I’m inclined to believe the writer over at DKos who notes the rise of Ron Rubin to take charge at Citigroup is a sign the company is going to ask the government for help on the financial front. Someone might want to find out why the company has so many questionable loans, though, and if the large number of its questionable loans has anything at all to do with the threats on stock analyst Meredith Whitney’s life. Death threats for a stock analyst? Something’s got to be going on, huh? From Report on Business:

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce analyst Meredith Whitney says she’s received multiple death threats because of a research note she wrote that sparked a selloff in shares of banking behemoth Citigroup Inc.

The 37-year-old analyst, who is based in New York, is standing by her research, and lashing out against what she characterizes as analysts’ fear of negativity.

CIBC spokesman Rob McLeod said the bank is also standing by Ms. Whitney’s decision to downgrade Citigroup.

“People are scared to be negative, especially when a company has such a wide holding,” Ms. Whitney told The Times of London. “Clients are not pleased with my call, and I have had several death threats.”

I guess if I were investigating those death threats I’d look to a group of Citigroup stock owners that has a large and particular interest in the price of the shares, and also an interest in emotionally defending the company. And if I was investigating questionable loans on the part of Citigroup, I’d look to a class of people writing those loans. It would not surprise me if both groups are one and the same. The Primerica division of Citigroup hires people in a way that strikes me as very similar to Amway’s business model.

I’ve been to the Primercia job recruitment seminar before. It was creepy to me, almost like they were trying to groom everyone there into Tupperware salesmen, but knew full well that only a few of them would make it. The recruitment process at Primerica claims to be able to “change your life” when you start your own business as a Primerica representative. This is from the blurb from the Primerica web site:

Primerica offers a business opportunity that can give you the freedom that you’ve been looking for. If you’re looking for a fulfilling career that can give you the financial and time freedom you’ve been dreaming of, then Primerica may be the opportunity for you!

By helping families just like you and showing them how they can build a better financial future, you have the opportunity to build your own business. Best of all, you don’t need a degree in financial services to start your own Primerica business: you just need a desire to help people and a willingness to help yourself at the same time!

With Primerica, by helping others, you help yourself. You’ll learn more about “how money works” and how you could, with hard work, have access to unlimited income. In today’s world of pay freezes and layoffs, you can actually earn what you think you’re worth.

That would be the “freedom and opportunity” section of the Primerica web site. Yeah, my antennae are up when I hear those words in marketing. These folks cannot possibly be that idealistic. Those salesmen I met several years ago in the recruitment seminar seemed to me far more Stepford than they were financial analysts. They were true believers. It would not surprise me if they were all heavily invested in Citigroup, as against the usual advice one gets from competent, non-true believer financial advisors, to diversify.

As an aside, why do they continuously refer to Meredith Whitney as “Death Mask’s” wife?