Citi is bankrupt, in every sense

As if that's any news. But see this from Zero Hedge via Egan Jones (emphases mine): http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/04/citi-market-barometer.html

Accounting and government magic - the recasting of FASB157 enables financial institutions to defer the recognition of losses with the result that C's March trading profits swung from a $6.8B loss to a $3.8B gain. Another item worth reviewing is the decline in interest expense from $16.5B last year to $7.7B this year. Nonetheless, much more equity capital is needed. Beyond the conversion of preferred to common, watch the form of any additional capital. The Fed and Treas. have guaranteed $306B of C's assets, have injected $45B in preferred and converted to common leaving few additional options. The problem is that C has $2T of assets ($3+T including off balance sheet assets) whose values are depressed by 10% to 20%. C needs to be watched.

For you math minors, 10-20% of $3T = $300-600Billion. Just Citi, mind you, and on top of all the rest of the money wasted on these dopes (criminals?) As for equity capital, where does a $4.00 stock raise it? You guessed it! The Feds!!

Really amazing that they still exist qua C. This firm has been a blight for most of its existence, not to mention the lifeline they were thrown in 1991. Here's hoping that Pandit's absence from the conference call (Whereth Pandit?) is indeed a sign of things to come - most especially hoping for a forced restructuring (eg bankruptcy).

Break these guys up, and do it ASAP