Hey, her job is to look at the facts and give her best advice on what the bank's are not telling people. What still amazes me is the lack or transparency in large companies, no one wants to tell it like it is. They all want to hide from the truth. Real investors trade on fundamentals and think about the long term. People that day trade and worry so much about the day to day don't understand what they are doing. I mean to send death threats? Give me a break. Are you selling your stock today? If companies make money, then long term their stock values will shine through. There are always bumps in the road, ups and downs, that is why smart investors buy now (when the market is down). When will folks learn?

D, macon,

It is newsworthy that an analyst does her job, identifying companies that are risky for potential investors? Why weren't the other analysts doing their jobs? That's the right question. Not why did this woman have courage, but why were others such cowards.

Susan, Raleigh, NC

I am similarly disgusted by the constant mention of the analyst's husband in this article, and the way in which it seems designed to discredit her.

It is a wholly irrelevant fact, and I have never, ever heard anyone mention a male analyst's wife in the context of their stock picks; maybe if they were doing a Sunday pullout story on him/her, but this sort of information does not belong in the financial news section.

Freya, London,

Good for you Meredith - these financial crooks have covered up their lies for too long!

Would you consider being Ron Paul's running mate?

Charleston Voice, Charleston,

Merideth, you are a hero.

Jennifer , Fairfield, Connecticut

Vince McMahon, the chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) will have a great angle with this story. Meredith can come on the shows naming certain wrestlers whose championships reigns will end. Look for WWE stock to rise.

Leo, Grapevine, tx

Mr. Layfield (aka Bradshaw in WWE) was already an accomplished investor before meeting Whitney...truth be known.

Michael, NY, USA

The only way you can really be successful at investing is to know the real truths, not what you want others to believe about the financial wellness of organizations. My hat's off to her for calling a spade a spade. Those that want to bury the truth from investors are the villains in this situation.

Layfield is a lucky man.

Curtis, San Diego,

The market would not drop if people did not suspect the truth. This is clearly a case of someone saying what many people were thinking. The city (NY and Lon) have been accused before of ramping bad shares (Enron) and now clowns want to criticise someone for down grading a stock given their best judgement. Sheep.

Seriously is john robins suggesting she should like a footballers autobiography not give her opinion and wait for the denoument later?

Jonathan da Silva, Feltham, Middlesex

"BTW, Mr Layfield seems to have a good sense of humor."

Indeed he does, JBL is a commentating god (he was a self proclaimed wrestling god when he was an active wrestler) on WWE Smackdown each week. Funny guy, and in the wrestling business at least, a smart guy.

Jan Buxton, Lancaster, UK

Has everyone forgotten Enron already?
Savvy investor.

Alexander Cameron, London, England

Tap the markets for $30 billion, so thats alright then is it.
No doubt she will walk away with a big fat golden goodbye and her pension contributions intact......give me a break.

john robins, manchester, GB

Why aren't we being told anything about Prince's wife (if he has one)? Looks like the whore media is trying to cut short this gutsy woman's career.

bob, New York,

Only goes to prove women are much better at the stock market game than the so called "masters of the universe" with their cosy, cliquey networks, total lack of commensense and so divorced from reality they could give Narcissus a run for his money!! Sadly its the rest of us who are now suffering. My personal website; www.making-bread.co.uk is free and is a small attempt to educate women (and men) about the financial markets and how they really operate.
In addition Ms Whitney has no axe to grind unlike the so called "analysts" at market makers such as goldman, morgan stanley et al. They cannot continue to be both poacher and gamekeeper!

Anna Coulling, Woodford Green, UK

Greed and fear - the ONLY two variables that impact the markets. Seems Ms. Whitney is one of the few willing to honestly address the second. I read somewhere that when I invest, I assume some risk. Those issuing threats didn't read the fine print.

Crooked accounting firms, companies continuously restating financial statements, insider trading, and now journalists unwilling to provide a professional view of the good and bad. The true RISK factor continues to increase.

Dr. GK Lott, Johnson City, TX USA

Now if we can only get her to analyze the Congress! Maybe she could knock the wind out of them for the better.

