I wanted to illustrate with a zombie image...but frankly, they are too gruesome.
And reports of Citi's insolvency predate 2008...this is just the latest relapse in the game.
February 13, 2009
Where Citi Is, Trouble Soon Follows
Posted by James Surowiecki
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/jamessurowiecki/2009/02/where-citi-is-t.html
As I argued in my last post, we need to be careful about extrapolating from history, particularly when the historical record is short. Thats one reason why Im not convinced that nationalizing most of our major banks is the best solution to our current financial problems. But I will say that if the recent history of our financial system tells us anything, its that its a miracle (and not in the good sense) that at least one bankCitigrouphasnt already been taken over. This is a bank that was, by most accounts, technically insolvent in the early nineteen-eighties, as a result of the Latin American debt crisis. It was in serious trouble again in the early nineteen-ninetiesCongressman John Dingell actually gave a speech in 1991 saying it was insolvent. And its been a major player in, and cause of, our current financial crisis, with a chorus of analysts declaring that, once again, its liabilities are greater than its assets. It does make you wonder how many lives it has, and it also makes you wonder why, after its earlier woes, regulators ever allowed it to get this big.