Corporate America's Icons Crumbling Under Global Recession

Corporate America's Icons Crumbling Under Global Recession

Washington Post Friday, March 6, 2009

The truisms have been familiar to generations of Americans: As General Motors goes, so goes the nation; Citigroup is too big to fail; General Electric, one of the 12 original companies in the Dow Jones industrial average in 1896, brings good things to life.

But the giants that only recently seemed like the unshakable foundations of the economy are faltering one after another. The girth that once seemed a source of strength now appears to be undermining them.

A share of Citigroup, worth $55.12 less than two years ago, yesterday cost about half of an ATM fee, finishing the day at $1.02 after briefly breaking below the buck-a-share level. The once-mighty financial conglomerate, valued at more than $300 billion in March 2007, was worth just $5.6 billion yesterday.

General Electric, whose mix of financial services, consumer products and industrial goods was once considered a sturdy pillar of the U.S. economy, closed yesterday at its lowest level since 1992, barely a 10th of its peak level. The price of a GE share, $6.66, was less than the cost of single compact fluorescent flood light bulb.

Read Article Here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/05/AR2009030503798.html