Johnny Shouts, Burns, TN

Mgmt lies and analysts believe. I give her credit to not be intimidated by wall street egos.

John, Old Pueblo,

This is the same woman who recently said "You have to have creative destruction in a capitalist society. You have to let people fail."

Truer words have never been spoken. The problem with our society these days is that everybody wants to be successful without realising that failure is the eternal partner of success. The government doesn't make it any better by always seeking to bail out inefficient, corrupt and incompetent businesses and banks as long as they are big enough. There is also an alarming trend in business circles and in the media to suppress the truth as soon as commercial interests are threatened and losses loom large. The simple fact is that in capitalism you cannot have profits without losses and I admire this lady for standing up for the truth and damning all those spineless cowards with their empty death threats. The very fact that she married a wrestler says it all: A passion and preference for substance over form.

anthony, london , england

I have to read this woman's column. Clearly she is at least very daring even though I don't know much about her track record as an analyst.

Ms C O'Dowd, Sheffield, UK

Why does everyone insist on simply describing her husband as a wrestler, bypassing that little tidbit about how they met? Here's a hint: Layfield was NOT appearing on Bulls & Bears to talk about wrestling. He had already transitioned to a successful career in the financial markets. The problem arises with people's insistence on assuming that the words "professional wrestler" have to be translated as "musclebound moron."

Rich Atkinson, Queensbury, NY

Her marrage has nothing to do with her analysis. It's unprofessional and irrelavent for the writer to mention it in the article. And newspapers wonder why circulation is down (although this is an online article, this same unprofessionalism is prevalent in "journalism").

Mark, Anchorage, Alaska

citigroup also gave us jack grubman ,people have a short memory.the place is corrupt as can be

drew, awendaw, sc

One could argue that FT's attempt to undermine Whitney's message has proven successful, as most here seem content to be distracted by the sexist method used rather than focusing instead on the implications of Whitney's message itself.

As one outside of the analyst community, Whitney's comments say to me that potentially life-impacting pressures have and will be levied on unassociated analysts who are often first to suspect and be in a position to communicate corporate malfeasance. Few readers seemed to have stepped back to think that we are talking about real death threats here, perhaps by sophisticated, motivated, and funded representatives of what must be a deeper and dark center of power in our society.

While many of us would have chosen to avoid the risk to our salary and career in communicating such findings, count me as one individual rightly impressed by Whitney's bold actions. This only underscores the strength of her conviction to me.

T, Boston, Massachusetts

Why is this professional woman's married life a pivitol part of this story? I simply don't see the relevence.

Pinky, Briorpark, MD

As a former Wall St. analyst, I can attest of the tremendous bias to overlook bad news. It is simply bad for business. Investment bankers don't like it since they have to maintain a positive environment for highly profitable underwritings, companies don't like it since their stocks are worth less, and investment managers don't like to be caught with their pants down. My compliments to Ms. Whitney for straying from the herd.

Bob Hoye makes some very important points in his post. We have a long way to go before we can neutralize the damage done by Greenspan's reckless and irresponsible monetary policies during his tenure as Fed chairman. The truth will eventually surface but not before going through what will likely be major shocks to the investment community.

Miguel, Battle Ground, WA

The value of the tier three assets held by the some large banks is so nebulous that it very difficult to say whether they are solvent or insolvent. Their off balance sheet assets are much larger than the assets on the balance sheet. So if there are huge losses in tier three assets then the bank's solvency could be very murky indeed. The other thing to keep in mind is that the value of the tier three assets is a moving target. The value decreases as the housing market deteriorates. So don't expect the setting aside of loan loss reserves to stop any time soon.

James, Bloomington, IL

Ms Whitney, a CIBC analyst who is married to the former World Wrestling Entertainment champion Death Mask.


This is a direct quote from 3 paragraphs into your article. His name is John Leyfield, this is also the name he used as champion.

Fact checking, please?

karl, edmonton, Canada

Problemo: Citi is the biggest bank in the world. Seems to me all these readers have missed the point which is if Citi's a sell, what's to buy?

Seriously, buy to cover and then sell short again. That's the game and you'll notice it if you watch the tape.

