Citigroup bailout is a gift to shareholders

What about the rest of us poor guys who bought C stock as an investment at $45 or $40 or $35...to pay for college tuition or as part of our 401K investments. We are taxpayers too. Don't we deserve a break, along with the rest of the average investors who have a life time of savings invested in market securities? Not everyone in the market is out to make a quick buck. Most of us are in it for the long run. Please give me a break with that taxpayer crap! Investors are the biggest taxpayers and we are getting creamed from all angles!

All that this UNEQUIVOCALLY DEMONSTRATES is that the Bail out monies are being"gamed" to enrich the sharpies . . . none of this crap is helping out the corporations; and it is simply an EXTENDED RIP OFF of the Ameerican midlle and lower classes by shifting the costs of these "profits" to the "gamers of the system" onto our national deficit.

Who is kidding whom? This bailout has become an enormous rip off of the American people who were not involved in the risky market investments. The people have been hoodwinked and DEFRAUDED . . and th Bailout is merely a continuation of all of this FRAUD. The Bailout monies have not accomplished much of anything, certainly not commensurate to what it has costs the tax payers. The wealthy certainly reaped their blatant exorbitant profits in the past; and the bail out is merely an attempt to minimize their current losses.

Congress is the PRINCIPLE PARTY responsible for all of this economic melt down; they made allof this FRAUD possible by not implementing basic "common sense regulation" of the FIs and corporations.

If the American people don't rise up and inundate their Congressmen with emails, faxes, letters, and telephone calls protesting what is goingon, then nothing is going to change very much.

People need to institute "recall elections" to put the fear of god into the worst Congressmen. If the people don't DEMAND JUSTICE, then there will e no justice, only coverups.

Well said B Harrison. Investors are not the biggest taxpayers. Taxpayers are the biggest taxpayers and we have sure been paying lately. The problem is that both political parties prefer to protect corporations instead of people. Investor doesn't equal citizen. Citizen equals citizen.

I understand all the anger surrounding the bail out of Citi however I don't think people really realize how many innocent people have been hurt by Citi's demise. There are 300,000 employees left at Citi most of which are not wealthy wall street moguls. They are hard working middle Americans who also pay their fair share of taxes. Not to mention the millions of Americans who chose to actually save their money by investing in mutual funds, 401k's and Citi stock. They did not bye homes they couldn't afford or get loans to bye big screen T.V.'s, they invested in what they thought were great American companies. These are drastic times and require drastic measures. We are all Americans and are all tied together and therefore, for good or for bad -all in this together.

Ehat do u think of Charlie Gasparino? He is a critic of citibank but is he goes further than it? He is a critic of Vikram Pandit? Is he a racist? He cannot admit one good think about the institution and Vikram. He lack economic knowledge and talking from street insider news from a group of people who wants to look after their interest and keep any others away.
He is a shame for CNBC and I am wondering whats his qualifications.
Anyone fee the same as me?

why to bail out citi when they increase your interest rate from 0% to 20% if you are late for your payment only once by a day.

Re: the bailout of citi. Think of the ramifications that would occur to the banking system if the government did not step in to stabilize Citi. Citi has cut thousands of jobs mostly of hard working people just before the holidays. Citi has alot of foreign shareholders that would be damaged even more if the govt allowed all common shareholders to be wiped out. We need foreign capital and we need jobs and strong confidence in our banking system. Yes Citi is just too large to allow to fail.

Citi is saved..who will do the checks and
balances? GM-Ford-Chrylser to be saved
too?..If so the U.S. Goverment should
demand the Big3 retool for Hybrid cars
and even get involved in building
mass-transit eco-type vehicles using
the existing work-force and the only
people to let go are those 3 CEO's and
their staff and put in executives who will
work to the beat of the buying public,,
aka...those who like Toyota, Honda, Nissan.

I have one simple question..
Just one month back , they were planning to buy Wachovia and now they are asking for bailout?
How in the world can they justify this ?

To GDG--
you poor guys who bought citi at 35-45?? I would feel bad for you if I hadn't been with citi since it has been at 75. What about THOSE poor people? who have lost EVERYTHING?

i got citi ar 48$.....thank you god...i live in america..any other place...i be with no hope....hope is what make people go to work every day.. hope and feith,,,,,2 thing you need to live well,,,,,,

As a shareholder of Citi Common stock, I am concerned that the Goverment will no become a "Preferred Stock" holder which means that they will be paid dividends first.

I am upset that the common stock dividends will now be withheld for at least several years, and perhaps more, while the government skims the profits via Preferred Stocks.