Citigroup Reaches Bailout Deal
November 24, 2008 by Tisa Silver
Filed under Finance
Another late night weekend deal was struck between the Fed and a credit crunch casualty: Citigroup.
In my previous post I just wrote about how shocked I was to see Citigroup make it through the weekend. No sooner than I hit “Publish,” news broke that the U.S. government has agreed to bailout Citigroup!
Madness!!!
The world could not afford to let Citigroup fail. Citi has a hand in all things money: retail banking, insurance, investments… you name it, they do it. Citi operates in 140 countries and has $2 trillion in assets on the books. According to MarketWatch, Citi has another $1.23 trillion in potentially troublesome assets held off of the company’s books.
Choosing what to include on the books? Why do they have a choice? Is it me or does it seem like these banks have way too many choices?
Anyway, the government is set to provide a $20 billion loan to raise capital and may guarantee up to $300 billion worth of Citi’s troubled assets. I don’t think $20 billion will be enough, but I hope they won’t have to go back and revise this like they did AIG.
How the mighty have fallen.
It’s ridiculous. Why do they have options? Consumers filing for bankruptcy and asking for relief should be so lucky!
Thanks GOd that CitiBank is not going to become bankrupt. They have clients all over the world and this is a welcome relief to millions of people.