Wall Street Folly

Tags: Autos, bailout, Barack Obama, Charlie Rangel, Citigroup, Ethlly challenged politicians, Fees, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Nissan, Politics, recalls, TARP, Tim Geithner, U.S.. Treasury, Vikram Pandit

• Republican Brown Wins Massachusetts Seat in ‘Tsunami’ Election
• Bernanke Seeks to Defuse Criticism Over AIG With Call for Audit
• New York Fed Says AIG Phrase Marked for Deletion Was Inaccurate
• Pandit’s gambit
• Pandit Is Running Out of Time to Clean Up Citigroup
• Morgan Stanley Reports Full-Year and Fourth Quarter Result
• Bank of America Announces 2009 Net Income of $6.3 Billion
• Bank Of America 4Q Loss Narrows Amid Merrill Results Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: AIG, Bank of America, Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke, Fed, Morgan Stanley, Obamacare, Revolving Door, Scott Brown, Sovereign wealth, Twitter

• Banks Brace for Bailout Fee
• JPMorgan’s Dimon defends bank’s pay policy
• SEC broadens charges on Bank of America
• Bank Is in Talks to Settle State Claims Over Merrill
• N.Y.’s Cuomo Seeks Bonus Data From Bailed-Out Banks
• SEC Should Probe NY Fed Staff Over AIG, Senator Says
• Pandit Shakes Up Citi’s Upper Ranks
• Federal Reserve earned $45 billion in 2009 Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: AIG, Andrew Cuomo, Bank of America, Banks, Barack Obama, Citigroup, Deck shair reshuffling; Ponzi schemes, Fed, Fees, Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers, Politics, Pound of flesh; SEC, TARP, Vikram Pandit

Is Vikram Pandit closer to getting the boot? According to the WSJ, the FDIC is pushing for yet another Citigroup top management shake-up, “imperiling” CEO Vikram Pandit according to their report.  There’s apparently no love lost between Pandit and Sheila Bair, dating back to last fall when Bair endorsed the Wells Fargo higher bid for Wachovia after Citigroup had agreed to take over the firm in a government arranged hookup.  That led to late night conference call where Pandit is said to have waged an expletive deleted filled tirade against Bair.  We wonder what Pandit might be saying about his nemesis this morning.   (We can guess, and it’s probably not pretty.)

Sounds like new Citi board member, Jerry Grundhofer, who’s the former U.S. Bancorp CEO, might be in line for Pandit’s job.  But not all regulators are apparently on board with Bair’s position…. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Citigroup, FDIC, Politics, Revolving Door, Sheila Bair, TARP, Vikram Pandit

If the preliminary findings stick, they'll have 6 months to come up with more capital…..

Read the rest of this entry »

According to the Financial Times, the FDIC has begun to explore who might be a successor to CItigroup CEO Vikram Pandit should the beseiged bank need more taxpayer dollars.  Those who might be in the running include Ned Kelly, the current CFO, Gary Crittenden, his predecessor who now heads the division that holds the bank’s noncore assets and a new director that wasn’t named.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Citigroup, TARP, Vikram Pandit

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Citi, Citigroup, Earnings Release, TARP, Vikram Pandit

Watch CBS Videos Online

Tim Geithner was interviewed by Katie Couric on CBS….

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bank of America, Banks, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Jamie Dimon, JPM Chase, Ken Lewis, Politics

This move ought to go over big down in D.C; How quickly before this one gets quashed? (Like today, maybe?):  Not taking the hint from the widespread criticisms and public humiliation over John Thain's expensive office makeover (all the way up to Obama) Citigroup is reportedly spending some $10 million on their own redecoration project for the executive suite.  We can already hear the squealing out of D.C.:

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Citigroup, Politics

Good thing the NY Stock Exchange recently relaxed that minimum $1 a share trading requirement:  It seems almost inconceivable, but Citigroup is trading around one thin buck.  In today's market carnage, it traded as low as $0.97 before closing at $1.02.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Charts, Citigroup

The plan could be announced as soon as tomorrow according to Bloomberg.

So say someone actually throws in with Uncle Sam and buys common stock.  What if the bottomless pit known as Citigroup needs even more capital?  Does the government dilute the their new private equity capital partner along with the rest of the common holders?  We suspect that there would be big dilution.  Personally in this one, we wouldn't want common stock, only something higher up in the capital structure. No way. No how.  But would Uncle Sam go along with new money coming in senior to them?   Probably not.

Citigroup May Be Required to Get Private Capital Alongside U.S. – Bloomberg

Tags: Citigroup, Politics, Private equity

Given their disastrous forays into investing in hedge funds not to mention their shaky finances, we wonder what Vikram and Co can possibly be thinking with their apparent decision to still help fund a $200 million hedge fund start-up, along with Blackstone, run by a couple of former Citigroup prop trading guys.  Blackstone is sitting on piles of cash, and isn't on government life support, so we have no problem with them ponying up.   But Citi?  We wonder what Barney Frank et al. will have to say about that.   We kind of think it's ridiculous.  They need to get their financial house in order before staking others. 

