December 1st, 2008 — Credit Crisis, Credit Crunch, Economic Research, Economy, Layoffs, Recession, Subprime
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) announced today that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007.
The NBER is comprised of leading economists who have been charged with the task of dating the start and end of economic downturns. The reason for the nearly year-long delay in declaring the official recession that that it takes time to tally and analyze the readings of various economic measures.
The NBER released the following statement:
The committee views the payroll employment measure, which is based on a large survey of employers, as the most reliable comprehensive estimate of employment This series reached a peak in December 2007 and has declined every month since then.
NBER Website
Read the full report (PDF) 
November 24th, 2008 — Bailout, Citibank, Credit Crisis, Economy, Subprime Loans
The U.S. federal government announced a massive rescue package for Citigroup (C: 6.45 -22.20%) on Sunday night, saying that it would back more than $300 billion in Citi’s assets, and inject an additional $20 billion in capital into the failing bank.
In exchange for the bailout, the government would receive a $7 billion stake in Citigroup. The bank would not be allowed to pay out a dividend of more than one penny per share and would also be limited in terms of executive compensation.
Citibank’s shares dropped almost two-thirds of their value last week as concerns mounted about the overall health of the bank. During the past year, Citi has recorded nearly $21 billion in losses.
November 17th, 2008 — Citibank, Credit Cards, Credit Crisis, Economy, Layoffs
Citigroup (C: 6.45 -22.20%) announced today that it is planning to slash its workforce by more than 50,000 jobs in an effort to cut costs and ride out the credit crisis on Wall Street
In an announcement and investor presentation (link to presentation below) on its Web site, Citi said that it was planning to reduce staff levels to roughly 300,000 employees. Citi currently has about 352,000 workers.
It was not yet clear what parts of the banking giant would sustain the most cuts, but there have been rumors that pink slips will be handed out in the investment banking and wealth management departments.
Citigroup’s CEO Vikram Pandit is expected to hold a “town hall meeting” for employees later today to address the job cuts.
This effort is another example of how Citigroup is attempting to cut costs in the wake of the credit crisis. Over the past year, the bank has already slashed its payroll by over 23,000 workers.