC)