Investing to Wealth

Filed under: Deals, Bad news, Citigroup Inc. (C), Morgan Stanley (MS), Stocks to Sell, Financial Crisis

Yesterday, someone said to me, "Wow, look at Citi! Is it time to buy?"

I believe the same question was asked about the last big buggy whip manufacturer. And Citigroup (NYSE: C) is in much worse shape than the last of the buggy whip manufacturers.

But the Fed and the Treasury just bailed them out in November, right?

Yup, but all they did was to provide a bucket to bail out a sinking ship -- the leaks and holes are still there.

Hole No. 1: Besides the dodgy assets on its balance sheet, Citigroup has $1.2 trillion in off-balance sheet assets that may or may not be dodgy.

In a company town hall meeting in November, Citi tried to reassure everyone by telling them not to worry about more than $800 billion of these assets because "per accounting rule changes" they will likely not exist in the future.

Makes me feel good. How 'bout you?

To me this says it will need to raise more capital.

Continue reading Only a crazy person would invest in Citi

Only a crazy person would invest in Citi originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.