We recently took a look at the Best & Worst of 2007 in sixteen categories and asked you to vote for your favorites, as well as sharing the reasons for your picks and any other contenders we may have overlooked. And voting is off to a strong start, with more than 100,000 votes in each category so far.

Some categories have shaped up to be close races. Chuck Prince, Bill Ford, and Bob Nardelli each have a little less than a third of the vote for Best CEO Departure of the Year. Britney Spears and Michael Vick are neck and neck as the Celebrity Most Likely to Lose It All, while Lindsey Lohan's relatively low profile recently has garnered her just 6 percent of that vote. In the Most Shameless Attempt at Cashing in on '15 Minutes', Sanjaya Malakar has a slim lead over Howard K. Stern/Larry Birkhead, but poor Chris "Leave Britney Alone!" Crocker has gotten no respect with a mere 6 percent of the vote. McDonald's has a small lead as the Hottest Chain Restaurant, thought Chipotle isn't far behind with more than a quarter of the vote. And while the iPhone has the lead now as the Hottest Gadget of the Year, it and the Nintendo Wii have been trading places as the front runner.

This post was part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst of 2007. Voting has now closed and, in a close race, readers have chosen Chuck Prince as the best CEO departure of the year. Let us know in the comments if you are pleased with this result.

When looking back at 2007, there were some larger-than-life CEO departures that semi-rocked the business world and brought some investors to the realization of over-the-top compensation yet again. Let's look at a few and then you can decide the winner. Sound good?

First up comes Bill Ford, Jr., from the automotive industry. Under Ford's leadership, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) lost its way in terms of correctly forecasting what kind of vehicles customers actually wanted, in addition to becoming horribly leveraged. As soon as gas prices began shooting up, Ford Motor started spiraling down. Long-time Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) executive Alan Mulally was brought in to replace Ford as the automaker's CEO just in the nick of time. Ford Motor's expected profitability date with Ford now gone: 2009.

How about Bob Nardelli, formerly CEO of Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD)? Nardelli made global headlines by making tens of millions while leading Home Depot shares to the basement and apparently making all kinds of bad decisions that finally led to his ouster this year. On top of that, his severance package made a Brad Pitt paycheck seem like pennies, and Home Depot shareholders paid for it. Did Home Depot stakeholders get a voice in this corporate travesty? A small one, perhaps.

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.

With all the bad PR surrounding the departure of Citigroup's (NYSE: C) CEO Chuck Prince, along with Merrill Lynch's (NYSE: MER) CEO Stanley O'Neill, not to mention their huge severance packages, it's refreshing to see a company where the CEO actually puts his money where his mouth is and invests in the stock of the company he runs.

News that Wachovia (NYSE: WB) CEO Ken Thompson bought 100,000 shares this past Friday, to go along with the 37,000 he bought earlier last week, is a telling sign that not only does he pay lip service to his company's stock being undervalued, but has actually invested millions of his own dollars to back it up.

With the debate over executive compensation heating up, and investor cynicism towards CEOs at an all time high, this move buy Thompson is commendable. How many stories have we read about CEOs making large salaries, getting enormous bonuses and the stock price continues to drop?

Kudos to Thompson, and may his large investment pay off.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. Disclosure: Writer holds no position in any stock mentioned as of 11/21/07.

Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase's (NYSE: JPM) CEO, would be a great replacement for Citigroup Inc.'s (NYSE: C) recently retired CEO Chuck Prince. The only problem is that Dimon already has a job.

But Dimon -- who was Citi ex-CEO Sandy Weill's right hand man until Weill fired him for not giving his daughter a good enough job -- would probably enjoy running a combined Citi-JPMorgan Chase. After all, after he left Citi, he took over Bank One which merged with JPMorgan Chase. And then Dimon took over from its former CEO, Bill Harrison. But a Citi-JPMorgan Chase combination could land Dimon in Sandy Weill's old slot once such a deal closed.

Such a merger would probably be couched as a merger of equals. JPMorgan Chase's market capitalization of $140 billion is currently less than Citi's ($160 billion). But at the rate Citi is falling, that valuation gap probably won't last long. Then there's the little matter of the deposit cap -- no bank can control more than 10% of U.S. deposits. With combined deposits of $1.5 trillion -- which includes Citi's international deposits -- the combined banks would probably control more than 10% of the U.S.'s $7.5 trillion (as of January 2007) in deposits.

So the merged companies would need to divest some branches if they wanted the deal to go through and Dimon would not be able to take over officially until after the merger closed. But these seem like small prices to pay to get a good CEO for Citi.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He owns Citigroup shares and has no financial interest in JPMorgan Chase.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) analyst William F. Tonona put a "sell" rating -- Wall Street's equivalent of an F minus -- on Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C)'s shares about five months too late. Is it any wonder that many money managers ignore analyst stock ratings entirely?

