When Meredith Whitney let it be known that Citigroup (C) may need to raise as much as $30 billion for a capital cushion, it precipitated a $369 billion drop in the value of shares in the U.S. stock market on Thursday.
After the event, Whitney said she has received a number of death threats from bank investors because of her "negative" note.
Whitney is an analyst for CIBC, and is married to John Charles Layfield, formerly known as Death Mask (among other names) in the World Wrestling Entertainment business, and was its champion at one time. Layfield has also been a regular contributor on the "Cost of Freedom" on Fox (NWS-A), where he met Whitney. Whitney is also ranked as the second-best stock picker in 2007 by Forbes.
Concerning the "culture of intimidation" on Wall Street, and the death threats, Whitney said, “People are scared to be negative, especially when a company has such a wide holding. Clients are not pleased with my call and I have had several death threats.
“But it was the most straightforward call I’ve made in my career and I am surprised my peer analysts have been resistant. It’s so straightforward, it’s indisputable.”
Whitney wrote the note about two weeks after Citigroup reported a 57 percent drop in its profit in the third quarter, after a huge $6.5 billion write-down.
As reported here, the CEO of Citigroup, Charles Prince, is reportedly going to step down on Sunday.
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