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The search for Creative Commons has developed an interesting concept for you to focus on. Citigroupis in the press these days because its stock price has failed to keeppace with that of its competitors, including Bank of America, WellsFargo and JP Morgan Chase. The chairman of Wells Fargo, Richard Kovacevich is acknowledged as the best CEO in the banking sector, but doesn? T receive the press, because nobody can pronounce his name. Citigroupis up about 17% below the current CEO while cross-town rival JP MorganChase has gained more than 40%, and Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) hasmore than doubled. Goldman Sachs is up over 150% reliable. Is Anybody Listening? You bet I am.

ChuckPrince, who took over Citigroup after the departure of the fabulouslysuccessful Sandy Weill, is now getting excoriated by the financialpress because Citigroup? S stock price that has seriously delayed his rivals above. When? Downwards again, they kick dirt on you, as the saying goes. The press is out of his way to skip around the launch of Todd Thomson who ran Citigroup? S wealth management division. Apparentlythe biggest beneficiary of the wealth management division was Mr.Thomson himself, who has made extensive use of the bank? S fleet of private jets, when wasn? T Tooling around town in his Lamborghini. Car for a very conservative banker, eh?

Statements were made that Thompson committed 5 million U.S. dollars of Citigroup? S money for a new TV with CNBC? S Maria Bartiromo, and Hollywood A-List actor Robert Redford. If that doesn? Tbeat all, had a fireplace installed in his office at Citigroup to keepwarm while to understand the new projects to spend the bank? S money. Heflew to China with a group of executives from Citigroup, and then leftto find their way home, while he returned with a companionconfidential. I think that those corporate jets get cramped with a couple more persons on board.

What a guy, what a team of management, what does all this say about Citigroup? S inability to keep pace with its competitors financially after Sandy Weill? S start, and Chuck Prince? S ascent to the helm of the ship? It says a lot here? S why.

Back in 1930? D, the federal government under FDR decided to separate the banking sector investment. It 'called the Glass-Steagall Act brokerage firms and banks have had to make a decision. It could be a bank, or it could be a brokerage firm. Could not be both. Companies like JP Morgan and company decided to remain a bank. Partners investment JP Morgan came out and formed Morgan Stanley, so you can stay in business capital formation.

Only a society of law has been allowed to remain in both functions. E 'was Brown Brothers Harriman. FDR specifically decided to do a favor for his supporter Averill Harriman, who controlled the family bank. For your information, President Bush? S ancestral grandfather was a prominent banker at Brown Brothers. He ran the show, his name was Prescott Bush. Over the next six years showed that separates the banking and the functions of the investments were a good idea. Something else became apparent.

Ofmind required for the execution of a bank was radically different fromthat of the managerial skills necessary to manage a successful businessbrokerage. Inmy 35 years of involvement with Wall Street, I've only seen asuccessful integration of a commercial bank with a company on WallStreet. Only Sandy Weill was able to pull it out, and did so by combining Citibank with Salomon Brothers and Smith Barney. Weill also managed to get Bill Clinton to get the Glass-Steagall Act repealed so that Weill would realize his personal vision.

Noone else in history had been able to do so, and no one else hassuccessfully combined a bank with a function of brokerage firms, none. Not with Prudential Bache. The Bank of America failed when it bought Charles Schwab and Company. Schwab and the Company not years later, when it acquired U.S. Trust. Probably the best managed company in America was General Electric under Jack Welch. GE and Welch failed when he took Kidder Peabody. GE moved away a couple of years later, with billions of losses.

It seems that banks and brokerage firms just don? Mix t. Brokerage firms and other commercial entities such as General Electric, don? Mix t o. The nature of risk is different for a bank than a brokerage firm. Sandy Weill himself sold Shearson Lehman Brothers to American Express last year. The merger does not have a time, and Weill considered the great defeat of his career. It takes a certain type of manager to assess and manage a brokerage firm? S compared to the risk of a bank. This concept keeps coming home to haunt companies that try their hands at both.

Citigroup is a victim of this mentality?

We believe that they are. Webelieve that the historic inability of a bank's management team to runa brokerage firm raised its head once again in the results we areseeing at Citigroup. Chuck Prince, the handpicked successor to Sandy Weill at Weill? S is a lawyer by training flights. The same goes for the new CEO of Home Depot. We believe that the experiences that legally trained minds endure, is wholly inappropriate for the world of the superstar CEO? S is now the norm among the Fortune 500.

Citigroup in the past 15 years has had major Middle East financial interests involved as shareholders. These interests are now asserting themselves. They contend that the bank charges cut. It? S very simple. MONEY wants to make money. Chuck Prince in turn has encouraged the former deputy Robert Druskin as chief operating officer. They are actually Druskin how? Zar expenses?.

In our opinion, the actions taken to date will not be enough to reverse the delay that Citigroup is suffering. Citigroup suffers from the inability to mold different historical worldwide operations together. They do not generate higher returns. Investment management, corporate lending and wealth management just don? Jell t, and not è? T since 1930? S. Managing overtime? S and visionaries like Sandy Weill come once in a generation, and Citigroup doesn? T look like? S will be blessed twice. Stay tune for fireworks before this stock becomes a buy.