It is just amazing and a great pity to see the once number one bank now smaller than Mr. Ipod !!!!

What a reversal if fortunes. Throw out the entire Board and new, do nothing CEO and start to rebuild the Citi. Just one example, what is Citi's headcount today ? Does anyone remember the plan to reduce staff by 17m in 2007 ? Looks like it died quietly in the corner along with the franchise.

Look for Apple to start it's own online bank using the iPod/iPhone network ;-)

And the gap will probably grow a bit larger after the earnings report. Here's the deal with China Mobile. The Chinese dangle the big apple of potential sales. Sooner or later, with the grey market for the IPhone well established, they'll have to come to the realization that their intransigence is costing them money. Apple is getting market penetration (albeit more slowly) into China without having to kowtow to the demands of the Chinese. The real issue here isn't what Steve & Co. want it's what the Chinese want which probably more of Apple profits then Apple is willing to give. Don't worry though. The free market and Fed Ex will give what the bureaucrats will not. In the end the Chinese will probably mass produce a knock off IPhone and market it themselves. Given the Asian demand for the real damn deal many will still be sold. Don't get all worked up about China. At this point they have about 6 workers for every retiree. This will change in the future and those folks that are living lives of quiet desperation in the rural areas will start moving in greater numbers to the urban areas. Also, I believe if what I've read is correct China has practiced female infanticide for a number of years and has an over abundance of males. Coupled with the twin hydras of feeding all of these folks and pollution China is going to be having a demographic slug fest in the near future that'll make them wish they could keep shooting Tibetans. The 2008 Olympics could be their high point this century as they'll probably pull an East Germany and juice the majority of their athletes for public relations purposes. The medal count will probably look like the balance sheet of a dot com company in 1999. I could go on but I won't. Just remember don't use the internet in China and don't buy their toys or medicine. If we shipped defective products to them they'd freak and we would be apologizing all ourselves for the grave injustice we would've committed.

Let's send them bricks so they can build another wall.

Beltway Greg