There is a case for buying citygroup if you have so much cash you need to lose a bunch to off set the sale of those oil futures and don't want a huge tax bill.  Citi is the cause of an near economic global depression by lending money to people who didn't want to pay them back  even if they could have.  city should go bankrupt but i say sell at any price over $1 american while you. can.  but the qqqq, appl visa, or google with any city bank money you have left. and hurry

Tom from Austin, TX

Citi is a house of cards much like the US economy and stock market. The recession in the US will continue to get worse. Depresssion 2009.

Depression 2009 seems far more the truth then anyone is willing to tell us. If something like Citi Corp goes under, those waiting for that moment to dawn are  already poised to bail, prosper and be told now, have rehearsed to tell us that it's a much shocking occurrence, as much as it isn't. I hate the lies and deceit that countinue in the way the US does business... companies and politicians.Lies spread all over the world. Some of the world is gonna feel it too!

Citi did what a lot of pepole did, made quick money without the realized foresite to see the long term devastation. But they were good on all other fronts to make us money so they may hold and recover by the 1st of the year. After their debochol is nothing like as bad as the Wal-mart stock which still has not recovered (due to their stupidity).

keep an eye on this for the next two months,if nothing drastic happens citi could be a good buy.my last buy on this was a few years back at $12.50,sold to early at $40.00.

I worked over 30 years for Citi in the Smith Barney division. When Citi made acquisitions, they never combined duplicate back office areas, and lost whatever synergies there might have been. Now, with their backs against the wall, they're canning the people -- the LITTLE people -- who actually do the dirty work, just to get a head count. The are cutting off their own limbs. The inmates are now running the asylum. This company is going under.

Wow. The doom and gloom. Citi will be fine. I wouldn't exactly go out and buy it, but I would consider buying under $22 or so. And Dan Rangel, take a chill pill, have you seen how anyone else does business? Western businesses have whole departments that handle corruption and bribery in emerging markets. It's ridicilous. How the US does business. Sure we have problems, but it's not as bad as you guys make it out to be.

In chapter 8 of Ben Graham's book,  The Intelligent Investor, he gives a very strong example of the current state of affairs. The only difference is that the time period was 1937-1939, instead of 2007-2009, and the stock being used as an exampe was The Great Atlantic Tea company, instead of Citigroup.  

Both companies have a lot in common in that they were very large, global in reach, and were trading at roughly the same valuations, over the same time period.

Over the 3 year period, there was a recession, a bear market, and a recovery.  The only difference between then and now, is that investors ...

a. have extrapolated the current bear market into a depression.

b. don't have enough investment experience, or more importantly, faith in the u.s. economy and its markets,  to believe in the upside of the cycle.  Tell someone Citigroup will be trading at 60 by the end of 2009, and they will look at you like you've lost your mind.  Yet, this is totally in the relm of probability, not possibility.

Word for word, you could basically substitute Citigroup, for The Atlantic Tea Co. and see that over the last 70 years, NOTHING has changed.  The actual practice of buying low, and selling high, is extremely counterintuitive to most people.  If it were easy, most pople would be wealthy.

Warrren Buffet said that particular chapter, in addition to chapter 20, were the two best essays ever written about investing. Investors seem to forget that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway stock sank by more than 30% from March 1998 to March 2000, while the s&p 500 rose from roughly 1000 to 1500. That same stock has produced an annualized rate of return of 7%, vs. 3% for the s&p 500 from 1998-2008.  

Thus, the moral of the story seems to be that if you're not willing to be out of step with the market over the short term, buying the type of securities ( like Citigroup, Pfizer, GE, toll Brothers, Harley davidson,...etc..etc..) that no one else wants, you have NO chance of beating the market over a long period of time.

Well said Thomas Edmonds. Citi is not going anywhere. Now is the time to buy.

Citi at one time was worth about $8.00 a share back in the early 90's. No body want to buy these shares. Then it was bailed out and grew into a great bank. Unfortunately, you then got some CEO's that knew nothing about banking and just about ruined the co. again. Why did they get a jerk like  Charles Prince to be

CEO and he knew nothing about banking. They let a great person like Jaime Dimon

go to J.P. Morgan and look what he has done. CITI, get and keep great banking people in your co and you will come out smelling like a rose.