It’s difficult to imagine a world without Citigroup (Citibank, Citi Cards, Citi Mortgage, Primerica, etc.), but with their stock closing down another 26.41% today, to close at $4.71 (C), it’s also difficult, in these troubled financial times, to imagine a scenario that allows Citigroup to continue operations going in the direction that they are.  Once the largest bank in the United States, Citigroup’s assets and market value have fallen over 65% in November alone.  As if that isn’t bad enough, the word on the street is that government intervention or outside investment may be necessary for their survival – which is basically the kiss of death in this market.

The biggest problem here today is that Citigroup has both a liquidity and solvency issue.  Thy’re working to calm their investors, but the market is already so shell-shocked from the other failures to date that these reassurances are falling on deaf ears.  In retrospect, it’s easy to see how big a blow losing the bid for Wachovia was and following that with an announcement announcing the elimaination of 52,000 jobs worldwide compounded the problem from a public relations standpoint.

Another new report – another obvious conclusion.  A government report released today paints a somewhat disconcerting new picture of an unstable America and reduced American influence as India and China continue to grow.

“Although the United States is likely to remain the single most powerful actor, the United States’ relative strength — even in the military realm — will decline and U.S. leverage will become more constrained,” says the report, which is the fourth in a series from the Intelligence Council.

Obviously, I don’t give the Intelligence Coucil a lot of weight, but I do believe that they’re on to something, noting that the the world will continue shrinking and natural resources will become increasingly scarce in the years to come. Their argument that the world is in the midst of an unprecedented “transfer of global weath and power” from west to east is sound and as we continue to transfer manufacturing, mining, and intelligence labor to other countries the United States will simply be a military force and holder of other people’s money.  It’s hard not to understand or see the logic in what we’re saying, and the reasons behind it, from this chair, are quite obvious.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are offering early holidays gifts to Americans on the brink of foreclosure.  It was announced today that both lenders would put a temporary halt to foreclosure sales and evictions of occupied single-family homes during the holiday season.  Probably makes a lot of sense considering that this is the real estate slow season, anyway.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq25mt2M6yk

For a while I was so caught up in how stupid it would be for Alaskans to elect convicted felon Ted Stevens that I didn’t keep up on what this could have meant for Sarah Palin.  As I discussed in an earlier article, a win by Ted Stevens could have resulted in a special election after his getting kicked to the curb ousted by other party members.  Assuming that Alaskans were voting their ticket, the Republican Sarah Palin (with her fancy clothes) could very easily have assumed Ted Stevens seat in the senate.  What a nightmare that could have been.

If you had asked me yesterday what India’s Navy has done lately I probably would have asked if you were kidding.  It had never even occurred to me that India has a navy.  Well, apparently they do and the Associated Press is reporting that they apparently know how to use their navy, too.

For those of you that haven’t been following world events, a new Saidu supertanker was captured Saturday more than 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya.  The MC Sirius Star was home to 25 crew and approximately $100 million in crude oil cargo, not to mention the cost of the new supertanker itself.  In the first real sign of retribution that I’ve read of, the New Delhi Associated Press is reporting that the Indian navy sank a suspected pirate “mother ship” before chasing too attack boats off into the darkness.  These mother ships are apparently little launch pads for the pirates, allowing them to head off into deeper and deeper waters.  Ultimately they will ransom off the crew, boat and cargo, which keeps them in business.

Is the current debate over whether or not to provide financial aid to the automakers a white-collar/blue-collar argument, because it’s sure looking that way when the government gives billions to help a single company like AIG and yet it won’t help companies like Chrysler, General Motors and Ford with a nearly insignificant $25 billion.  Readers already know that I am against these bailouts on principle with the belief that they are prolonging the problem by smoothing the road and not fixing the problem, which ultimately means a much longer and more painful recession.  My mantra remains, let companies fail, even the big ones – it will hurt more, but generally it’s for a shorter period of time  The net impact on the economy will most certainly be less.

With all the backlash surrounding the Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo, it seemed only a matter of time before Yahoo’s CEO Jerry Yang was foreced out.  There’s also the 60% decrease in Yahoo’s value since Yang took over last year, but It’s questionable what percentage of that is attributable to Yang and what percentage is attributable to the market drop as a whole.  Regardless, I have to imagine that the board and employees of Yahoo are secretly (or maybe publicly) celebrating his departure and hoping that the market sees this as a new hope for the future of Yahoo.

The media is basically pointing out that Bill Clinton may be the roadblock to Hillary Clinton becoming Secretary of State.  I’m sure it’s a double-edged sword because he has the contacts that could make her beneficial while creating the conflict of interest that might eliminate her from consideration.  Either way it sounds like a lose/lose for Hillary.  Funny thing, though, it’s been eight years since Bill Clinton left office and in that time Hillary Clinton has more than proved her ability to stand away from her husband when it’s necessary.  Besides, if they can try to elect convicted felon, Ted Stevens to office in Alaska, why can’t an impeached president’s wife be Secretary of State?

I doubt there will be any tears on Main Street America today.  News is hitting the street that Goldman Sachs top seven executives, including CEO Lloyd Blankfein, are giving up their bonuses for 2008.  According to the Wall Street Journal article today there were “months of debate” about this decision.  Can you imagine how well it would have come out to the millions of people that have lost their homes, 401K investments and even their jobs over companies like this?

Last year Blankfein received a compensation package of roughly $68.5 million, and I suspect that will tide him over fairly well this year – since he’ll only be making $600,000 from his base salary.  Are these people really worth that much more than the average General Motors or DHL employee that will be losing their job this year?  Sure, they know things that the average person doesn’t, but if you look at the Wall Street masses this year it would appear that they make plenty of mistakes too, and the difference is that the impact can tear apart the global economy.  Mess up on a car and it doesn’t sell – doesn’t seem quite so bad.

Ranter

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HpTBF6EfxY

I’m not Keith Olbermann’s biggest fan.  Honestly, even today I feel like his passion is sometimes misdirected, but his comments supporting same-sex-marriage [ no on Proposition 8 ] are spot-on, and he deserves accoldades for his passion, professionalism and journalism.  Take a minute to hear his word and try to explain how you could possibly justify voting to change the constitution to segregate a portion of the population based on their sexual preferences.

Ranter