pimg class="float_right" src="/~~/f?id=48ee2ba014b9b92b006493c2maxX=300maxY=218" border="0" alt="vikram1009ap.jpg" title="vikram1009ap.jpg" width="300" height="218" /Citigroup is in frantic discussions with the government about its ongoing collapse, a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/22/business/22citi.html?ref=business"Andrew Ross Sorkin reports/a. Some customers have apparently begun running for the hills./p pAs of late Friday evening, no decisions have been made. Options under discussion include:/p ul listrongThrowing Vikram Pandit over the side. /strong Won't help. It's too late for a management change to save shareholders./li listrongSelling all or parts of the company. /strong To whom? When? By Monday?/li listrongArranging a government assisted merger with another company./strong Which company? When?/li listrongHaving the government make an announcement of support./strong Irrelevant. Everyone knows the goverment won't let Citi go bankrupt. It's just a question of how they bail it out./li listrongHaving the government provide a new financial lifeline. /strongInevitable. Probably won't save shareholders./li listrongPublishing full page ads in major newspapers telling public to be calm, all is well. /strong This is preposterous. Can they really be considering this? Yes. In fact they're actually doing it./li listrongTreasury considering hitting up Congress for the second half of the $700 billion TARP./strong Given the refusal to send the auto industry one thin dime, this probably won't go over well./li listrongBringing back the uptick rule./strong Fine. Whatever. Won't help. Shortsellers aren't the problem here./li /ul pSorkin:/p p style="padding-left: 30px;"After a board meeting early Friday morning, Citigroup's management and some board members held several calls with a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/henry_m_jr_paulson/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Henry M. Paulson Jr."Henry M. Paulson/a, the Treasury secretary, and with the head of the a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/federal_reserve_bank_of_new_york/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about Federal Reserve Bank of New York"Federal Reserve Bank of New York/a, Timothy F. Geithner, who hours later emerged as President-elect a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Barack Obama"Barack Obama/a's choice to be Treasury secretary./p p style="padding-left: 30px;"As Citigroup's stock sank, falling 94 cents to $3.77, the a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/federal_reserve_system/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about the Federal Reserve System."Federal Reserve/a was carefully monitoring how much money corporations and other customers were withdrawing from the bank, people involved in the discussions said. The Fed was trying to ascertain whether the tumult in the stock market could escalate into something worse./p p style="padding-left: 30px;"So far, however, these people said, most customers and clients remained committed to Citigroup./p pstrongTranslation: Some customers and clients are running for this hills. More will decide to do so over the weekend./strong/p p style="padding-left: 30px;"On Sunday, Citigroup plans to run full page advertisements in major metropolitan newspapers that acknowledge 'our financial markets have been tested in unprecedented ways,' but arguing that it has the diversity and experience to pull through. In a nod to the company's slogan, the ad concludes: 'That's why now, more than ever, you can feel confident that Citi never sleeps.'/p pAbsurd. Meanwhille, within Citigroup, some executives are reportedly blaming the government. If only the Feds hadn't allowed Wells Fargo to steal Wachovia out from under them none of this would have happened./p pstrongSee Also: /stronga href="http://clusterstock.alleyinsider.com/"Clusterstock's Citi Coverage Never Sleeps/a/p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/MOdVkLCokelB2rdQ_1gNm1b4Ozg/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/MOdVkLCokelB2rdQ_1gNm1b4Ozg/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=4XLi6Waj"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=4XLi6Waj" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=3QMoopV1"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=xfPztyAH"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=80" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=O2gci9lv"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=O2gci9lv" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=T2g9OC7o"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=131" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=xd2CjOaD"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=336" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=jsyw5A95"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=Ja3Gna25"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=50" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~4/BKHUlbryvHM" height="1" width="1"/

Senators from America's carmaking states agreed yesterday to try to force through a Bill that would provide $25 billion ($£16.8 billion) of emergency funds to bail out General Motors, Chrysler and Ford. The senators proposed a Bill that would allow the car companies, which claim to be weeks away from bankruptcy, to use as operational capital a pre-approved $25 billion loan of taxpayers' money to pay for green modification.$

Democratic leaders said Thursday that Congress would return in December to consider extending a $25 billion lifeline for troubled U.S. automakers if the companies devise a "viable" recovery plan. pa href="http://rss.cnn.com/~a/rss/money_latest?a=21QNg6"img src="http://rss.cnn.com/~a/rss/money_latest?i=21QNg6" border="0"/img/a/pimg src="http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/money_latest/~4/459923955" height="1" width="1"/