Borrowed Time : Two Centuries of Booms, Busts, and Bailouts at Citi

"Don't let it fail," said President George W. Bush. It was a cold and cloudy day in Washington on November 19, 2008. But the climate was even worse in New York's financial markets, where investors were increasingly betting that one of the world's best-known companies wasn't going to make it. Shares of Citigroup, a $2 trillion financial behemoth, plunged 23 percent that day, and were down a full 88 percent since May 2007. An American president who had seemed to understand the value of competition wasn't willing to let a Wall Street giant lose ... it's a story that has unfolded time and again in the century since the federal government began standing behind Citi. The bank's rescuers have included politicians and regulators of both parties. A striking number of them didn't believe that Citi deserved its bailouts and doubted whether it could be reformed after taxpayers helped it back from the financial ledge. Some even doubted whether the rescues were necessary. But what they all had in common was that they just couldn't manage to say no. Book jacket.