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Can It Get Even Worse?
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan — Felix Salmon is worried about $2 trillion behemoth Citigroup: Citi might well turn out to be Hank Paulson's largest and biggest headache. There's no one he can sell it to -- it's far too big already. Which means that Paulson's only real option, if things deteriorate much further from here, is nationalization. Bits of it could be sold, at a price -- the retail bank to Santander, perhaps; other bits to JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs -- but the losses to the taxpayer would be enormous, and the disruption associated with breaking Citi up and then trying to integrate ...

End of the beginning?
Crooked Timber — ... really crash, there are plenty of small banks and credit unions that will survive, but few of the big names will be among them. Not only major institutions but whole national economies are up for grabs now. The national bankruptcy of Iceland seems likely to followed by something similar for Switzerland. As Citi itself points out, UBS and Credit Suisse are bigger, relative to the Swiss economy, than Kaupthing was for Iceland. Felix Salmon (also predicting doom for Citi, has been all over this). Given a failure and rescue, Switzerland ...

The End of Switzerland
Matthew Yglesias — A few days ago, John Quiggin wrote the following: Not only major institutions but whole national economies are up for grabs now. The national bankruptcy of Iceland seems likely to followed by something similar for Switzerland. As Citi itself points out, UBS and Credit Suisse are bigger, relative to the Swiss economy, than Kaupthing was for Iceland. Felix Salmon (also predicting doom for Citi, has been all over this). Given a failure and rescue, Switzerland would probably have to follow Iceland in a rush ...