Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) isn’t the Golden Goose it once was. Employees of the investment banking giant found that out the hard way yesterday.

Apparently, the going rate for a 404 point rally on the Dow Industrials is $1 trillion. Any takers? Going once… 

After stocks lost $1 trillion during that surreal 2 minute stretch last Wednesday, it’s nice to get that market-cap back. But there is still work to do. 

Yesterday’s rally took the S&P 500 within range to challenge resistance at 1,165. It will be important for the S&P 500 to move above this level today.

We’ve been tackling some pretty heavy issues in Daily Profit this week. And while I’m not one of the doom and gloomers who believe that stimulus policies and sovereign debt issues are about to bring about a stock market crash and economic depression, I’m adamant that we keep a firm grip on the all of the catalysts that are driving the stock market and the global economy.   

Stimulus policies in the U.S. were designed to help prop up asset values long enough for demand to return. If the plan succeeds, then employment will improve, lending will pick up as the housing market works off inventory, and the toxic assets that exist on the balance sheets (both banks’ and the Fed’s) can regain some value.   

If the plan fails, then we see another fire-sale of assets in what amounts to a huge margin call.   

Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd is all set to put his latest banking regulation bill up for a vote. The bill would put an end to proprietary trading, lend transparency to hedge fund trading and derivatives, and give the Federal Reserve the power break up companies if they pose a “grave threat” to the economy.  

Dodd’s proposal would also create a nine-member “Financial Stability Oversight Council” of regulators, led by the Treasury Secretary. According to Bloomberg, “…the council can make recommendations to the Fed to impose “strict” rules for capital, leverage, liquidity and risk management to make it difficult for firms to grow so big and complex that they endanger the financial system. It could require the Fed to regulate non-bank financial firms that threaten financial stability, ensuring that “the next AIG would be regulated” by the Fed…”   

It’s clear what Dodd is trying to accomplish here. He’s trying to make it so that financial firms can’t engage in trading activities that could ultimately destabilize the entire economy. I’m not sure these proposals, as I understand them, accomplish the objective. 

This must be a first. Citigroup (NYSE:C) CEO Vikram Pandit abandoned the attitude of entitlement that has characterized so many bailed out banks and simply said “Citi owes a debt of gratitude to American taxpayers…We look forward to helping them realize value on that investment.”     

Let’s not forget, too, that it was Pandit who volunteered to work for a $1 salary while Citi dug itself out of the hole. Meanwhile, other bank CEOs were fighting to keep their multi-million dollar compensation packages coming. 

It seems like Pandit is the only one who realizes he’d be out of a job were it not for government bailouts.