Michael L

With More Writedowns and Sold Assets, Citigroup Will Be a Shadow of its Former Self

At the height of the mortgaged mania when all the banks and underwriters were playing at their brinskmanship withn just how risky a loan you could write and bundle, Chuck Prince said that "as long as the music is playing, you have to dance". You HAVE to, no other choice possible,according to Prince.

The BOD, fully complicit, made no attempt to slow or prevent Mr. Prince while he turned a decent institution into a bank with the fiduciary sense of pawnshop. The tone-deaf Mr. Prince didn't realize that the music he was dancing to was a dirge. And the BOD? Well, as the chairman, Robert Rubin said when Prince "retired"--Mr. Rubins words-"I have complete confidence in the direction Chuck Prince has taken the bank." It looks like the chairman and the CEO were trying to out-stupid each other, and the short sellers won.

Why Isn't the Government Capping Credit Card Interest Rates?

Yeah, just what we need, more inducements for Americans to take on more debt.

Green energy is a great idea but not for the reason Al Gore says it is. Al Gore is riding a wave of a populist delusion. Soon enough--in geological time, that is--the climate will swing back in the opposite direction (and it will) there will be a different bunch of hysterics to warn us about global cooling.

Oh yeah. Thee world is coming to an end, just as it has been predicted 20 other times in my lifetime. Hurry. Everyone in to the cave. The sky if falling.

The Fed Disappoints - As Does Citi

Remember when Merck was in deep trouble with the Vioxx situation sucking all the air out of what good could be thought about the company? And then what all the pundits said was the a terrible appointment to CEO: Richard Clark. Clark was considered a plodding bureaucrat with no research or clinical experience whose only experience was in managing the manufacturing side of Merck's operations. Terrible appointment, the know-it-alls said, and if truth be known, I agreed.

Surprise, surprise. That plodding nuts-and-bolts guy steadied a listing ship and took the stock from the mid-twentys to where it is today at 60 dollars a share. What's more the pipeline is looking real good, real good, which according to the same know-it-alls was dead and would remain dead till the second coming.

Though I think the bod at C are about a half-cut above a collection of fools, I still say give Pandit a chance. Chuck Prince and some glitz and supposed savvy, having studied under Sandy Weill. While most of the money center banks boomed during that time, if you were a C shareholder under Prince's rein you were better off keeping your money under the mattress.

Forget the preconceptions and give the man a chance. Could he be worse the Prince? Let me answer my own question. No.