Vikram Pandi, the CEO of Citigroup (NYSE: C), does not seem to be good at very much, but he is starting to get the hang of firing people. According to Reuters, "Citigroup Inc. plans to shed about 10 percent of its global workforce, a person familiar with the matter said Friday."

Maybe Pandit is responding to pressure he is facing to keep his own job. Citi's shares are below $10 for the first time in over a decade and have fallen much more than those of the other major U.S. money center banks. Wall Street still fears another year of write-offs as the big financial firm faces trouble with its portfolio of consumer debt , heavy with credit card customers who are defaulting in greater numbers as the economy worsens.

Pandit's greatest sin may be that he has not done any deal to spread his risks, broaden the bank's businesses, and transform the company. Several of his peer companies have done deals like Bank of America's (NYSE: BAC) purchase of Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) which brings in more deposits and an investment banking and money management unit.

At this stage there is nothing Pandit can do. He has let the problems at the bank go too far. The economy is failing at too fast a rate. Citi's troubled balance sheet is almost certainly getting more troubled.

It is not a bad bet that Citi ends up the way AIG (NYSE: AIG) has. If so, investors could lose another 80% or 90% of their money.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.

Citigroup (NYSE: C) CEO Vikram Pandit faces much of the blame for the bank's falling share price. He has not sold off enough under-performing units. He has not cut costs enough. He has not articulated a strategy for where the company plans to make its money over the next several years.

And, the write-downs keep coming leading to billions of dollars in losses each quarter. Some analysts expect that to continue well into next year as Citi take charges for its consumer credit portfolio.

Pandit is turning to a tried and true way to make himself look better. He is firing large numbers of people in an attempt to keep his job.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "Starting this week, Citigroup is handing out pink slips to at least 10,000 employees in its investment bank and other divisions throughout the world." Other workers will have their compensation cut, and more lay-offs are expected.

Pandit's need to fire more people can be put at his own feet. He has shown no skill in buying other banks to raise his deposits base the way that Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) has. He lost the opportunity to buy Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) to bring in their capital and more investment banking skill.

Pandit should be in the line of the 10,000 people packing up their desks and leaving.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.

This is the third in a four part series which I hope gives buyers, sellers, shareholders and dare I say management a platform for discussion.

The most valuable asset eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) has is PayPal, the dominant internet financial transaction facilitator. When I started imagining what might happen if eBay started auctioning off its parts I envisioned that PayPal would be worth the highest premium.

I think there would be dozens of interested companies that would find it highly advantageous to acquire PayPal.

The reason eBay bought PalPal in the first place was that they had first hand experience trying to compete with it when it was a separate company, and even with its huge base of customers, eBay could not build much traction. As the old saying goes, "if you can't beat them, join them", or in this case buy them.

For starters, all of the major credit card companies would be very interested with MasterCard Inc'A' (NYSE: MA) and Visa (NYSE: V) leading the bidding and beleaguered American Express (NYSE: AXP) trying to find a way too.

Then there are the few prospering banks still left standing that would have to give this potential acquisition strong consideration. Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) which has already bought out Countrywide Financial and will soon add Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) would find this a must have. JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) has added Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM) to its group of enterprises and might be best suited to expand the company given its growing resources. Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) that recently agreed to acquire Wachovia Corp (NYSE: WB) after staying on the sidelines most of the year might want PayPal, but I do not think it would pay up.

Around the world, governments are flooding the market with new currency in order to stem the tide of bank collapses and slippery stock market slopes. They are taking over financial institutions, absorbing debt, lowering interest rates, nationalizing some private companies, investing in others, and rebating taxes through stimulus packages to increase liquidity and spending.

So far all we can say is that the world is still open for business, but it is a different world. Even gold and oil are down significantly.

In concert with world markets, the stocks in my daring (maybe fool hardy) story I posted a few months ago Serious Money: Tempting fate with 10 financials -- buying into a pool of financial stocks at a time when the "hate 'em" factor was at a peak, or so I thought -- are down even more. I think I am turning into the web's leading glutton for punishment by posting such stories. However, while my stock ideas have taken a beating now and then, I hope my integrity has remained intact.

I took some major lumps during the collapse of Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM) as I candidly posted, Chasing Value: Not -- WaMu one week later - ouch!, and I lost some money also.

Nine of the ten financial stocks I wrote about are down or out at this point. When I last reported, the portfolio was losing 4.8%, and now it is losing 47% to date, not counting dividends. Only MBIA Inc. (NYSE: MBI) is up and there are question marks about this company too.

Executive pay is like the weather. Everyone complains about it but no one does anything to change it. That is until New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo tangled with AIG (NYSE: AIG).

Cuomo, the son of a former New York governor who reportedly wants the job himself one day, convinced the embattled insurer to suspend payments from a $600 million bonus fund as well as a $19 million payoff to its former chief executive Martin J. Sullivan, according to The New York Times.

This is good news for taxpayers for a number of reasons. First, the thought of executives at a firm that was bailed out by taxpayers the tune of tens of billions of dollars getting bonuses was galling. Sullivan and his colleagues were supposed to be rewarded to creating value for shareholders, which they obviously failed to do. Cuomo also set a precedent that might apply to executives at other failed companies such as Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER).

Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) CEO John Thain told Bloomberg that thousands of the company's employees will lose their jobs as part of the deal to be acquired by Bank of America (NYSE: BAC).

Information technology, operations and corporate functions will be the hardest hit, with commodities and fixed income unaffected. Merrill has already cut more than 5,000 positions over the past year and a half. Merrill currently has about 60,000 workers.

"We haven't mapped it out in terms of actual number of people, but we are committed to saving $7 billion across the combined platforms, and that will be a challenge,'' Thain said. "Between our two companies it will be clearly thousands of jobs.'

Given that Bank of America is paying about $28 billion for Merrill -- the closing price depends on where shares of Bank America close when the deal is finalized -- saving $7 billion per year will create substantial value: and possibly silence the huge number of critics who fear that Bank of America is overpaying given the valuations the market is currently applying to so many other banks.

But the huge job cuts signal that Bank of America is planning to integrate a good chunk of Merrill's operations, and that a post-merger Merrill Lynch will look very different from the company that has been built over the past 90-plus years.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) narrowed its Q3 net loss on rising revenues.
• AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR) posted a deeper-than-estimated Q3 loss but ordered 42 new planes.
• Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) reported its fourth straight quarterly loss on another write-down.
• Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) posted better-than-expected Q3 results on growth overseas.
• CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) reported strong Q3 results on lower fuel prices and cost controls.
• eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) topped Q3 expectations but lowered its full-year guidance.
• Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) beat expectations, sending shares higher.
• Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) better-than-expected Q3 results sent shares higher.
• Harley-Davidson Inc. (NYSE: HOG) international growth couldn't overcome disappointing results.
• Hershey Co. (NYSE: HSY) results in Q3 were in line with analysts' expectations.
• IBM (NYSE: IBM) posted strong Q3 results and offered an optimistic outlook.
• Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) posted strong Q3 results but warned of lower demand in Q4.
• Intuitive Surgical Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) strong results easily topped expectations, but shares fell.
• Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) posted strong Q3 results and raised its full-year guidance.

It is hard to imagine that the economy can get much better if the banks are still in trouble. If there is no credit, there are no business loans, new mortgages, car loans, or increasing availability of credit card debt. To make that worse, if banks do not recover, the stock market probably does not either. Financial shares are too big a part of most indexes.

Wall Street. is hoping that the Paulson $700 billion plan will help what ails banks. Earnings from Citigroup (NYSE:C) and Merrill Lynch (NYSE:MER) did not do much to help that train of thought, but they are only two companies, so who knows?

There is one significant sign that the dark clouds are not blowing away. Over the last week financial companies have been hitting the Fed's emergency fund window with a vengeance. According to Reuters, "Banks and dealers' overall direct borrowings from the Fed averaged a record $437.53 billion per day in the week ended October 15, topping the previous week's $420.16 billion per day."

That does not look like much of a recovery. As a matter of fact, with all the money the Treasury is putting into the credit system, one would hope that the emergency borrowing would go down. But, it is not.

Banks still need money more that Wall Street had expected. That means the next few quarters of bank earnings may look terribly bad.

Financial stocks have a long way to go.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Many market observers would say that the indexes swung widely today. All that should matter is that they ended up. Oil dropped below $70 which was heartening to anyone who wanted to know if inflation is dead. Here are the unofficial closing numbers:

DJIA: 8.973.28 (up 4.61%)

NASDAQ: 1,717.71 (up 5.49%)

S&P 500 845.81 (up 4.18%)

Citigroup (NYSE: C) has another embarrassing quarter. The big bank had yet another write-down of bad paper on its balance sheet, this time for $4.4 billion. That caused a loss of $2.8 billion compared to a profit of $2.2 billion last year.The news kept the stock in the red most of the day.

Another American financial icon, Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER), lost a ton of money. The broker had a deficit of $5.2 billion. The firm said the September was especially bad for business that may make investors think that the fourth quarter is not likely to be strong.

In Europe, another massive bank has bad new. UBS (NYSE: UBS) had to take $5.7 billion from the Swiss government for a 9% interest. It also turned over almost $60 billion in bad paper for the central bank to hold. No one knows the value of those assets. The Swiss taxpayers may be getting a big bill.

A comment by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer that doing a deal with Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) might make economic sense sent the portal company up over 12%.

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) puts out earnings tonight, which should set the tone for tomorrow.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

The stock market may continue its record-setting plunge today as the drumbeat of negative sentiment drowns out what little good news there is to be had.

Markets in Europe and Asia were sharply lower as fears of a lingering recession continued to heighten. Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso told members of Parliament that the U.S. bank bailout was "insufficient" to quell the fears of investors, according to the Associated Press. Meanwhile, the government of Switzerland is pumping billions into ailing UBS AG (NYSE: UBS) which gorged itself on mortgage-backed securities. Oil prices also fell to a 14 month low is Asia. U.S. stock futures were mixed.

Here is a look at other stories which may interest investors.

• Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE:MER) reported its fifth straight quarterly loss including write-downs of at least $9.5 billion. Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE: BK) reported a 53 percent drop in third-quarter earnings. Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) reported $13.2 billion in credit losses in its earnings because of reserves for bad loans and writedowns for mortgage-related securities.
• Continental Airlines Inc. (NYSE:CAL), Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE: BTU) and Nucor Corp. (NYSE: NUE) are among the other companies reporting earnings today.
  
• eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) gave a disappointing outlook yesterday after posting better-than-expected earnings. Its shares tumbled.
• FDIC Chair Shelia Bair criticized the federal government for not doing enough to help homeowners facing forecloseure.

The earnings crunch begins in earnest this coming week, with companies from Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) and PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP) to Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) and Harley-Davidson Inc. (NYSE: HOG) scheduled to report results for the quarter just ended. But with the ongoing turmoil in the markets, much attention is on the tech and financial sectors. This week will provide plenty to mull over on both counts.

Wall Street expectations for tech stocks are fairly optimistic. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial are looking for chip maker Altera Corp. (NASDAQ: ALTR) and software/service company iGate Corp. (NASDAQ: IGTE) to be the sector's biggest earnings gainers of the week. Altera is expected to report earnings of 30 cents per share (up 33.3% from a year ago) on revenue of $355.1 million. Altera had previously forecast flat sales for the quarter, and shares fell to a 52-week low last week. iGate is expected to report earnings of 14 cents per share (up 42.9%) on revenue of $55.6 million. India-based iGate recently spun off its Mastech consulting services. Shares are down 45.0% in the past three months, and also reached a new 52-week low last week.

San Jose-based Novellus Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: NVLS), on the other hand, is expected to report that net income tumbled 90.4% from a year ago to 4 cents per share, on revenue of $245.6 million. Novellus fell to a 52-week low early last week, and shares are down 44.5% year to date.

Everything is upside down these days. The folks with all the money and multi-million dollar bonuses are begging for a handout on the pretext that the economy will crash if they do not get one. We're not talking money for coffee or a snack, we're talking billions of dollars.

It is crashing anyway, or at least sinking. It is just a matter of what it takes down along the way. Apparently, the folks at the Treasury and Federal Reserve are now convinced that it will be everything.

The survivors are pawing at the defeated as Wells Fargo tries to grab Wachovia despite its previous tentative agreement with Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C). While Citigroup gained a point in Wachovia deal over the weekend, the balance has since tilted in favor of Wells Fargo again.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) gobbled up Countrywide (done) and Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) (a work in progress), while JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) corralled Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM).

Sadly, only the federal government was big enough to swallow the problems of American International Group (NYSE: AIG), Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE). Otherwise,those in the know think world financial markets would have crumbled due to the collateral damage, (pun intended).

When I posted Congress is screwing up -- think backstop not bailout!, I was concerned with the psychological effect as much as the financial effect of not approving the funding, but no doubt the people suffering the most are not those who created the pain.

Over the past few years, some of the big players in tech – such as Oracle Corporation (Nasdaq: ORCL), SAP (AG) (NYSE: SAP) and Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT) – have been been aggressive with M&A. Even after the dot-com bust, there is still a lot of excess capacity in the tech world.

However, according to a report from the 451 Group, it looks like the recent instability in the financial markets is taking a toll on things. After all, Lehman Brothers no longer exists and other major investment banks have radically changed their business models, such as Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS).

Looking at Q3, the dollar-value of tech deals plunged by a third to $37 billion. In fact, there were only six deals in excess of $1 billion.

Then again, with the tight credit squeeze, it's exceedingly difficult to get deals done. For instance, there were only 12 leveraged buyouts in Q3, which compares to 36 in the same period a year ago.

Of course, the financial shakeout has made many tech targets attractive. But, the problem is that the mega corporate buyers have also seen sharp reductions in market caps. And if the US economy continues to deteriorate, it's likely to cut into tech spending, making things even worse for dealmaking.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He is also the founder of BizEquity, a valuation website

Oil prices are significantly down from the summer high of $147 per barrel. Wednesday October 1, New York's main contract, light sweet crude for November delivery, lost $2.11 to close at 98.53 dollars a barrel.

Now Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) is slashing its outlook for oil prices. Not only do their analysts believe that oil will drop below $90 a barrel next year, but they add that there is a possibility it may drop below $50. Demand is shrinking and it's hard to call a bottom.

Given all the turmoil in the financial markets this year and with a looming "consumer credit bubble" being discussed in most business publications, it would be very advisable to use any savings from lower oil prices to pay down credit card debt.

In the News:
Trading Strategies for October
Following the most volatile September in memory, here are 10 ways to play the year's scariest month.
http://www.marketwatch.com/newscommentary/tradingstrategies

Payout Jackpots for Credit Crunch CEOs
Though they were at the helm of companies that were bruised or broken by the credit crunch, these 12 CEOs were still offered big severance packages when they were shown the door. They include Merrill Lynch's Stan O'Neal who got $161 million, Citi's Chuck Prince $105 million and Countrywide's Angelo Mozilo $100 million to name a few.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/26959512