Like most analysts, Tonona seems to excel at telling investors what they already know such as "the lack of leadership at this point in Citi's storied history could not have come at a worse time." and "it will likely take the new CEO some time before he or she decides on the appropriate course of action to undertake.''

Citigroup has problems? Get out of town.

Tonona's call is a month after Deutche Bank AG (NYSE: DB) put a sell on Citigroup. At least these analysts are moving in the right direction. Five analysts rate the stock a strong buy, six a buy and seven a hold, according to Thomson Financial. Why aren't there more sells?

Looks like Citigroup investors are way ahead of the analysts who are paid big bucks to follow the stock.

Shareholder discontent, especially top stockholder Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, helped push out Chief Executive Chuck Prince on November 4 after the company announced an $11 billion write down because of declining value of subprime mortgages. Shares of New York-based Citigroup are down more than 40% this year.

Too bad analysts can travel back in time so their research can be relevant.

New York Stock Exchange Chief Executive John Thain has been picked by Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER) to be its next CEO, according to media reports.

The New York Post, which broke the story, writes "The move is a huge coup for Merrill and board member Alberto Cribiore, who has led the search for a new CEO after (Stan) O'Neal resigned on Oct. 30."

But Merrill's quick move is bad news for CItigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), which had wanted to hire Thain to replace its unpopular (and now ex) CEO Chuck Prince, the Post says.

The move is unexpected, according to the Wall Street Journal [subscription required], which said "insiders on Wall Street" had speculated that BlackRock Inc. CEO Larry Fink would get the job. CNBC is reporting that Fink was offered the job but turned it down.

Thain's departure from NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX) isn't a shock. He viewed the job, which he got after the departure of Richard Grasso, as a public service, according to the Journal. Shares of Merrill Lynch, down more than 35% this year, rallied on the news, rising $2.82, or 5%, to $59.75. NYSE Euonext and Citigroup were little changed.

The reshuffling of Wall Street's top management is far from over. Watch this space.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), fresh off the canning of former CEO and underperformer Chuck Prince, has said that a reorganization of its investment-banking unit [subscription required] is in order. In addition, the company will be "removing" the head managers of its credit-markets group. At the same time, Citigroup will initiate a tighter integration of its equity and fixed income operations.

In other words, Citigroup is moving two executives to other roles and will be putting in place more safeguards to prevent the kind of underwriting messes and income mismanagement that helped the company to billions in write-downs in its latest quarter. Yes, the tearing down of Prince's once-mighty kingdom has begun.

This was probably in the works before Prince got the boot. There are so many things that Citigroup must now do to rectify itself and reduce exposure in some areas -- but of course, it will take time.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Vikram Pandit (from the acquired Old Lane Partners) wants to tear down the walls that were up between bankers that sell such products as high-yield bonds from those that sell stocks or derivatives. The point? Get them more focused on customer needs and not their own firm's needs. Greed and customer ignorance built Prince's kingdom; a return to putting the customer first could easily help save it.

Reuters reports that former Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) executives Todd Thomson -- who lost his job in January -- is talking back now that his nemesis, Chuck Prince, has been deposed.

Thomson, who headed up wealth management for Citigroup, got tossed in February. He thinks Prince smeared him -- citing his expensive office, which featured a fishbowl, and his reported flight of General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) CNBC's Maria Bartiromo on Citigroup's corporate jet from Asia to New York. Here are two highlights:

• Maria-gate. Media reported that in November 2006 when Thomson flew with a group of Citigroup employees to China on a business trip, he flew back with Bartiromo, leaving the Citi employees to find their way home on their own. When asked about his relationship with Bartiromo, Thomson was adamant: "It's an inappropriate question. I've never been accused of having anything other than an appropriate relationship with Maria Bartiromo. And I do have an appropriate relationship with Maria Bartiromo."

Will Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) CEO John Mack be the next Wall Street CEO to get whacked?

The New York-based firm may have to take a $6 billion write down, in line with the $8.4 billion bath Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER) took and trailing the Citigroup Inc.'s (NYSE: C) $11 billion pill that it might have to swallow. That estimate -- which Morgan won't comment on -- comes courtesy of David Trone, an analyst with Fox-Pitt Kelton Cochran Caronia Waller. It's double the $3 billion estimated by CNBC.

"We suggest an outright avoidance until either management discloses more specific exposure data and it proves smaller than we thought, or they actually take writedowns big enough to get beyond this,'' Trone wrote in a note to clients, according to Bloomberg News.

Shares of New York-based Morgan, which have slumped 18% since Halloween, fell $1.80 to $53.79 today as investors fretted about the size of the shoe that's about to drop.

With the downfall of Stan O'Neal and Chuck Prince, the departure of Mack would leave the one spot open in the disgraced Wall Street CEO golf foursome. My suspicion, though, is that spot is being reserved for Bear Stearns Companies Inc. (NYSE: BSC)'s Jimmy Cayne.

