Citi's Investors Never Sleep Either

In comparison to the multiple billions in earnings and market cap that Citi has parted ways with in the disastrous last couple of years, a $7.6 billion loss is chump change. But still, with all of the bravado coming from the banking industry, you'd think Citi could rub together a bit more than a loss of 33 cents a share. Yes, most of the loss was related to paying back the government, but then maybe that's just a sign that it should've waited to be profitable before rushing to pay the government back just because it had to pay its employees "competitively?" (i.e. so they wouldn't all run away to work for Goldman. As if Goldman would ever stoop so low. I mean, the folks at Goldman only hire "real talent.")

But no worries, Citi plans to earn its way out of the hole it dug for itself when it decided to pile full throttle into the booming CDO market (as well as every other over-priced asset in the credit boom.) Maybe one of those bullish analysts can explain how you earn your way out of a hole by continuing to post losses.