We believe it is unlikely that Citigroup knowingly participated in fraudulent activity related to Enron, and history suggests bank stocks bounce highly after a market crisis.

We believe it is unlikely that Citigroup knowingly participated in fraudulent activity related to Enron, and history suggests bank stocks bounce highly after a market crisis,

History, in the end, is only another kind of story, and stories are different from the truth. The truth is messy and chaotic and all over the place. Often it just doesn’t make sense. Stories make things make sense, but the way they do that is to leave out anything that doesn’t fit. And often that is quite a lot.

The principal reason for Citigroup's shortfall versus consensus was the 10 cents of charges related to Latin America, which were expected. The order of magnitude was harder to ascertain but the fact that they were going to have to take additional charges was expected.

From a competitive standpoint, probably the most sensitive issues are in the Boston and Massachusetts areas. There's going to be some risk to Fleet's dominance there, but I'm not really concerned.

I look at where the stocks are selling and I look at their [return on equity averages] and I'm hard pressed to see why you would be selling at these prices.