By the same token, if we were the hedge fund guys, we'd be more than a little nervous that Citi might have to pull their investment (of an undisclosed size) on short notice.   It's not exactly stable money given their own instability.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Blackstone, Citigroup, Hedge funds

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Jamie Dimon, John Mack, John Thain, Ken Lewis, Lloyd Blankfein, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Politics

Grounded: Well that sure didn't take long.  As we noted yesterday, the NY Post focused a bright light on Citigroup's latest purchase — a $50 million luxury Dassault corporate jet.  Not exactly the brightest move by a company completely dependent on taxpayer life support.  We wondered how long it would take for the loud cries to come out of Washington.  And as it turned out, it took no time flat.  Now a tone deaf and shamed Citi has tucked its tail firmly between its legs and is doing an about face.  They won't be taking delivery of the Dassault 7X in question after all.   

Here are some of the comments that came of Washington yesterday after the Citi jet news erupted:

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Citigroup, Politics, Private jets

We suspect that there will be more than a few raised eyebrows (and voices) flying in D.C.:  The NY Post writes that even though Citigroup is on taxpayer life support, and is selling 2 of its corporate jets, it's nonetheless still taking delivery on a hot new $50 million Dassault Falcon 7X that was ordered two years ago, one of only 9 in the U.S.  And in getting the story, a Citigroup spokesman (the head of their CitiFlight Inc subsidiary) sounded kind of pissy to the Post reporter.  Go figure.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Citigroup, Politics, Private jets

This is supposed to impress?  They give Bischoff the boot (in their words: "Sir Win Bischoff is to retire") and fill his seat with Dick Parsons, another long time board member?  BFD. Same old, same old. 

Here's what VIkram Pandit said:

“Sir Win has been an outstanding Board member and Chairman as well as a
trusted advisor to me during my time at Citi. He agreed to take on
senior leadership roles at Citi more than a year ago during a critical
time for the company, and over the years has made very substantial
contributions to this global enterprise. We thank Sir Win for his wise
and sage counsel, as well as for his insightful guidance, and wish him
nothing but continued success for the future.”

The standard kind words for someone who's clearly being pushed out the door.  Here's the press release, with more mandatory  kind words from Bischoff's successor:

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Citigroup, Revolving Door

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Citigroup, Credit Crunch, Fed

Citigroup's Corporate Special Opportunities fund, which Citi had announced last year was shutting down, will be royally shafting investors by returning a pitiful three cents on the dollar to investors.  Three cents.  We love the spin: "At least we are giving them cash".

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Citigroup, Credit Crunch, Hedge funds

• Citigroup Spins Off Smith Barney
• Press release:Morgan Stanley and Citi to Form Industry-Leading Wealth Management Business Through Joint Venture
• JPMorgan May Post Smallest Net Since Dimon Took Helm
• Manager of buck-breaking fund accused of fraud
• Carol Bartz named Yahoo CEO, Decker to resign
• New Yahoo CEO lacks Web and deal-making chops
• Pfizer targets 800 research positions

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Citigroup, Jamie Dimon, JPM Chase, Morgan Stanley

Predictably, Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit and Chairman Win Bischoff will be "forgoing" their bonuses this year according to a Pandit memo to the troops.  As if they really had a choice given the billions in taxpayers' money that's been injected into the loss-gushing firm.   Bob Rubin also "declined" a bonus, but that's old news.  Senior leadership committee members will be getting less than last year.  As for future bonuses, a clawback is being adopted:

Citigroup CEO Pandit, Chairman Bischoff Forgo Bonuses – Bloomberg

Tags: Citigroup, Credit Crunch, Robert Rubin

• Blackstone to Merge Distressed Fund With GSO Capital
• BlackRock Loan Fund May Default as Prices Tumble
• Old Lane Managers Look for Exit From Citi
• With IPOs at lowest level since 1977, firms run out of options
• Reserve Says SEC May Allege Securities Violations

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Blackrock, Blackstone, Citigroup, Hedge funds

Biting the bullet: According to the NY Post's Page Six, at least for this trip, Vikram Pandit didn't hop on one of Citigroup's private jets (some currently for sale) but instead opted for the now more politically correct commercial mode of air transportation instead:

Tags: Citigroup, Credit Crunch, Politics, Private jets

Even the beleaguered Bob Rubin won't accept one.  Meanwhile, Citi is the subject of a lawsuit — which was actually filed last year, but was recently amended — in what the NY Post describes as "a new Citigroup scandal engulfing Robert Rubin and his former disciple Chuck Prince"….

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Chuck Prince, Citigroup, Credit Crunch, Lawsuit, Robert Rubin

We apparently weren't alone in our amazement that Bob Rubin still had a job at Citigroup.  This morning the NY Post wonders the same and also takes aim at the board of directors in a pointed cover and editorial entitled:  "Negligent Bank board must quit".  There's a nice graphic of how  the directors have been richly compensated:

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Citigroup, Credit Crunch, Robert Rubin

Someone, please take away their keys to the liquor cabinet:  Citigroup's prospects continue to spiral into the abyss with its stock price in hat
size land and management blaming everyone else, like those evil short
sellers, and rumor mongerors for their ills.  Some of their ugliest self inflicted wounds have come from failed forays into buying up hedge funds that have ended in disaster with the firm having to either bail them out or shutter them (including the disastrous buy of now CEO Vikram Pandit's Old Lane).   Apparently Citi hasn't learned that it's not so good at these buys, since it's still buying:

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Citigroup, Hedge funds, Toe Tags