OK dinosaurs, put on your thinking tail spikes. Who knows what the title of this post means? Does the word "city" give it away?
This was my own personal introduction to the white dwarf star that is now Citigroup. Known as First National City Bank of New York, it cut off the New York part in 1965. And in 1976, Citibank was born (the holding company changed names two years prior).
I recall as it grew and grew, swallowing up Travelers, which swallowed Shearson Lehman's retail ops, Salomon Brothers, Smith Barney, Primerica, (which at one point was American Can - a can maker!). I don't have the time line right but who cares? Over the years, it ballooned.
And now it is a government agency. How sad.
The Feds can merge AIG and Citi to form another entity - PrimeAmerica!
6 comments:
Just what we needed to break S&P support! It's about to get ugly.
Buried in there amongst the bodies is EF Hutton....
I worked for Shearson Lehman American Express briefly. We called it SLAMEX.
Today, I was in a Wachovia Branch and they touted thir new owner Wells Fargo. I thought of all the banks I used to use that are now digested within the of the chitlins remaining players. For example, I used Manufacturers Hanover, which was bought by Chemical which was bought by Chase which was bought by JP Morgan. I left one of those victuals (vittles?) on service reasons and went to Washington Mutual. We all know what happened there.
Just when you think you get out they drag you back in - with apologies to Sonny Corleone.
But the point is that the financial services industry is nothing like it was 10 or 20 years ago. We need to adapt and let the industry adapt too.
Lets face it there were/are too many banks in the U.S.
I dont recall the actual figures but I recall a guest on Rukeyser forecast about 20 years ago that the actual number of banks would shrink and resemble the banking landscape in other countries.
In college I had a summer internship with the 'original' Bank of America in San Francisco. I worked at Crocker Bank, which was bought by Wells Fargo. I worked at Dean,Witter which merged with Morgan Stanley.
As a technician, I endeavor to keep my emotioins out of the equation.
As our governor once said, "hasta la vista, baby"
I was a Hutton man in San Francsco during the 80's later bought by Shearson.
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