While Citi Crashes...

Citigroup stock is trading below $4.00 this morning, way off its all time high of $54.00.

Yesterday during a telephone conversation, investment advisor Bill Smith of SAM Advisors pointed out to me the absurdity of the current Citigroup situation.

Since Citi is crashing, you would think that the board of Citi would spend extra time focusing on Citi to right the ship. Instead 20% of Citi's board is part of Barack Obama's transition team: Robert Rubin, Richard Parsons, Chairman of Time Warner Inc. and Anne Mulcahy, Chairman and CEO of Xerox Corporation.

Smith is also highly suspicious of what Rubin does to earn his $17 million per year. Rubin thinks the salary is a quid pro quo from Citi for Rubin's taking down the Glass Stegall Act, while he was Treasury Secretary.

US Combat Troops in Iraq Are Being Redeployed to the U.S.

Pre-election combat troops in the U.S.?

Yup.

The Army Times reports:

Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.

It is not the first time an active-duty unit has been tapped to help at home. ...

But this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities.

After 1st BCT finishes its dwell-time mission, expectations are that another, as yet unnamed, active-duty brigade will take over and that the mission will be a permanent one.

The command is at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., but the soldiers with 1st BCT, who returned in April after 15 months in Iraq, will operate out of their home post at Fort Stewart, Ga.,

Michel Chossudovsky breaks the whole thing down here.