Too big to fail but one big failure nonetheless. When it was assembled by Sandy Weill 10 years ago, Citi was positioned to be the world's biggest financial services supermarket, with everything from stocks to insurance and a little banking in between. Today Citi is a one-bank depression. This year it has announced 75,000 job cuts, sold off divisions, and blew the acquisition of equally troubled Wachovia, which was whisked away by Wells Fargo. It's been forced to take a $20 billion handout from the U.S. government to shore up its capital base, which took a huge hit because of its exposure to CDOs and other toxic assets. The government also agreed to back more than $300 billion of those assets to keep it from collapsing. Citi stored much of that garbage in off-the-books Structured Investment Vehicles (SIVs). But now that the mortgage game is over, Citi has been forced to take the SIVs back, writing down billions in the process. Its share price is less than $10, at one point falling 90% from its peak. No wonder, as its slogan says, the Citi never sleeps.
The Top 10 Everything of 2008
- Top 10 Albums
- Top 10 Animal Stories
- Top 10 Awkward Moments
- Top 10 Best Business Deals
- Top 10 Worst Business Deals
- Top 10 Breakups
- Top 10 Buzzwords
- Top 10 Campaign Gaffes
- Top 10 Campaign Video Moments
- Top 10 Children's Books
- Top 10 Crime Stories
- Top 10 Editorial Cartoons
- Top 10 Election Photos
- Top 10 Fashion Faux Pas
- Top 10 Fashion Moments
- Top 10 Fiction Books
- Top 10 Financial Collapses
- Top 10 Fleeting Celebrities
- Top 10 Food Trends
- Top 10 Gadgets
- Top 10 Green Stories
- Top 10 iPhone Apps
- Top 10 Late Night Gags
- Top 10 Magazine Covers
- Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs
- Top 10 Movies
- Top 10 Movie Performances
- Top 10 Museum Exhibits
- Top 10 News Stories
- Top 10 Non-fiction Books
- Top 10 Oddball News Stories
- Top 10 Olympic Moments
- Top 10 Open Mike Moments
- Top 10 Outrageous Earmarks
- Top 10 Photos
- Top 10 Plays and Musicals
- Top 10 Political Lines
- Top 10 Quotes
- Top 10 Religion Stories
- Top 10 Scandals
- Top 10 Scientific Discoveries
- Top 10 Songs
- Top 10 Sports Moments
- Top 10 T-shirt Worthy Slogans
- Top 10 TV Ads
- Top 10 TV Episodes
- Top 10 TV Series
- Top 10 Underreported News Stories
- Top 10 Video Games
- Top 10 Viral Videos
A yearbook of all the top events you've been talking about