Filed under: Bad news, Management, Scandals, Citigroup Inc. (C), Countrywide Financial (CFC), Washington Mutual (WM), Federal Reserve, Cramer on BloggingStocks

TheStreet.com’s Jim Cramer says this bank is too big to be ignored by the government; if it goes, we all go.

Citigroup (NYSE: C)’s (Cramer’s Take) to blame for so much that is wrong right now that it seems imperative that someone step in and renounce most of the actions that Chuck Prince put into place and bail out the other parts swiftly to become a plain old bank (POB?) as soon as possible.

We are quick — depending upon political orientation or sensibilities — to blame either the aggressive lenders or the irresponsible borrowers. I don’t even care any more. What matters is capital, raising capital fast and Citigroup must quickly dismantle the acquisitions Prince made, including the disastrous Japan incursion, and then start selling off businesses and get the government to help bail it out by injecting itself into the structured investment vehicle process. The time has long since passed to worry about moral hazard. The action in Citigroup is critical right now because of a series of horrible decisions made by Prince to get much bigger in mortgages right at the end of the boom.

It must sell its mortgage servicing portfolio, too, agreeing to give some guarantees for some amount of money owed to the buyer as servicing rights can be a lucrative business. The fact that Treasury seems “somewhat” engaged (my quotes) is not enough. The problem at this bank is too big to be ignored by the U.S. government. Put simply, if Citigroup goes, we all go.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: The clock’s running on Citigroup

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 26th, 2007 at 4:08 pm and is filed under Stocks Money News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.