Vikram Pandit, How Many Fingers Am I Holding Up?

November 5th, 2008 by alyx · 4 Comments · all ur bankz, bandit

The answer is FOUR.

Above, The Bandit discusses with reporters how it feels to go from being the largest bank in market cap to the fourth-largest.

From Crains, the massive losses, slash-and-burn cost cutting and general tale of fail about what’s going on at C right now:

“Citi no longer matters,” says Bill Smith, head of Smith Asset Management, a shareholder in and longtime critic of the bank. “It’s a black hole.”

“If Citi didn’t have the government backing it, I’d say the stock is a short even at these depressed levels,” says Whitney Tilson, co-founder of hedge fund T2 Partners.

Even if we assume that morgtage losses are over and done with, C has a wealth of other problems, such as its credit card portfolio, its inability to pick up a smaller rival to shore up its deposits and Bandit’s persistent night terrors from which he wakes, screaming out “STAGECOACHES!” and in a cold sweat. I can’t call Citigroup’s move “from first to worst,” but I can call it “from top to slop,” I suppose.

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