Dion Per Sona, Cardiff, UK,

Meredith, you should take over the coverage of a stock called Lamar (LAMR) from your utterly incompetent colleagues.

T.R.E Hugger, Carson Pass,

They bought the Ameriquest paper for Christ sake,,I don't care if it was for pennies on the dollar, it's bad enough to sink any company

Sid Feinberg, Miami, Fl, us

It is odd that these analysts are given much credit when they downgrade stocks after the company posts a 57 cent drop in profits. When are analysts going to do their jobs and downgrade a stock before they post their profits? Do some homework and tell us what is going to happen not what has just happened!

D, Houston, TX

I was a telecom analyst during the bubble years. I started turning negative on some stocks just before the market topped in early '00, and increasingly so thereafter. People laugh at you for being unrealistically bullish, but God help the analyst who is negative -- regardless of his accuracy.

One client called me a "crazy bastard" when I told him (and others) that a particular company's management had lied about its customer list. It turned out that his firm held 300,000 shares and didn't want anyone finding out the bad news. Just before I retired in '02, another client told me that he'd always thought I was just cynical and bitter, but finally he realized I had been correct for two years. Frankly, I think I got more satisfaction out of being called a crazy bastard.

Charles Pluckhahn, Seattle, WA

Then there was the CEO of a fledgling telecom operator who, after blowing yet another quarter and lying his way through a conference call, called me and screamed at the negative tone of my published opinion. He was going to call all of the "buy side" and tell them what a rotten analyst I was.

By then, I'd had it. So I wrote back to him and told him that that stock had already dropped 30% before my opinion was published, and oh by the way that I had found out through the grapevine that he had leaked the bad news in advance to a major investor, in violation of fair disclosure regulations.

If you want a fight go right ahead, I said, but two can play that game. So, I continued,t you'd better be careful what you say to whom because I have really good ears and I take my reputation very seriously. Near as I could tell, he said nothing to anyone. A year later, his company went bankrupt.

Charles Pluckhahn, Seattle, WA

p.s.: As far as I'm concerned, if more analysts were hooked up with professional wrestlers, everyone would be better off.

Charles Pluckhahn, Seattle, WA

As a private analyst, she has a right to her opinion and anyone who suggests that she ought to be held legally accountable for corporate losses -- let alone makes a death threat against her -- is obviously operating out of a culture of intimidation rather than information.

Which tells me they should not be trusted with my money, regardless of whether she is right or wrong.

Joe Schembrie, Bellevue, WA, USA

It is what it is.

This is just the tip of the icebury.

G. Himes, Little Rock, USA

Excuse me, but the investor's who are being critical of Ms. Whitney and her opinion (and her opinion's effect on others beliefs) are just plain foolish and sophmoric.

A company posts a 57 per cent drop in its third-quarter profits, following a $6.5 billion writedown and the investors are arngy that they failed to do their own homework and are looking to blame others for their own incompetence. Let's face it: most investors would do better if they had their eyes blindfolded, hands tied behind their backs and ears stuff full of cotton and had to rely on a random selctions stocks.

Investing is not akin to being a fan of a sports team, but that is how many approach it.

Jim , San Bruno, CA, USA

As the saying goes--timing is everything, but it is worth noting that in July the AAA subprime mortgage bond price plunged, providing a warning on the subsequent panic in the financial markets. Then a couple of weeks ago, subprime bonds began another crash and it hit the banks harder and faster than in the Summer.
The market has yet to fully discount a couple of decades of the creation of artifical securities, artifically priced through math models and artificially rated by rating agencies using math models. Quite likely it has been the most arbitrary condition in the history of financial markets.

Bob, Vancouver, BC

Bob Hoye, Vancouver, Canada/ BC

It is madness for you to mention the lady's marriage. That is tabloid journalism and you are THE TIMES, not THE SUN. Please stick to the facts of the case, citibank and whether her current and prior calls are analytically sound.

Ali, New York, NY

By attempting to besmirch Meredith Whitney's character by attacking her husband is cowardly and unprofessional. You couldn't damage your credibility more if you set out to do so intentionally. Just because politicians in get away with such tactics doesn't make it an accectable technique for financial journalism. If people want gossipy bilge they can get that from sources like the National Enquirer or FoxNews. We expect better from fiinancial journalists.

