More stress for Uncle Vik

And this one is of his own making. According to sources Citi was in talks to sell its credit card book when the talks broke down because Citi wanted a premium for its portfolio of branded and private-label credit cards. Now we all know cards has been a flagship business for Citi for a long time, but analysts are predicting that loan losses on credit cards due to economic factors (as in people not having jobs, etc.) will be the next nasty problem for lenders.

The talks are no longer ongoing and Uncle Vik may rue the day he didn't sell to GE. In February I posted this little nugget. Well, it still holds true. If you hold a garage (that's right I wrote garage and not garbage) sale you have to sell stuff people are willing to buy and at the price people are willing to pay, otherwise you end up stuck with the stuff and eventually dropping it off at Goodwill.