Wall St. banks launch massive buybacks, boost dividends

``The heart of the U.S. financial system got a seal of approval from the Federal Reserve Wednesday, prompting major U.S. banks to unleash a flood of dividend increases and more than $23 billion in stock buybacks on their shareholders. In the second phase of the Fed's so-called stress tests, 29 out of 31 top lenders got the thumbs up to spend their cash on shareholder'' -- So funny when you think about how many of these institutions wouldn't exist if the big banks hadn't been bailed out (you would be forgiven for, say, shorting them into the financial crisis... oh no wait, you would actually have been railroaded courtesy of Uncle Sam...)