Sometimes we feel blessed not to possess a crystal ball, since, if we'd asked the wrong question of it a year ago, the correct answer might have led us seriously astray: 'At what price will Citigroup be trading a year from now, oh wise and powerful Oracle?' Some may recall that the stock hit an all-time high of $57 at the beginning of 2007. But if a crystal ball had told us it would touch $20 before this year was even three months old, we'd have assumed the world was about to end. After all, we're not talking about just any bank. Citi's corporate roots go back to 1812, and the bank grew to be the largest in America before the new century began. Citi was the first bank to surpass $1 billion in assets and by 1929 was the largest commercial bank in the world. As recently as last September, Forbes ranked Citi as the largest company in the world, with total assets at the time of $2.4 trillion, supporting a global staff of 332,000 and 200 million customers. But look at it now: How the might have fallen! Citi's capitalization has in fact been shrinking so rapidly of late that the firm probably no longer ranks even among the top 25 banks. And although Citi shares fell a further 5.8 percent yesterday, it's possible that still more-punitive days lie ahead, since there has been so sign yet of climactic selling. Rick's Picks has been projecting a big bounce from exactly 16.80, but the stock's oil-patch backers from Dubai and Saudi Arabia will not likely be comforted by that prospect; nor will they be averaging down, since that would push their equity stake above the 5% threshold that triggers intense regulatory scrutiny. Citigroup unfortunately is not alone among banks
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