Citigroup Stock Sinks to $1 Per Share

Shares of troubled Citigroup have been sinking steadily for months, but today they crossed a symbolic barrier: they fell below $1 per share.

This is a breathtaking destruction of value for a bank that was once the world's largest.

Shares of Citigroup stock peaked in 2006 at $55.70, which gave the company a market capitalization (price of stock times number of outstanding shares), or value, of $277.2 billion.

Today, Citigroup's market cap is $5 billion.

But keep in mind that the federal government has already plowed $45 billion into Citigroup, which means the company is worth far less than the actual amount of cash it has received. Astounding.

The bank has become a black hole. Cash goes in and never comes out.

Citigroup and Bank of America are deemed by most analysts as being the sickest of the big banks -- the ones whose balance sheets are most poisoned by toxic assets.

-- Frank Ahrens

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