Citigroup: The Morning After

As noted, Citigroup will get $20 billion in cash and $300 billion more in guarantees.

Citigroup Inc., facing the threat of a breakup or sale, received $306 billion of U.S. government guarantees for troubled mortgages and toxic assets to stabilize the bank after its stock fell 60 percent last week.

Citigroup also will get a $20 billion cash injection from the Treasury Department, adding to the $25 billion the company received last month under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. In return for the cash and guarantees, the government will get $27 billion of preferred shares paying an 8 percent dividend. Citigroup rose as much as 41 percent in German trading today.

The Treasury, Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said in a joint statement that the move aims to bolster financial-market stability and help restore economic growth. The decision came after New York-based Citigroup’s tumbling share price sparked concern that depositors might pull their money and destabilize the company, which has $2 trillion of assets and operations in more than 100 countries.

“It really was a must-do thing,” said Nader Naeimi, a Sydney-based strategist at AMP Capital Investors, which manages about $85 billion. “If they’d let Citigroup go, that would’ve been disastrous.”

Citigroup’s stock plunged 83 percent this year and dropped below $5 last week for the first time since 1995. The shares were up $1.26 at $5.03 in Germany in recent trading.

If the government had not taken action last night, Citigroup stock would have likely dropped to under $2 a share. Citibank's major depositors would have lined up around the block today to get money out of the bank.

The one thing we've been able to avoid so far is a confidence breaking and very visible public bank run on one of these financial institutions. Imagine what video of Citibank customers lined up around to block to get their money would do to the markets and to the country, when every bank in the country has less than 1% of deposits available on hand as a business decision.

Imagine what would happen if Citibank branches were turning people away, saying "we don't have any more cash right now." Imagine ATMs emptied out across the country.

Panic. Pure, adrenaline fueled national panic.

And it would get worse from there.

That's why Citigroup gets $20 billion in a weekend, and the auto industry will most likely go under as the Big 3 are forced to reorganize under Chapter 11.