You've utterly degraded yourself as a source of financial news.

Unbelievable.

Sincerely, Clay Williams

Clay Williams, San Francisco, CA

Obviously Bill Yates from Ft. Lauderdale does not follow Meredith's research. If he did, he would know that she has never had a Buy rating on C. In fact, the only two stocks she has "promoted" since joining CIBC are Goldman Sachs (up a meager 60.2% since she joined the firm) and American Express (up 6% with 11 dividends that are currently $0.60 each). She has never been a driving force in mispricing Citi. Please read her notes Bill.

Andrew, New York, NY

Her husband is cheer leader for the REIC (Real Estate Industrial Complex) when he's on FOX Business. A total dope just like Lareah and Leslie Appleton-Young. Listen, real estate is going DOWN for another 4 years (at least).

Karl T Stahl, pismo beach, ca

"C" has underperformed for some time. She is right and the the board should be fired too. I sold a six months back because the stock was not performing. If more analyst would tell the messy truth, the the problem would not be so bad.

uncle, Bloomington, IN

Hey Roger, you are right about Greenspan. He caused a bunch of this. Then had the guall to try and pin it on Bush. Oh by the way, lending has tighten up tremendously. Tried to get a loan lately? The pendulum has swung back the other way as liquidity as almost disappeared.

Dakota, Morro Bay, California

Thank you for mentioning her marriage to a wrestler named Death Mask. That suggests that she lives in a world apart, that she may lack wisdom, and that her advice needs to be weighed more carefully. She says she's surprised at her peer analysts' resistance to her points, which suggests she put herself out on a limb.

Steven Orgel, Wellington, Florida

Instead of Inside Trading it looks like Inside Knowledge and I would bet that her firm and she were the first to bail out. How many times doe these type people put a BUY out and then SELL?

Larry McKinney, Ball Ground, United States, Georgia

Citigroup is symptomatic of what's badly wrong with Wall Street. An investment bank totally lacking in scruples. It, and others, are bringing the economy down around their greedy house. Now they, along with loser hedge funds, are attempting to dig even deeper into the pockets of the American people, by speculating in oil futures,an even more egregious try at making up the losses. Whitney has told it like it is. Too bad big boys. Cry along with the rest of us.

edblair, atlanta, GA

I wish more analyst told the truth. The market is in trouble and the general public has no clue. It is so refresshing to see someone tell the truth. Most people on wall street just try to push the happy happy and that there is nothing to ever worry about the market will always go up. This time I think we are headed down in a big way but none of the wall street guys will say that.

Phillip , Gresham, Oregon

Nothing hurts more than the truth, and the investors just did not like what she had to say. Good for her I say,

David, Holbrook,NY, New York/USA

The problem with the investment banks around the world is that they took the tranches of mortgage, car loan, and credit card debt and, like Enron, kept them in off-balance sheet entities so that their books showed that they were keeping enough money for bank regulations and solvency. If the off-balance sheet loans were brought back onto their books, solvency might be a big question, which makes cutting the dividend, new share issuance, and whatever other paper ideas can be done a reality rather than a question. When Wall Street comes up with a 'new' investment idea (this one evidently originated in London in the late 80's), it is time for Main Street to run for cover. Meredith Whitney is obviously a good analyst, and her husband is also a talented business person who appears on Fox News business programs in his own right.

Lucy Chambers, Blaine, WA

Folks should be mad at her for carrying a buy rating on the stock for so long. She's a promoter, not an analyst.

Didn't she know anything about the bank's hidden SIV debt? How hard was it to understand the bank has been relying on short-term paper issuance to foster longer term risk? And that the paper was being backed by increasingly risky home mortgages?

I knew the credit quality of buyers was bad from reading the newspaper, and from watching the prices of house rise around me. If she truly knew how the bank operated, she would have seen where the company's weak spot was.

Her false cheerleading is what causes people to buy when they shouldn't, and when she can't justify it anymore people are rightly annoyed. The true word about the condition of the bank comes out, and she bails. She should get the wrath of the public, because she was a driving force behind the mispircing of the stock.

