Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Metrics of Economic Collapse

The Washington Post summarizes the economy with three simple comparative numbers:

A share of Citigroup, worth $55.12 less than two years ago, yesterday cost about half of an ATM fee, finishing the day at $1.02 after briefly breaking below the buck-a-share level. The once-mighty financial conglomerate, valued at more than $300 billion in March 2007, was worth just $5.6 billion yesterday.

General Electric, whose mix of financial services, consumer products and industrial goods was once considered a sturdy pillar of the U.S. economy, closed yesterday at its lowest level since 1992, barely a 10th of its peak level. The price of a GE share, $6.66, was less than the cost of single compact fluorescent flood light bulb.

And battered GM shares slid yesterday yet another 15 percent to $1.86, not quite enough to buy a gallon of gasoline, after news that GM auditors warned the company might not remain a going concern without massive additional assistance from the U.S. government.

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3 comments:

Gina said...

I"m trying to remember what McClatchy stock was worth when I was buying it as an employee benefit when I was working at The Sacramento Bee. $11? $14? something like that.

About 50 cents now.

sfox said...

GM- Let. Them. Die.

Seahorse said...

Did you see Jon Stewart wipe the floor with Jim Cramer on tonight's Daily Show? If he wasn't such a skeeve I'd have bothered to feel embarrassed for Cramer. But, instead I enjoyed it. I intend to watch the full interview online since it was edited for TV.

Seahorse