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.

General Electric Company (GE) is not a stock beloved by its shareholders. I'm one of them, and I can tell you that I sometimes find myself still unable to process the fall the once mighty icon of Wall Street has taken because of too much financial exposure. I look to every earnings report for signs of a true recovery in the conglomerate, a restoration to its former glory. The latest Q4 report doesn't necessarily do anything to point me in such direction, but I keep trying to tell myself it's going to be a while, and to hang in there.

According to the company press release, GE, whose colleagues include Citigroup, Inc. (C) and United Technologies (UTX), experienced a 10% drop in total sales and a 22% decline in per-share profit, the latter coming in at 28 cents from continuing operations. Thankfully, 28 cents was a couple pennies above the estimate given at Earnings.com.

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%.

U.S. stock futures were slightly lower Tuesday morning as investors returned from a long weekend ready for earnings season to get in full swing with Citigroup (C) and IBM (IBM) reporting Tuesday. Also, several mergers greeted traders, including, finally a $19.5 billion offer for Cadbury by Kraft Foods.

On Friday, U.S. stocks fell after JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM) reported better-than-expected results, that included, however, deep fourth-quarter loan losses. Also, a consumer sentiment survey was weaker-than-expected as consumers were increasingly concerned about income and employment.

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 lack of public outcry or protest regarding bank bail-out recipient Citigroup Inc.'s (C) decision to allocate million-dollar pay packages to top executives, albeit in stock, not cash, should not surprise investors.

That's because, historically, the American people have never supported restricting individual bonuses or large compensation plans. The political science and public policy literature is voluminous on this subject -- I've worked with the data for more than 10 years -- and the stance over the years of the American people has been clear: high compensation -- base salary or bonus -- is OK.

In an upcoming interview with Judy Woodruff on Bloomberg Television, executive pay czar Kenneth L. Feinberg complains that "The biggest disappointment, I think, is that under the statute my jurisdiction is so narrow, and so circumscribed, that I have no real direct mandatory power over other Wall Street or other national companies."

Which is, to be honest, terrifying.

Europe is hot, if you don't look too far over your shoulder. The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index played well through the stock market recovery of 2009, ticking up 28% (60% from its March 2009 low). This was the index's best annual performance in a decade.

Basic resources and banks gained 100% and 46%, respectively, this year, after having turned in dismal performances the year before. China helped, as well, with its elevated economic growth forecast good for another 0.5% gain during the shortened week of Christmas.

U.S. stock futures once again rose Thursday morning, indicating Wall Street is ready to finish this shortened week on a high note. Investors await economic data on jobs and manufacturing as they mull the implications of the health care bill just passed in the senate. Markets will close at 1 p.m. Eastern today and volume is likely to be light. Market are closed Friday.

Health care and related sectors are in focus today after the Senate passed a landmark health care bill Thursday. The bill ushers in near-universal medical coverage for the first time in the country's history. The Senate's bill must still be merged with legislation passed by the House before Obama could sign a final bill in the new year. There are significant differences between the two measures, but both bills would extend health insurance to more than 30 million more Americans, but still leave over 20 million uninsured.

The market should have focused on the downward revision of Q3 GDP to 2.2%. When the benefits of "cash for clunkers" is taken out, the economy barely grew at all.

Stocks ended up being driven by good housing sales figures which were up 7.4% for November and equities were up for a third consecutive day. The market's movement between now and the end of the year will probably be driven by retail sales numbers, but there were few of those today.

The unofficial closing numbers:

Dow 10,464.93 +50.79 (0.49%)
S&P 500 1,118.02 +3.97 (0.36%)
Nasdaq 2,252.67 +15.01 (0.67%)

The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports that the FBI is looking into a potential computer-security breach that resulted in the theft of tens of millions of dollars from Citibank by computer hackers.

These hackers appear to be linked to a Russian cyber gang who targeted Citigroup's (C) Citibank subsidiary, including its North American retail bank and other businesses. This attack was detected over the summer, but there is a chance that it could have happened as much as a year earlier.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says three times a shakeout led to yet-higher prices -- and skittish investors have missed out.

Three times this market eluded people. The first was what looks obvious in retrospect but was actually a perilous bottom, back in March. I wouldn't have recommended it here or on my show if Doug Kass hadn't pushed me and all others who read this site. It was a call of a lifetime. And we all know it, the generational call to get in. So many missed it because the moment was breathtakingly dangerous and could have been binary. I got lucky and backed into it, with Doug's help, simply by tallying all of the individual stocks in a worst-case basis, and you couldn't get much below Dow 6000, which at the time was only 300 points below, barely enough to worry about. That was the Nouriel Roubini heyday, and he managed to mark the bottom by slashing his price target for the Dow to 5000. He could have declared victory and been a hero, a la the now celebrated David Tepper. Instead, I think he's a bum who reiterates his sell at every turn. If you go back and look at all of the stocks that were at a buck and change at the moment, you can see exactly what I mean. Citigroup (C) (Cramer's Take), anyone?

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the dilution here was expected, and this one is marching higher.

What do you with Citigroup (C) (Cramer's Take) if you bought it on the deal now that you are up so huge? I'd keep it.

Remember, there were two variables to this deal -- how much raising the TARP return money would hurt the stock and how much the government's sale would hurt the stock. We saw the underwriting knock off about 60 cents from the stock, and we are getting the distinct view from Washington that there is no consensus between Treasury and the FDIC about what should be done with the government's stake beyond holding it for a while.