Bill Yates, Ft. Lauderdale,

I live in Las Vegas , Nevada , and all I can say to those "poor investors" is , money is never "lost" it just changes hands . If you don't believe me , throw a 100 dollar bill on the sidewalk at rush hour and watch it .
If you can't afford to lose , dummy , don't gamble !!!!!

Bob Graham Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada

She's a gutty woman and deserves kudos

G. Supple, Chestrfield, VA

This lady should be applauded. Free company lunches have not been able buy her off.

Gamini de Silva, Reading, Berks

Wrestlers are just acrobatic performers acting out a pre-ordained script for the entertainment an audience, but the media turn up their noses at these guys. If she had married some trendy left wing second rate actor from Hollywood no-one would bat an eyelid. This woman obviously knows what she is talking about in her field of expertise, so the fact that she married for love and not to have a husband whose job description looked good on her CV means she has more cojones than most of the men in the same profession. Would you rather your daughters wanted to copy the "Britney" life plan, or take notes from this lady ? I know which I would prefer.

Linda, London, UK

Where was the great Greenspan in this. He said didn"t think it would be a problem. Now he blames it all on Bush! And he was in charge. These types of loans need to be outlawed. Loaning to people who have little or chance to repay is the worst type of greed. But greed runs the world!

ROGER STRIGHT, Amesville,

Maybe the wrestler is relevant to why she's not worried about the death threats.

Koko, Nagoya, Japan

to the "short seller", and those that might buy that idea.

No, you cannot make "equal" money selling short. For two very good reasons. One, the "short" seller is responsible for the dividend. Second, stocks exist for companies (not commodities). Companies employ humans that work. Humans are almost always productive at something. So betting against some type of even marginal production is unlikely to work. Very very very few firms that get to the point of issuing stock actually lose money.

Chris, gainesville, Florida

Ms. Whitney is a hero she deserve comendation. I would join her crew to defend her from any one that would try to hurt her.
The truth is the truth and we shall not be afraid to tell it as it is,. not mater whoses head, what castle would fall.
RB

R B, San Juan, Puerto Rico

It seems to me that those threatening investors should stick to CD's, as they do not seem to have what it takes to invest in anything else. More seriously, the market does not owe anybody anything. Belligerent investors such as these helped create this mess by constantly pressuring Citigroup to increase their profits, and share price, by getting involved in risky, unpredictable shenanigans. Their greed has created pain for themselves, instead of taking money to the bank.

BTW, Mr Layfield seems to have a good sense of humor.

K, Jacksonville, FL, USA

Your right Merideth, most of the others have no "Moxie"
If they all analysed truthfully we would have fairly accurate information.
Keep their feet to the fire.

Dick West, Westfield, NJ

ms whitney's opinions are grossly flawed. what folks are upset about is the fact that she is connecting dots that are unconnectable. Citi generates more than $50B of free cashflow every year.....the annual dividend is only $10B. Why then would Citi have to cut their dividend to meet cashflow needs? Her sell rating is one thing, her reason are point of Wall Street's criticism.....and rightly so.

edward, tampa, fl

This is a free country, you should be able to say what you feel iif that is based on your experience, and it is her job to predict...

Death Threats by investors at the bank? Isn't that against the law? What is going to be done by the law enforcement agencies? If an employee of Citigroup threatened another employee, they would be terminated... workplace violence? Does anyone get the issue here? Someone's right to do their job has been threatened.

She should file a complaint.

After hearing about the First American fiasco, (suit by AG of New York) this doesn't surprise me.

Sandy D, Land O lakes, fl

I usually would hate someone even mentioning marriage with a star like this, they wouldn't if she were a man, but hahaha, yes they would too mention it if "he" was married to a professional wrestler, so okay....................

CATHERINE, NEW SMYRNA BEACH, FL

I think just as bad as Wall Street making death threats is that one person, who could be right or wrong can move the market like that. If she is wrong, I think we should be able to have recourse against her. Remember she works for a big firm too. She needs to make a name for them and her.

Peter, Humble, TX

I could not agree more with R from Topeka. The fact that this successful woman's marriage and husband came up more than once much less AT ALL is ridiculous. It has nothing to do with the story and everything to do with a culture that believes no matter what a woman has accomplished she cannot be defined outside of her man...

