Citigroup - Banking on a Bailout

Citigroup 1977-2008

Citigroup has the farthest international reach of any U.S. bank, with operations in more than 100 countries. The bank was widely felt to be too big to be allowed to fail.

The plan calls for Citigroup, America's second-biggest bank, to issue $27 billion in preferred shares to the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The Fed, Treasury and FDIC in return will shoulder most of the potential losses on Citigroup's $306 billion portfolio of debt assets, beyond an initial $29 billion in losses which Citigroup would be responsible for.

Even after everything that has happened in the last few months this blows me away.

Long ago when I worked for Citigroup which was headed at the time by Sandy Weill, it was like working at GE under Jack Welch, demanding but rewarding. There was something truly special about working for a firm where everyone around me had the patina of the best and the brightest.

I wonder how many Citigroup employees will lose their jobs because of the mismanagement at the executive level.