Sad, Sad Citigroup

Q: What do you call a bank that's in the hole to the tune of nearly $300 billion?

A: Too big to fail.

Last week Citigroup posted it's fourth straight quarterly loss. It's shitsandwich (writedowns and charge-offs + capital raised + loan loss reserves + level III asset growth) now totals nearly $1,000 for every single man, woman and child in the United States. Citigroup is extending it's lead as the largest financial black hole in the entire world. In fact, Citi's misery index is higher than Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan and US Bancorp combined.

In April of 1998 Citibank announced it's $166 billion merger with Travelers Insurance, making it the largest corporate merger to date. The combined company would be called Citigroup, and it would usher in a new era in finance. Citigroup would become a one-stop finance shop. The Walmart of financial services.

The 1998 post-merger price of Citigroup stock was $36.50. Today, Citigroup trades at $14.18.

In hindsight, ex Citigroup CEO John Reed called the merger a mistake. On the tenth anniversary of the merger he said, "The stockholders have not benefited, the employees certainly have not benefited and I don't think the customers have benefited."

You can add taxpayers to the list of those that have not benefited.

Chuck Prince, ousted as CEO of Citigroup at the end of 2007 as a result of the sub-prime mortgage crisis, received an estimated $100 million in total compensation.

Citigroup is now receiving taxpayer money to keep it afloat. All is right in the world.