This could have been a very well written and interesting article but instead of being informed about the facts of this situation I was distracted and annoyed by the constant references to her "wrestler husband"... Stick to the facts next time - as Ms Whitney has chosen to do...

C, Madsion, WI

You go Whitney...we all know that the numbers coming into the market today are just a way to keep everyone thinking the economy is great. You want the truth look at Walmart who is doing Christmas Shopping deals 3 weeks before Thanksgiving. They have never done that before. They are even gift wrapping some stores. They know truth. 2008 equals recession. Our stock market cannot keep going up with only Google and Apple as the mainstay. The unemployment numbers don't match the over 100K that have lost jobs just in the mortgage/finance industry alone. Why have those numbers not shown up yet? The reality is we are in trouble. Our securities are on the DO NOT BUY list globally, our economy is slowing down, housing is in a recession, the dollar is weak, oil and gold are rising are investors run to more secure investments. We need to fix what is broken. Regulate or get rid of mortgage brokers, banks take all your writeoffs, get our securities market back to value and Banks do our loans.

Ann, Tampa, Florida

Hey! If you're wise you'll note this woman's name and listen to her future market opinions, be they upgrades or downgrades as in this case. You could have made a lot of money if you knew beforehand she has so much power! You make money not only by buying shares [termed "going long"]; you can equally make money by selling [termed "going short"] even without owning. You could have made piles of cash from going short on Citigroup shares as soon as she issued her downgrade. Look up "short selling" on investopedia.com. This woman is powerful!

Charles, Bristol, UK

What's wrong with pro-wrestlers? Better than blood-sucking, avaricious men working in the 'city'!

Peter K Day, Doncaster, UK/ Yorkshire

Completely, totally irrelevant : Any part of this story that mentions wrestling, wrestlers, or marriage.

Completely, totally relevant : "Ms Whitney, Forbes’s second-highest ranked stock picker for 2007..."

R, Topeka, KS

What good's the news if you can't include a little juicy gossip?

P, Oakland, CA,

Naturally the investors want to kill the messengers...
They just can't take the truth. They shuld have been able to forsee
and manage their portfolios for themselves, but maybe it is
easier to go after the messenger.

That Ms Whitney married a wrestler... she is NOT AFRAID of ANYTHING ! ! !

Go Girl!

jezzika, Beverly Hills, California, USA

Well I am not a pro pro wrestler, but I do like the kind of woman he married.

So I like it that a woman can see a man for what he is, and love him.

As to her article, I think she has tapped into the maklet psychology, and I think I need to put my 401k $$ in something real safe, and then get back into the futures markets.

Valk, Chicago,

hey, guys, money is not every thing, you are sure touchy, relax. you'll live longer to make more money.. it's simple she married for love. that being your case, yould live longer because you are happier and you would make more money...ti's obvious Mr. Muscles is mentioned to discourage death threats

buster, Edgewood, Tx. 75117, USA TEXAS

Why is this woman's marriage to a former pro wrestler or anyone else for that matter even remotely relevant to this article? Did you throw that in just for fun?

Stick to the money matters.

bobble, CO,

I wonder why the auther of this article spends so much print to undermine Ms. Whitney by discussing her marriage, when it has no material connection at all to her career or her stock ratings which is supposed to be the crux of the story? How about some discussion instead about her prior accuracy is such predictions, which would be germaine?

Robert Johnston, Nrothridge, CA

I am fine with her downgrade, but what kind of idiot marries a pro-wrestler? Not the kind you want to take financial advice from.

C, San Francisco , CA

I applaud her courage and diligence. She was doing here job very well, and spoke the truth as she saw it. I've been investing in the stock market for many years, and it used to be if a stock you owned got beat up by an analyst then that was just the way it was, and you took the beating and went on. Nowadays, there seem to be newer folks in market who think their stocks should always go up, never get in trouble, and that's really naive. These are very unstable times and anyone who can't handle market risk ought to get into something less stressful, like "bowling for dollars."

Joe Davies, Springfield, Missouri, USA