The New Republic

A reader e-mails with a great point: In his memo to employees today, Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit notes the following:  Asset quality: The Fed will conduct stress tests for all large banks in coming weeks. We've done our own stress testing using assumptions that are more pessimistic than the Fed has outlined and we are confident about our capital strength. READ MORE >>

Via Andrew, I see Time's razor sharp economics columnist, Justin Fox, has some questions about whether the government could seize a bank like Citi even if it wanted to: READ MORE >>

We already knew there was a crisis of confidence about Citigroup. It appears there's also a major crisis of confidence within Citigroup. As the Journal reports in its terrific page one story this morning: READ MORE >>

I think Noam's right not to get worked up about Tim Geithner's tax problem. The Geithner problem I'm more worried about has to do with his oversight of Citigroup while helming the New York Fed. READ MORE >>

Doubtless, you have read that Citigroup is still having its logo and name put on the new stadium of the New York Mets. This, despite, well, despite everything...Maybe it will spook the Mets. I suspect that Met fans do not like this. After all Citigroup is a loser, a big loser, maybe the biggest loser.The price tag is $20 million per year. And the contract runs for 20 years. Which comes to $400 million dollars. This will do nothing to ease the nation's economic distress, absolutely nothing.Actually, it's a financial enormity that the feds are allowing the bank to so waste its money. READ MORE >>

Maybe I'm jealous that Citigroup didn't include The New Republic on the list of publication in which it had placed full-page advertisements telling the public "why now, more than ever, you can be confident that Citi never sleeps."  The I'm looking at now is in Sunday's New York Times.  But I've seen the same ad in a few other newspapers (including my home-town sheet, the Boston Globe).  I assume this is a cross-country effort.  READ MORE >>

The financial markets are in a state of bewilderment, taken by surprise almost daily. We are, in short, in the midst of a crisis without precedent--a crisis of credit so fundamental to the working of the economy that it may take years to unwind.  READ MORE >>

This is from the front page of Friday's Financial Times: "New fears over subprime fallout."  Well, that was in the morning; and by the 4 o'clock close the three FT exemplars of very troubled financial institutions had gone down some more.  Citigroup by 7% on Thursday and another 2% on Friday to $37, down from a year high of $57.  But the real damage was in the two main insurers of municipal bonds, Ambac, which was down 20% for the day, has virtually collapsed over the year from $96 to $23, with READ MORE >>

Deval Patrick has made many mistakes in his bare two months as governor. None of them particularly serious, although two or three reflect a strange strain for luxury in his character. OK, READ MORE >>

WE ARE TOLD we live in the New Economy, an economy of computers and fiber-optic cables, capital without borders, and competition on a global scale. This is mature market capitalism, and its promise for human advancement—when combined with democracy and individual freedom—is rightly touted at every turn. But, if our economy is a creature of the twenty-first century, our thinking about government’s role in the economy is mired in the nineteenth. READ MORE >>