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Good Bank, Bad Bank: Citi & Uncle Sam (C)
24/7 Wall Street — ... Now comes a report out of the WSJ showing that Citi is nearing an agreement with government officials to create a structure to house some of Citi's risky assets.  Keep in mind that the WSJ noted, "...discussions remains fluid and might not result in an agreement..." and also noted "The bad bank also might absorb assets from Citigroup's off-balance-sheet entities, which hold $1.23 trillion." ...

Citigroup, U.S., Contemplate Compost Pile
gary-weiss.com — ... You know the world is going to hell when financial news resembles something you might see on the Comedy Channel. I see that Citi and the U.S. are considering formation of a compost pile. I'm not kidding. Citigroup and the U.S. government are in talks to create a "bad bank" to hold toxic crap from Citi's balance sheet. Here's the Wall Street Journal Online article. Here's an outline of what is under discussion, according to the Journal: Citigroup Inc. is nearing agreement with U.S. government officials to create a structure that would house some of the financial giant's risky ...

WSJ: Citigroup, U.S. Near Agreement on Bad Assets
Calculated Risk — UPDATE2: CNBC reports: Government Now Said To Have Cold Feet From the WSJ: Citigroup, U.S. in Talks to Create 'Bad Bank' Citigroup Inc. is nearing agreement with U.S. government officials to create a structure that would house some of the financial giant's risky assets ... ... talks were progressing Sunday toward creation of what would essentially be a "bad bank." ... The bad bank also might absorb assets from Citigroup's off-balance-sheet entities, which hold $1.23 trillion. ... Under the terms being discussed, Citigroup would agree to ...

Citigroup Bailout Plans Forming
Fund My Mutual Fund — ... From the Wall Street Journal comes a slightly different view - the celebration of essentially off balance sheet accounting - create fake entity out of thin air and stuff said entity with bad debts... sort of like Hank Paulson's Super SIV plan from over a year ago. Just keep old ideas around long enough and eventually you can re-use 'em. Look in the sky - it's a bird, it's a plane - no its SUPER SIV! ...

Sunday links: survival mode
Abnormal Returns — ... The last best hope for Citigroup (C):  good bank, bad bank.  (NYTimes.com, WSJ.com, Finally the one of the few constants at Citigroup over the past few years, Bob Rubin, is coming under scrutiny.  (Market Movers, naked capitalism) Many hedge funds are in “survival mode.”  (WSJ.com) “There has, in other words, been nowhere to hide from the collapse of 2008.”  ( ...

WSJ on Citi Rescue
Across the Curve — Perusing the world wide web, the Wall Street Journal seems to have the best insights on the Citi rescue. I would suspect that something will be announced before the stock market opens tomorrow morning. If the situation continues to fester, it will ignite more volatility and probably make already hesitant lenders even less willing to take counterparty risk. There is a line in the story that regulators are looking to reestablish shattered confidence. I am not sure how the realization that one of the largest financial firms ever to grace the earth is a ...

Government saves Citigroup (C), gets in deeper
BloggingStocks — ... According to The Wall Street Journal, "In addition to $2 trillion in assets Citigroup has on its balance sheet, it has another $1.23 trillion in entities that aren't reflected there. Some of those assets are tied to mortgages, and investors have worried they could cause heavy losses if they are brought back on the company's books.' ...

WSJ: Government to Guarantee $300 Billion in Citigroup Assets
Calculated Risk — From the WSJ: U.S. Agrees to Citigroup Bailout Treasury has agreed to inject an additional $20 billion in capital into Citigroup under terms of the deal hashed out between the bank, the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. ... In addition to the capital, Citigroup will have an extremely unusual arrangement in which the government agrees to backstop a roughly $300 billion pool of its assets, containing mortgage-backed securities among other things. Citigroup must absorb the first $37 billion to $40 billion in losses ...

$300 billion doesn't seem like a lot anymore
The Mess That Greenspan Made — The Wall Street Journal reports that Citibank has become the latest recipient of a government bailout - this one to the tune of $300 billion, or thereabouts, depending upon how you do the math which, in this case, appears to be quite complicated. ...

Citigroup Bailout: Weak, Arbitrary, Incomprehensible
The Baseline Scenario — ... According to the Wall Street Journal, the deal is done. Here are the terms. In short: (a) Citi gets another $27 billion on the same terms as the first $25 billion, except that the interest rate is now 8% instead of 5%, and there is a cap on dividends of $0.01 per share per quarter; and (b) the government (Treasury, FDIC, Fed) agrees to absorb 90% of losses above $29 billion on a $306 billion slice of Citi’s assets, made up of residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities. (If triggered, some of that guarantee will be provided as a loan ...

Citi: told you a bigger boat was required...
Capital Chronicle — ... (excerpt, full link here. Hat tip, Simon). Related links: WSJ: U.S. Agrees to Rescue Struggling Citigroup FT: Citigroup gets $20bn bail-out

Rubin's Citigroup Bailout
Moon of Alabama — ... at risk in each percentage difference of these evaluations. Where is the reporting on that? Instead we are subjected to such nonsense: Government officials fear taking over Citigroup would create a precedent: Unlike AIG, Citigroup's balance sheet is relatively healthy, with relatively strong levels of capital particularly compared to most of its competitors. Ahem, does the Citigroup official balance sheet matter at all? In addition to $2 trillion in assets Citigroup has on its balance ...

Government saves Citigroup (C), gets in deeper
BloggingStocks — ... Are the gargantuan losses at Citi over? They may not be. The Treasury now has to hold its breath and hope it will not have to keep writing checks to Citi to back its initial investment. Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com. Government saves Citigroup (C), gets in deeper originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 24 Nov 2008 04:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Just Another Manic Monday
Phil’s Stock World — $326Bn for Citigroup - Yippee! That was a real painful one to ride down and I was getting really concerned that I was wrong and the government was actually crazy enough to let C fail.  We decided to stick with them and roll the adjustments (see Friday morning’s post) to bring our net down to $4 but that didn’t make us feel much better with the stock below that mark.  On top of that, our decision mid-week to switch to UYGs as they fell below $4 should also work out well! ...

Citi Bailout
The Big Picture — ... Reserve, and the FDIC on Citigroup http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/bcreg/20081123a.htm Citigroup Gets Government Guarantees on $306 Billion of Assets Bradley Keoun Bloomberg, Nov. 24 2008 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aBdUcxoRPkp4&r U.S. Approves Plan to Help Citigroup Weather Losses ERIC DASH NYT, November 23, 2008 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/24/business/24citibank.html U.S. Agrees to Rescue Struggling Citigroup Plan Injects $20 Billion in ...

Just Another Manic Monday
Trading Goddess — $326Bn for Citigroup - Yippee! That was a real painful one to ride down and I was getting really concerned that I was wrong and the government was actually crazy enough to let C fail. We decided to stick with them and roll the adjustments (see Friday morning's post) to bring our net down to $4 but that didn't make us feel much better with the stock below that mark. On top of that, our decision mid-week to switch to UYGs as they fell below $4 should also work out well! ...

Measuring The Likely Strength Of This Impulse
GoldSeek.com — ... , which again, is a function of it’s share price / equity. (See Figure 2) Figure 2 [image] So if you can believe it, the speculators control the economy, which is a natural development in a mature fiat currency based system, this, and all the bailouts , which of course ...