You can’t blame all the pressure on Citi on evil short sellers and the credit default swaps market. From Dow Jones, via Clusterstock (hat tip reader Tim):
Many bankers in the US believe nationalization of banks in general and Citi in particular is not on the agenda, but staffers in Asia, far away from the twists and turns of the national debate over how to secure the US banking system, are selling in great numbers because they fear the value of the equity they received as part of their retention and compensation would evaporate if the government were to decide to take over Citi, sources inside the company say.
13 comments
Comments are closed.
Yves
This article would seem appropriate for your upcoming LINKS 02/21/09 entry:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/google/4731313/Google-Ocean-Has-Atlantis-been-found-off-Africa.html
they waiting until this week to sell in droves? helloooooo.
dead dead dead
Who can blame them. But IMO it is nonetheless panic selling, which is often a mistake.
Umm…they’re closing the barn door after the horse ran away, was pony-rustled, died of old age and was sent to the glue factory…
On the other hand, for those employees, a few cents on the dollar is better than zero cents on the dollar if Citi is nationalized and their stock becomes worhtless.
Huh so after giving all these money Citi stock is struggling? What a bloody waste of taxpayer money. As they said, the market is all powerful and finally prevails no matter how much you try to tweak it in the interim”.
The Credit Crisis Visualized by Jonathan Jarvis
http://vimeo.com/3261363
this is a great basic explanation, extremely high quality production
” But IMO it is nonetheless panic selling”
Let me remind you of the gospel of the efficient market hypothesis. There is no panic selling. It is generally accepted that if the ongoing value of the institution is zero, then the value of the stock represents the best information about the option value of the company eventually having a positive value.
In this case the market is saying that there is an increase in the probability of the owners getting wiped out.
irony intended.
Those morning-in-the-Pacific employees of C are exactly right: the company paper they are being stuffed with is less them worthless; too stiff for TP, doesn’t burn worth a damn, and won’t crumple properly to use as insulation. Sell now, even if you get back pennies—copper and zinc have real value.
C has been dead since this crisis blew, and bug-under-a-brick dead since they were shamefacedly forced to take their “I’m so smart” SIVs back on their books. They should have been closed a year ago, although admittedly their are super-complex and embedded in many, many markets. Let’s, fer crissakes, get ONNNNNN with this. I don’t care _how_ much C stock Dubya’s sainted mother is holding, cut the nut already, ’cause the country can’t breathe due to the weight of this zombie corpse and its kindred piled on our collective breast.
Now we have citibank employees in asia losing confidence and this comes after rumours of citibank stopping lending in denmark.
I don’t think the markets are going to be too impressed if even the employees are worried. This loss of confidence may force the FED’s hand I think.
What?! They’re selling now, at under 2 bucks? How about 2 years ago, at $50. Or last month, at $7.
What kind of moron waits until he or she loses 95% of value before thinking of selling? Unless, they were applying the old principle of “investing in the stock market for the long term,” as advised by their genius brokers…lol
Vinny GOLDberg
Speaking of Citibank, please allow me to share this funny story with you. About a month ago, late at night, when we were driving eastwardly from England, shortly after entering Romania I stopped at a Citibank to withdraw some cash from their ATM. The sidewalk in front of it looked like it was bombed, there were piles of trash and empty bottles everywhere, the store to the right was a cheap shoe repair shop and the one to the right was a cheap noisy beer pub. It was also very dark. Prime location, indeed! As I approached, I noticed a pack of stray dogs “making love” in front of the ATM, so I couldn’t get close for fear of getting bitten. So I went back to my car and told my wife, “I wish I had my camera to take a picture and send it to Tim Geiner, so he can see where the largest bank in America invested its customers’ hard earned savings.”
Yeah, let’s give them some more TARP…lol
Vinny GOLDberg (no longer a Citibank customer for a long time now)