The New York Times has written a heartfelt love letter to Maria Bartiromo of General Electric (NYSE: GE)'s CNBC. The most interesting part to me is that Maria feels that Chuck Prince was using her "relationship" with former Citigroup (NYSE: C) executive Todd Thomson -- about which I posted earlier this year -- to divert attention from his mismanagement of the bank. With Prince out, Maria's riding high. But Todd must be kicking himself -- if he hadn't gotten into the Maria mess, he might be in a position to take over from Prince.

Since I have had the privilege of being interviewed by Maria Bartiromo -- here's a link from August -- and was called a couple of times last week to discuss the situation at Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER), her status at CNBC is of more than academic interest to me. I have never met her in person, but her interviews have always been sharp and professional.

But the Todd Thomson incident raised questions which the article did not completely squelch. As a reminder, in January unidentified executives at Citigroup, which is both a CNBC advertiser and a frequent subject of its coverage, told several publications that among the reasons Thomson was fired was his decision to invite Maria to speak to a group of Citigroup clients in Asia and to fly her to that event in the company jet.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says getting rid of the CEO was a good first step, but more must be done to turn things around.

The temptation is to say that getting rid of Chuck Prince is too little, too late for this once-great bank. But that's just not true. What needs to be done is a quick dismantling of everything that Prince has done -- his worldwide acquisition of assets, including everything in Japan, as well as the fast shedding of these hedge funds.

More important, whoever runs the place has to sell things that have simply accumulated over the years. Of course, some of this will have to resemble a fire sale -- think like what Dick Parsons, a Citi (NYSE: C) (Cramer's Take) board member, had to do at Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) (Cramer's Take) to save that.

TimesOnline reports that Meredith Whitney, a CIBC analyst, has received death threats. Whitney who is married to the former World Wrestling Entertainment (NYSE: WWE) champion Death Mask, downgraded Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) on Thursday -- citing its need to raise a $30 billion capital cushion. Her "underperform" rating of Citigroup helped send its shares down 7% -- leading her to receive several death threats from Citigroup investors.

Whitney married the wrestler Death Mask, also known as John Charles Layfield, 2½ years ago after they met on a TV set. Layfield credits Whitney with helping to make him more sophisticated -- he noted: "She took a country boy like me and kind of refined me. I know what fork to use now at the dinner table, and I drink my beer from a glass." This has not stopped the brave Whitney from earning rave reviews as an analyst -- Forbes ranked her second-best stock picker for 2007.

In a free society, people should be able to express their opinions without fear of bodily harm. For those Citigroup investors who don't like what she wrote, you should be happy that her downgrade may have helped push Citigroup's board to replace Chuck Prince. It remains to be seen whether Prince's replacement can do a better job of boosting its share price.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He owns Citigroup stock and has no financial interest in WWE.

The New York Times added a few new wrinkles to the story of this Sunday's emergency board meeting at Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) at which CEO Chuck Prince will reportedly resign:

• Prince pay. He got $140.1 million -- vested stock of $87 million plus compensation of $53.1 million in his four year tenure at the top. A severance package has not been negotiated. But the 19% drop in Citigroup's stock reduced its market capitalization by $36.4 billion.
• Why Citigroup's board finally moved. And Merrill Lynch & Co.'s (NYSE: MER) swift moves to dismiss CEO Stanley O'Neal influenced Citigroup's board to take action against Prince as did his loss of support among the troops in its investment banking unit.

The recent moves at Merrill and Citigroup suggest that corporations host a unique form of CEO politics. In both cases, the CEOs were reportedly unpopular with many of the people who reported to them. In Prince's case -- the investment banking unit did not like him. And for O'Neal, Merrill's brokerage unit was not a fan -- among others. In both cases, off-balance sheet deals created the kind of negative surprises that make directors worry about spending huge amounts of money on legal fees to defend themselves against shareholder lawsuits.

With rumors swirling that Citigroup (NYSE:C)'s CEO Chuck Prince is about to get the axe, this may be the time to start building a position in the financial company. It's no secret that investors have been pleading to get rid of Prince, and with all the recent turmoil, I think investors will get their wish.

With Citi stock badly under-performing its competition since the departure of Sandy Weill, the only thing investors have received are tax-losses. I realize that it's never smart to get in front of a moving train, and right now Citi stock is like a locomotive heading straight downhill, but if Prince gets sent packing, and an outside person is brought in to be CEO, watch for Citi stock to change direction and start moving up.

There is plenty of value in Citi. The clear way to unlock that value would be to start spinning off divisions and let its true value be recognized.

It's gonna be a fun weekend for investors and a nervous one for Prince. Let's see if the old adage that it's better to be a king than a prince holds true.

Disclosure: Writer holds no position in any stock mentioned as of 11/2/07.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com.