No Surprise That Feds Run Citigroup: Today's Outrage

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- What an amazingly irrelevant revelation by the Financial Times that the Obama Administration played a role in the ouster of Citigroup (C Quote) CFO Ned Kelly last month.

No kidding. Which part of the government bailout of banks such as Citi, Bank of America (BAC Quote), Wells Fargo (WFC Quote), etc. do people not understand?

Didn't anyone get the clue when President Obama fired General Motors Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner? Taxpayer money comes with strings attached, and the Obama administration is pulling those strings with gusto.

That's why Goldman Sachs (GS Quote), JPMorgan(JPM Quote) and other banks with enough financial wherewithal have been rushing to repay bailout funds.

Unfortunately for Citi, that's not an option after it decided to convert government preferred shares into common shares. Now the government gets to decide when, or if, it wants to sell its stake.

What troubles me about all this is the government's continued insistence on meddling in secret.

Why are these so-called agreements confidential? Since when do investors not have a right to know who's running the companies they own?

These are not issues of national security. Heck, since the financial meltdown and subsequent destruction of share values and the ongoing recession, I don't think the government can even make a plausible case that this secrecy is warranted in the interest of economic security.

Can we get a little more transparency from our government? Can we make the world safe for investors once more?

Say it with me, Mr. President: Yes, we can.

--Written by Glenn Hall in New York.