Death Star

Amongst the biggest of the awful ironies of the current financial crisis we find ourselves in is the case of Citigroup aka Shi#*%Group, or the big red frown. Repeated, earnest, and desperate attempts are being made to save this august(cough, cough) financial institution. My rough cocktail napkin figures put the taxpayer dollars sunk into $C currently at approximately $45,000,000,000, yes that is BEEElion with a B. The wire services are reporting early this morn that Vic Pandit is now Confident on capital strength! I would like to thank god for small miracles, but similiar assurances out of AIG(death star twin) keep coming to mind

What is so ironic is that prior to the current calamity, a long list of state and federal regulatory and compliance organizations were going to great lengths to punish, fine, censure and otherwise slap a newspaper across the nose of Citigroup. Do Enron, Worldcom, research scandals, or Jack Grubman ring a bell? How about the "Dr Evil" bond traders, this is where a handful of Citigroup bond traders manipulated/crashed the Euro bond markets for some monumentally small(read chump change) amount of profit. The Japanese government revoked the charter and of and ejected the Citigroup private bank from the country for various and sundry regulatory and compliance scandals. How about the Federal Reserve barring Citigroup from any acquisitions or deals, until they cleaned up there morally handicapped outfit.The very reason that the much maligned Chuck Prince, the career attorney and corporate counsel was installed as CEO was to clean up all the legal mess and save C from corporate capital punishment. I don't think I have the band with to detail all the various transgressions. Yet as of this writing round the clock efforts are being made to save this Firm! The irony is almost too rich for words.

Futures pointed decidedly positive this morning, perhaps this is the start of the much heralded rally. God knows I cherish the thought of luxuriating in the pleasures of $SSO for more than a morning, I am just cautious to bearish about the viability of any sustained rally at this point. Stay nimble and lets carve some profits out of the market we have, not the one we want.